FAQ's

Are the cats "tame"?

Tame gives the impression of your house cat. The cats at the Cat Haven are not house cats. We work with many of our cats, but the word we prefer is “Tractable”. It means that on given days we can do some work with that cat. It means we can read the cats behavior somewhat. It means the cats can still act like a wild cat if it wants too. So the word “tame” really does not fit.

Do you bathe the cats?

That would be interesting for a few cats! We have cats that like to play in water, but we do not bathe our cats. We might clean the mud off a cat going to an offsite or clean up a baby that has stepped in a mess, but no baths. We can tell a great deal of the health of a cat by how well they groom themselves. So if a cat looks good and has been grooming itself, that is an sign of a healthy cat!

Are the cats declawed?

No, it is against the law in California to have an exotic cat declawed. The Cat Haven currently has 1 older cat that was declawed by it’s previous owner before the law against declawing was in effect.

Do you ever feed the cats live prey?

No, captive cats do not have the skills needed to kill things. They would probably play with the prey until it dies and that is not a humane thing to do to prey animals. Also the prey animal could hurt the cat; ie a rabbit could scratch a cat’s eye. This reinforces the fact that captive born cats cannot return back to the wild because of the lack of training. We use many forms of enrichment for play time and stimulation. Boxes, scents, animal hide, fruits and vegetables are just a few examples. At time we feed whole food ( mice, chicks etc.).

What do they eat?

My favorite answer to this question is “Small Children”. Do you have any volunteers? I like the first look on the children’s face when they process the answer given. The Cat Haven feeds meat to all of the cats. Cats are carnivores and need to eat meat to survive. The cats get a few different types of meat, but mostly chicken (we get at the local grocery store) and some type of red meat. We do not feed meat that others discard or road kill. Food becomes the most important item for the cats to stay healthy. Why would you feed something that could cause harm? We also supplement vitamins and calcium to all the cats diet.