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Tracie Hotchner

Cat Chat®

A Pets & Animals and Kids & Family podcast

#195 in Pets & Animals · 🇺🇸
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About the show

CAT CHAT ® was Tracie Hotchner'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.

Newest episodes

FIC? FLUTD? Urinary Tract Problems are Caused by a Dry Diet!

16 min

#329: Feline specialist Dr. Ashlie Saffire sees so may cats with urinary tract stones, crystals, blockages, inflammation — and she knows that these problems could be avoided because they are the result of feeding dry cat food, which dehydrates the cat's system. A cat water source like Brook fountain is a nice way to add some additional fluid to your cat's body, but urinary tract problems are directly caused by diet/hydration issues. She urges people to feed wet food to their cats, and Tracie especially recommends Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein food, which is based on a cat's natural diet.

Is Your Cat Ruining Your Sex Life?

11 min

#328: Cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ has some practical advice for cat owners whose kitties won't give them a little privacy in the bedroom. 

Cat Bites Can Be Dangerous — But They're Doing Something Normal

15 min

 #327: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds consulting explains that biting is a normal feline behavior. It's up to people to know their own cat and to read cat body language about when interactions with them have gone too far. Frustrated or over-stimulated cats may bite because they have already made it clear with body language that they do not want to be touched. Ignore those signals at your own risk. “Consensual petting” should be the guiding principle — the cat controls the interaction — when, where and for how long. 

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The newest 50 of 326 episodes

FIC? FLUTD? Urinary Tract Problems are Caused by a Dry Diet!

16 min

#329: Feline specialist Dr. Ashlie Saffire sees so may cats with urinary tract stones, crystals, blockages, inflammation — and she knows that these problems could be avoided because they are the result of feeding dry cat food, which dehydrates the cat's system. A cat water source like Brook fountain is a nice way to add some additional fluid to your cat's body, but urinary tract problems are directly caused by diet/hydration issues. She urges people to feed wet food to their cats, and Tracie especially recommends Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein food, which is based on a cat's natural diet.

Is Your Cat Ruining Your Sex Life?

11 min

#328: Cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ has some practical advice for cat owners whose kitties won't give them a little privacy in the bedroom. 

Cat Bites Can Be Dangerous — But They're Doing Something Normal

15 min

 #327: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds consulting explains that biting is a normal feline behavior. It's up to people to know their own cat and to read cat body language about when interactions with them have gone too far. Frustrated or over-stimulated cats may bite because they have already made it clear with body language that they do not want to be touched. Ignore those signals at your own risk. “Consensual petting” should be the guiding principle — the cat controls the interaction — when, where and for how long. 

Does Your Cat have Hidden Heart Disease?

18 min

#326: Dr. Ashlie Saffire (DABVP) is a feline specialist in Dublin, Ohio, whose clients come from as far as California for routine care. She is particularly focused on cardiac disease issues, which often show up in routine wellness exams. She urges cat owners to have regular check ups, especially those purebred cats — Ragdolls, Maine Coon cats, Sphinx and Bengals — which are particularly susceptible to heart problems.

Your Kitty Will Always Be With You

17 min

#325: Cathryn Michon's newest book - "i'm still here - a cat's purpose forever," is a prose poem surrounded by enchanting watercolors — reminding us that our cats may have crossed the rainbow bridge but they never leave us. We simply need to be tuned in to their omnipresence.

Cats Should Eat Like the Carnivores They Are

27 min

#324: Cats are obligate carnivores — so why are so many of them eating like they aren’t? Tracie talks with feline nutrition expert Dr. Deb Zoran of Texas A&M University, whose groundbreaking paper “The Carnivore Connection” challenged conventional thinking about feeding cats more than 20 years ago. Dr. Zoran explains why cats are physiologically designed for a high-protein, moisture-rich diet; why dry food makes it harder to provide enough protein and hydration; and how inadequate moisture can contribute to urinary tract problems, constipation and even megacolon. They also discuss obesity, muscle loss, the importance of exercise and enrichment, and why feeding cats well isn’t quite as simple as declaring all canned food “good” and all dry food “bad.” The takeaway: the more closely we can feed cats the way nature designed these carnivores to eat, the better.

