Since becoming a human parent, I discovered not only baby and cat can cohabit very happily, but a lot of baby items are actually super handy for cat use too!

Over the years, I have been sharing these tips with my customers. As a result, you will find a lot of these baby items at the home of a lot of my customers who don’t even have children!

1. Baby wipes

Baby wipes are great to clean up mess. E.g. dry up vomit, debris from the litter trays, or even some dry up bits on the cat’s eyes and nose. It’s preferably to pick something that are fragrance-free. We enjoy the Water Wipes at Maow Care. Not only these made with 99.9% water, there is just something about the texture of the wipe itself that make it so much easier to pick up bits. Trust me, I have tried a wide range of different brands at different customer’s home. I still think Water Wipes is the best hands down.

2. Nappy bag

We pet sitters LOVE nappy bags. They are great to use when we are scooping poop. Also, the thing is when we are doing a cat sitting job, the chance is the human will be away for a while. We are usually very reluctant to leave the rubbish in the house’s main bin for such a long duration. It starts to smell. But at the same time, we feel it’s so wasteful to take out a full size black bin bag with only 3 packaging from wet food pouches in there! So nappy bags come in handle to depose just small amount of rubbish. And in a pinch, when we need a pair of gloves for some reasons – checking a wound, picking up poop outside the box, etc, these baggies are super handy for that. We recommend Beaming Baby Biodegradable Nappy Bags. There is just something about the packaging that is so handy. A lot of my customers have nappy bags at home for cats, but many of them are very difficult to pull out. I always end up having to lick my finger, which is not my favourite thing to do. I have experienced with Tesco ones, Aldi ones and Lidi ones at cat jobs, they are all very difficult to pull out. These Beaming Baby ones take absolutely no effort to pull out, I never have to lick my finger. They are also more compacted, it’s thinner than a book! I tend to put it in my bag when I am out for jobs. I prefer the fragrance free ones.

3. Childproof device

On my other post, I spoke about a few Ikea items that are great for cats. Childproof safety devices are not only for children, my friends! They are also great for cats!

PATRULL Window catch

Window catch will be particularly handy for people who live in apartment and worried about their cat jumping over the window.

PATRULL Multi latch

I use this for the fridge because my cat Fafa can open the fridge and steal everything in a few seconds. It can also be useful for other cabinets.

PATRULL Drawer/cabinet catch

Same as above, you might want to put this on food cabinet if you have a thief cat like I do.

PATRULL Fingerguard for doors

These are super useful in making sure to leave a gap for doors that you want your cat to have access to. e.g.. the room where they have their litter trays or their favourite room where their cat beds are, etc. These fingerboard will leave a big enough gap for your cat to push the door open and go through.

PATRULL Door stop

These could serve the same purpose as the fingerguard too, but I prefer the fingerguard because you don’t need to leave the door open forever with the fingerguard. With these, it takes more effort to remove them so to close the door. Not handy for places like bathrooms where you need to close a couple of times a day.

4. Doll bed

On the same post about Ikea items, I have also mentioned these DUKTIG Doll’s bed. These make really cute cat beds!

Here are some examples of happy cats using these beds…

5. Children’s books (and their audio version)

Now this one might be a bit strange to you. As a cat behaviourist and sitter, we do use children’s books sometimes to deal with cats with high anxiety level. With anxious cats, it’s very important to keep a smooth gentle voice when dealing with them. Sometimes, my customers find it difficult to know how ‘gentle’ they are supposed to go! One thing I find very useful and can guarantee an instant gentle voice is children’s books (I do that myself sometimes when I am cat sitting nervous cats).

Do this experiment, try to read a children’s book right now! “Once upon a time…” See? Your voice immediately resume certain quality. That gentleness and softness in your voice is what we are looking for when dealing with anxious cats.

Tapes can be handy too when you are away for long stretch of time during the day and you just got a new cat who is very anxious. Play the children’s stories during the day at low volume can help with their anxiety.

 

Do you use any baby item for your cat? Comment below! I would love to see your idea and I will add to this list!