Cat Care in India
Written for a flat in an Indian city rather than a house with a garden.
Cats are a large share of Indian pet households and almost everything written for them was written somewhere else. The advice assumes a garden, a temperate climate, and a shop that stocks six kinds of litter. In a two bedroom flat in Mumbai in May, with a balcony twelve floors up and phenyl on the floor, a fair amount of it stops applying.
This page covers what changes here. The tools do the arithmetic, the guides go deeper, and the directories cover the parts where you need a phone number rather than an explanation.
The six things that go wrong in Indian flats
The balcony
This is the one that kills cats in Indian cities. They fall, and a high floor makes it worse rather than better because cats do not land on their feet from every height. Net it, or keep it shut. Do not rely on the cat being sensible about heights, because they are not built to be.
The filled bucket
Most Indian bathrooms have one. Kittens drown in them. Keep them covered or empty, and check behind the door where the spare one lives.
Phenyl
The standard Indian floor cleaner is toxic to cats. They walk through it and then groom their paws. Rinse floors after cleaning, or switch to something without phenol while you have a cat.
Cow's milk
Given with the best intentions and it causes diarrhoea. Cats past weaning are lactose intolerant. If you want to give something, give water and a complete food.
Heat
Cats hide discomfort well and are found collapsed rather than seen struggling. Open mouthed breathing in a cat is a warning, not cooling. Water in several places, a wet meal a day, and access to cool tile.
Thread and tinsel
A swallowed thread saws through intestine as the gut moves it along and is a surgical emergency. Rakhi thread, tailoring thread and decorative tinsel are all worth keeping shut away.
If you have a male cat, know this one
Urinary blockage is common in male cats and is fatal within a day or two if it is not relieved. It looks like constipation at first, which is why people wait. Repeated trips to the tray producing nothing, crying or straining in the tray, licking at the genitals, or a cat suddenly going somewhere other than the tray all point the same way.
A cat that has not passed urine in a day needs a vet tonight rather than in the morning. This is the single piece of information most likely to save a cat's life in this whole page.
Litter, which is most of the battle
Get the tray right in the first week and you will barely think about it again. Get it wrong and you spend months finding out where a cat has decided is better.
Put it as far from the food and water as the room allows, because cats will not eliminate where they eat and will pick a corner of your flat instead if you make them choose. Use an uncovered tray with low sides that a kitten can climb into. Covered trays are for the human's benefit and plenty of cats dislike them. Scoop daily without exception, because the alternative a cat picks when the tray is dirty is usually your bed.
On litter itself, clumping is easiest and controls odour best. Sand and soil cost almost nothing and are what a great many Indian households use, and the trade is tracking through the flat and a good deal less odour control. Whatever you settle on, change it gradually rather than overnight.
One tray per cat plus one is the standard advice and it holds here. Two cats want three trays, and in a flat that means finding three places, which is worth planning before the second cat arrives.
Feeding, and the water problem
Cats have a weak thirst drive. In the wild most of their water came from prey, so a cat on dry food alone often runs mildly dehydrated all the time. In an Indian summer that stops being a technicality. A wet meal a day helps, and several water bowls in different rooms help more than one large one, because cats drink opportunistically rather than deliberately.
Portion by weight rather than by eye. Overfeeding is the most common feeding error and it is invisible until the cat is already heavy, at which point it is slow and unpleasant to reverse. Neutering lowers the daily requirement by roughly a quarter, and most people never adjust for it.
Never dog food. Cats need taurine, which dogs manufacture for themselves, and long term dog food causes heart and eye damage that does not reverse.
The tools
Cat food calculator
Daily calories and grams by weight, age and whether they are neutered. Most Indian cats are fed by eye and overfed by a third.
Cat cost calculator
What a cat costs across a year in an Indian city, split by food, litter, routine veterinary care and the first year extras.
Vaccination scheduler
Turns a date of birth into actual dates for the kitten course and the boosters that follow.
Deworming schedule
The repeat schedule by age and weight, which matters more for cats than owners expect.
Sterilisation cost
What spaying or neutering costs by city, and which providers do it free or subsidised.
Emergency symptom checker
Whether what you are looking at needs a vet tonight, tomorrow, or watching.
Getting a cat
Indian shelters are full of cats and kittens and most of them will not charge you. Our shelter and rescue directory covers organisations across 18 cities, and most have littermates available together.
Book sterilisation early. Cats reach sexual maturity sooner than people expect, often around five to six months, and an unplanned litter of kittens is far harder to place than anyone imagines. Spaying also prevents pyometra, which is a life threatening emergency costing several times a planned operation. The sterilisation directory lists free and subsidised providers by city.
Cats are unambiguously lawful to keep, and a housing society cannot ban them any more than it can ban dogs. Our guide to the law covers what a society can and cannot do, and which animals are actually illegal covers the ones that are.
Questions people ask
Can cats drink cow's milk in India?
No. Most cats past weaning are lactose intolerant and cow's milk causes diarrhoea, which in a kitten is dangerous rather than merely messy. It is the single most common mistake made with cats in Indian homes. Water alongside a complete cat food is what they need.
Is it safe to keep a cat on a high floor in India?
Only with the balcony netted or kept closed. Falls from balconies are a common cause of serious injury to cats in Indian cities. Cats do not judge height reliably and a high floor is not safer, because the fall is longer.
What cat litter works best in India?
Clumping litter is easiest to keep clean and controls odour best. Sand and soil work, cost almost nothing and are what a great many Indian households use, and they track through the flat and do less for smell. Whichever you choose, do not change it abruptly once a cat is used to it.
Do indoor cats in India need vaccination and deworming?
Yes to both. Cats get out, worm eggs arrive on shoes, and the common tapeworm arrives via fleas. Indoor life lowers the exposure without removing it. Rabies vaccination matters here regardless of whether the cat goes out.
How do I keep a cat cool in an Indian summer?
Water in several places, a wet meal a day, shade and airflow, and cool tile floors left accessible. Watch for open mouthed breathing, which in a cat is a warning sign rather than the normal cooling it is in a dog. A panting cat needs a vet.
Why can my male cat not pee?
Treat it as an emergency and go now. Urinary blockage is common in male cats, is fatal within a day or two untreated, and looks at first like constipation or straining in the tray. Repeated trips to the tray producing nothing, crying while trying, or licking at the genitals all mean the same thing: go tonight.
Are cats legal to keep in India?
Yes, unambiguously, and a housing society cannot lawfully ban them any more than it can ban dogs. Several animals people bring home are not lawful, which our page on legal pets covers, and domestic cats are not among them.
Should I adopt one kitten or two?
Two is often easier. They exercise and socialise each other, and a single kitten alone all day gets bored and destructive. Most shelters have littermates and will encourage taking a pair.