Cat Rescue in Seoul — “the Impossible Possible”

29 min

#323: Tracie talks with Julie Choi, founder of Yongsan Cats in Seoul, South Korea, where the city’s frequent redevelopment projects put thousands of community cats at risk. What began for Julie with two kittens spotted on a snowy day has grown into an international rescue community that has already saved more than 200 cats from demolition zones — relying largely on fosters, adopters, donors and volunteers from around the world. Julie explains why street cats are too often left out of urban redevelopment plans, how Yongsan Cats is trying to create a model that can protect animals before the bulldozers arrive, and why rescue is about more than saving cats: it creates human connection and community, too. As Julie puts it, cat rescue means continually making “the impossible possible” — one life at a time.

NYC Cats After 9-11

19 min

#322: Tracie talks with filmmaker Cathe Neukum about Feral, her deeply moving documentary chronicling the rescue of cats left trapped and abandoned in lower Manhattan after 9/11. Cathe explains how an earlier career making wildlife films—and an unexpected encounter with feral cats in her own Midtown neighborhood—led her to join forces with Urban Cat League’s Mike Phillips just before the 9-11 attacks. Armed with a small camera, she followed Mike into the devastated area, where they searched toxic, smoke-filled buildings for frightened cats and created a makeshift refuge where the rescued animals could recover. Tracie and Cathe reflect on how radical that trap-neuter-return and community cat rescue seemed at the time, how attitudes toward feral cats have changed, and why helping these vulnerable animals offered a small island of hope amid unimaginable devastation. Feral will be featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City.

The 30-Year Devotion of the Cat Lady

16 min

#321: Filmmaker Megan Liz Smith joins Tracie to talk about her moving short documentary Cat Lady, featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City. The film follows DeAnn, a devoted caretaker whose daily four-hour feeding route for community cats has become both a mission and a way of life. Megan and Tracie explore the complicated reality of TNR and colony caregiving: what happens when animals become completely dependent on you, how easily caregiving can consume your life, and whether being so deeply needed can also give that life meaning. They also talk about the friendship DeAnn has found through her work, offering a tender reminder that even the most dedicated caregivers need someone beside them.  

The Bridge Between Wild & Domestic

17 min

#320: Filmmaker Asako Ushio joins Tracie to talk about her extraordinary documentary set on Japan’s remote Tashiro Island, where cats live in a fascinating space somewhere between wildness and domestication. Featured in the 9th Annual NY Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City, the film follows a photographer devoted to documenting the island’s cats while revealing a much bigger story: an aging human population, a cat colony largely left to nature, and an uncertain future for both. Asaka and Tracie explore how differently cultures approach animal welfare, why the islanders intervene so little in the cats’ lives, and what this unusual place can teach us about our instinct to “fix” nature.

Cat Saviors in Greece

18 min

#319: Documentary filmmaker Molly Dennis joins Tracie to talk about her film Cat People, which will be featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City. The documentary shines a light on the remarkable network of veterinarians, trappers and everyday volunteers caring for Greece’s estimated three million stray cats. Molly describes following the people who devote their own time, money and energy to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), feeding colonies and providing medical care — often one cat at a time. They discuss the disconnect between the charming “street cats of Greece” tourists see and the much harsher reality those cats face, why controlling populations through TNR works, and the extraordinary commitment of the people who keep showing up for cats who depend on them.

Cats & Kids

15 min

#318: Stephen Quandt of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ talks about the various ways that children can be involved in choosing a cat from a shelter and then enhancing the bond in living with them. Children on the autism spectrum may get particular benefits from the right cat entering their life, which Stephen explains. 

Midnight Feline Frolics

12 min

#317: Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds consulting talks about all the ways that cats can find to wake you up in the middle of the night — and how to manage nocturnal cat activity.

Protecting NYC's Un-Owned Cats Since 9-11

19 min

#316: Mike Phillips tells the history of the Urban Cat League — rescuing cats after the World Trade Center bombing, making a refuge for them — and continuing to improve the lives of street cats to this day.

A Cat Who Wants to take Showers With You?

10 min

#315: A listener wrote Tracie to ask how it was possible that two different cats she's had want to get in the shower with her!  Resident cat expert Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the likelihood of this unusual feline predilection and how to handle a water-loving cat.

What to Know About Cats and Mammary (Breast) Cancer

28 min

#314: The nonprofit EveryCat Health Foundation financed a study across 5 countries of mammary tumors in cats, with surprising results explained by Dr. Maggie Placer, the veterinarian who is the Science Program Manager for the Foundation.

