Cat Chat®
Brought to you by Dr. Elsey's
CAT CHAT ® was Tracie’s own weekly, live call-in show on the Martha Stewart channel of Sirius-XM for 7 years – until the channel was canceled. Since 2015 it has been a weekly podcast carrying on her mission to educate and inspire cat lovers to optimize their relationship with their kitty cats by giving them the best possible nutrition and environmental enrichment.
Tracie’s frequent co-host is Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of Feline Minds Cat Behavior Consulting and author of the new book Play With Your Cat! the Essential Guide to Interactive Play for a Happier, Healthier Feline.
Sponsored By:
Dr. Elsey’s, who developed America’s #1 kitty litter and also created a healthy dry and canned food for kitties called cleanprotein™ inspired by a cat’s natural prey.
Also sponsored by Fera Pets
Turn Your Sofa Into a Scratching Outpost
#310: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds cat behavior consulting, explains that you cannot — nor should you — try to stop a cat from scratching, which is a natural and essential behavior. Instead, you need to offer a variety of sturdy, tall scratching posts in the areas where you spend time. Better yet, do like Mikel does and transform the back of your couch into a stylish array of scratchers!
Premium Cat Food at Supermarket Prices
#309: Allison Ward, the founder of Salty Cat, launched her company with the intention of creating a lower-priced cat food with premium ingredients. How did she do it? Simple! By lowering her profit margin, while also creating an egalitarian management structure in the small company.
The “Elevator Butt” Style of Peeing
#308: Cat behaviorist Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado explains another way to look at “vertical peeing” — cats who raise their butts like a rising elevator to pee behind themselves. But because they have all four feet in the litter box, it is not “marking.” She recommends some litter box accessories to manage the problem.
What Does FIP in Cats Have in Common with Long Covid in Humans?
#307: Dr. Dean Vicksman, the Board Chair of the nonprofit EveryCat Health Foundation, talks about how their grant funding for feline health science has helped crack the code for managing long-COVID in humans.
Pink Watermelon-Flavored Tofu Litter?! Are You Kidding Me?!
#306: Cat behaviorist Dr Mikel Maria Delgado shares Tracie’s dismay at what has become “litter nonsense” (to appease IG and TikTok content creators) instead of using “litter common sense” and giving cats what they need: comfortable clay clumping litter without any added chemical colors and scents. They both extol the virtues of Dr. Elsey’s litters but they miss his signature litter invention the "Touch of the Outdoors” — but he has gone 100% scent free for the sake of the cats.
What To Do About a Jekyll and Hyde Cat?
#305: Cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) discusses the stress to people and other cats in the home when an otherwise friendly cat suddenly displays unexplained aggression towards a family member — and how to make sense of it.
Vincent is Hooked on Kitty Krack — Help is on the Way!
#304: Andrey Gregoryev, who invented the Brook glass fountain, recently adopted Vincent, a kitty from a hoarding situation, who will not touch anything but dry kibble, which Tracie calls Kitty Krack because it is harmful and addictive to cats. After giving many tips to get him off the dry food, Tracie said that Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein dry food is the only one she can recommend because of how it is made and the ingredients, which respect a cat's natural prey.
A Safe Room is a Sanctuary — Not a Prison
#303: Rachel Geller helps people understand their cats better with free advice through her personal nonprofit All Cats All the Time. She always recommends putting a new cat in one room in the house and only introducing him/her to the rest of the environment little by little. She often has to convince people that one space is not prison for a cat — it's doing them a favor by not overwhelming them.
Does Your Kitty Want to Wear a Harness?
#302: Cat behavior consultant (https://felineminds.com/) Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado describes the slow and patient process of introducing your cat to a harness — then experimenting letting the kitty walk you indoors and possibly outdoors to see if it suits his/her personality.
Does My Cat Love Me?
#301: Jay Ingram wrote "The Science of Pets" so people could better understand the science and facts of their pets' behavior — and in particular how to understand what makes their cat tick, as well as what s/he may be feeling.