Legalizing the Thousands of NYC Bodega Cats

15 min

#313: Dan Rimada is leading the push to legalize and protect bodega cats by creating a citywide archive of cats in NYC bodegas (estimates are 5,500 of them) which he and fellow volunteers have started documenting through field visits, photos, owner conversations, and release forms to get them legalized so the bodegas they protect against rodents don’t have to pay a fine. 

Vincent Gets Off Kitty Crack with CleanProtein

18 min

#312: Andrey (who created Brook Fountain) reports that his adopted cat, Vincent, who was completely hooked on kitty krack, transitioned off unhealthy kibble by starting with Dr. Elsey's CleanProtein dry food, then going all the way to wet food with canned CleanProtein, putting a smile on Andrey’s lips. And reminding other cat people that enticing “food toppers” are deceptive because they are not a healthy balanced diet.

HARD HAT CATS NYC: Hard at Work Keeping Rats at Bay

20 min

#311: Sheila Massey talks about her Hard Hat Cats NYC, which puts unadoptable cats from the NYC shelter into breweries, restaurants and retail stores where they provide non toxic rodent control in return for safety: a litter box, food and shelter.

Turn Your Sofa Into a Scratching Outpost

11 min

#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

20 min

#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

13 min

#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.

Pink Watermelon-Flavored Tofu Litter?! Are You Kidding Me?!

13 min

#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?

16 min

#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!

29 min

#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

16 min

#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?

13 min

#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?

22 min

#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.

What To Do About a Cat Who Pees Vertically Behind Himself?

15 min

 #300: Stephen Quant of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ often gets consulted about a cat peeing on vertical surfaces, usually by backing up to the area in question. Often with a high and quivering tail. The cat will then shoot a stream of urine on the vertical surface. Stephen explains that this is not intended as urination, but is actually spraying as a territorial marker, so he explains ways to reduce the cat's need to do that. 

A Bubbling Brook of Fresh Water for Your Kitty

25 min

#299: When Andrey Grigoryev invented the Brook glass fountain in his quest for enrichment and hydration for indoor cats, he never expected it to become the best-selling cat fountain. Cat lovers snatched up the clear glass fountain for its aesthetic appeal, the purity of the filtered water, the health benefits of drinking for their cats and that they could pop it in the dishwasher. 

“We’ll Prescribe You Another Cat.”

19 min

#298: Tracie reads from this sequel to Syou Ishida’s prize-winning best-selling first book “We’ll Prescribe You a Cat,” which she discusses with Jennifer Mowdy from The Literary Cat Co. bookstore as part of the successful phenomenon of translated Japanese fiction generating worldwide attention.

Saving Kindles of Kittens with DIY Kitten Boxes

20 min

#297: Deborah Magaldi talks about the Helen Sanders CatPAWS organization in Orange County California, where they are saving very young kindles of kittens from a certain death in the shelters (where there's nobody available to bottle feed them every 3 hours) by providing a DIY Kitten box for the people who bring in kittens that are not yet weaned. This gives Good Samaritans a chance to actually really save the kittens by taking them home to feed and care for them long enough for the kittens to eat solid food and have a real chance at finding homes. 

Are Orange Cats Friendliest? Or Is It In Your Imagination?

10 min

#296: Mikel Maria Delgado of https://felineminds.com/ explains how cat lovers tend to have a bias towards certain colors of cats and have (mistakenly) ascribed personality traits to colors that they are projecting onto cats. In fact, a cat's temperament is not genetically linked in any way, but a cat's personality can be influenced by their gender. Dr Delgado explains how that works — but she and Tracie urge everyone to view each kitty as an individual with their own bag of attributes. 

Serious Cat Lovers Needed to Appreciate This Book

28 min

#295: Rebecca van Laer's memoir, "Cat," is for everyone who can relate to her "love letter" to the kitties who have graced her life, using her own cats as a lens to understand what it means to be a "cat person." 

Video Your Cat Sleeping to Check Her Heart

28 min

#294: Dr. Heather Davis from PRN (employee-owned by the veterinarians) explains why they developed Felycin®-CA1, the first weekly therapy developed for cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), since this heart problem affects 1 in 7 cats (and 1 in 3 senior cats). She suggests videoing your own kitty while sleeping so you can see whether he takes less than 30 breaths a minute (good) and share this with your own vet to determine if more tests or medication are needed to protect his heart.

The Return of the Crazy Cat Ladies

22 min

#293: Jae & Adrienne talk about how their huge cat-loving following has grown organically, all from a place of mutually caring about cats and wanting them to be well, which is how their own supplement company evolved.

Great Writers & the Cats Who Owned Them

28 min

#292: Susannah Fullerton speaks from her home in Sydney Australia about the delight of researching her instantly sold-out book  “Great Writers & the Cats Who Owned Them,” with in-depth chapters chronicling the close relationship of 17 celebrated authors around the world who adored cats, with one in particular stealing their heart. Susannah also discussed the captivating  literary tours she leads around the world for Australians Studying Abroad.

When One Cat Treats His Housemate as a Stranger

14 min

#291: Rachel Geller — of the non-profit cat behavior practice All Cats All the Time — discusses Feline Non recognition Syndrome when one of your cats suddenly treats his former housemate as a stranger, often with hostility — usually when returning from the groomer or vet clinic.

What Does a Meow Mean?

14 min

#290: Mikel Maria Delgado talks about the variety of ways that cats communicate with different vocalizations, and the fact that cats meow almost entirely to humans and not to other cats (other than mama cats and kittens).

She Speaks to Your Cat — and For Your Cat

18 min

#289: Karen Dendy Smith is a trained animal communicator and devoted cat lover, who explains how her training as an intuitive guides her to receive messages from a person's cat, here or in the afterlife.

“All Cats, All the Time”

19 min

#288: Rachel Geller’s new book has won some prestigious literary awards and is named for her own philanthropic nonprofit (through which she helps people “work things out” with their kitties without charge). “All Cats, All the Time” is filled with solid advice and suggestions for managing feline issues in Rachel’s signature calm, patient nonjudgmental style.

Do Cats Meow More for (Human) Males?

20 min

#287: Kaan Kerman in the Department of Psychology at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, talks about getting international attention for his research study that showed cats vocalize more with the male humans in their lives than the women. The study was designed reliably — so what conclusion can we draw from its conclusion?

Expecting? “Borrow” a Baby to Acclimate Your Cat!

19 min

#286: Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) says the time to get your cat ready for the new sights, sounds and smells of a newborn are before your baby comes home. Get a recording of baby crying sounds and play it quietly at first then increase the volume. Elevate the cat’s food and water bowls in anticipation of an eventually crawling baby. Bring in all the baby furniture and equipment you can and let the cat investigate it. And if you know someone with a babe in arms, ask them to come over and let your cat see and hear it.

Our Shared History with Cats

29 min

#285: Jerry D. Moore’s nonfiction book “Cat Tales: A History” is a long look back at how cats evolved alongside humans and made a pact to cohabitate with us (on their terms!)

Cat Tails Tell A Tale

11 min

#284: Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the variety of positions in a cat’s tail and how it reflects their feelings and mood, which is very particular to each kitty. Tracie likens deciphering cat tails to learning to read Morse code signals.

The Urban Kitty Living Large (even in a small apartment)

16 min

#283: Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) suggests ways to make a cat-centric city apartment including a space-saving cat climbing tree that is suspended from the ceiling and a window perch. 

Feline Purradise: the Lāna‘i Cat Sanctuary

25 min

#282: Keoni Vaughn, the Executive Director and caretaker of 767 cats (!) at the Lāna‘i Cat Sanctuary on the tiny Hawaiian island of Lāna‘i, explains its history and how they look after these previously feral cats (40% of whom become so tame they are adopted out to some of the nearly 20,000 tourists a year), while protecting a rare and vulnerable local bird population.

Ursula K Le Guin’s "Book of Cats"

17 min

#281: Jennifer Mowdy of the Literary Cat Co bookstore and cat cafe (where you can buy the book) joins Tracie to discuss this beautiful, quirky posthumous book of collected works (prose, poetry, drawings) relating to cats, from the late renowned science fiction author, Ursula K Le Guin.

Your Cat’s Kidneys Need Help!

29 min

#280: Dr. Michelle Dulake discusses the ingredients in her Fera Pets Kidney Support for cats: how it binds the phosphate in their diet, which is the culprit in most chronic kidney diseases. Tracie recommends that the sooner you start the supplement (and switch to an all wet food diet!), the better chance you have to stave off the inevitable kidney disease that affects all cats as they age.

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