Top tips to help give your indoor cat the best
Keeping cats indoors increases their safety and lifespan, but many indoor cats don’t get the mental and physical stimulation they need. The great news is there are many ways to provide enrichment for cats, even in a small space.
Enrichment is used to improve the quality of an animals life by providing stimulating ways to interact with their environment and carry out natural behaviours. This will improve their mental and physical health.
Here are some suggestions for keeping your kitty companion happy and content.
1. Provide plenty of scratching surfaces.
Cat scratchers allow cats to express their inherent desire to stretch, flex, and scratch without damaging your furniture. Each cat has their own preferences between rope, cardboard or carpet scratching posts/boards but it’s also beneficial to have a variety of surfaces available. Make sure the scratching post or board is tall/long so your cat can stretch out fully. Replace these when they are no longer able to grip onto the material.
2. Cultivate your cat-friendly plants
Cats love foliage and nature. The aromas, the taste and just playing around with it. Obviously some aren’t so great for them. However, making an indoor cat garden is easy, with cat-friendly plants like spider plants, cat grass or others you can find listed here.
3. Activate all the senses
Your feline friend should have options to act on sight, smell, touch, hearing, and even taste, so introduce a variety of textures and mechanics. Switch these out regularly so they remain interesting. If you use laser toys, make sure there is a physical catching element as they can become frustrated if they are not satisfied with catching something. Allow them to both catch the toy often and ‘lose’ the toy often.
4. Create vertical space
Cats love being high up, so give them surfaces and where they can climb up and get a bird’s-eye perspective. Wall-mounted cat shelves, as well as a tall cat tree or other cat equipment, will suffice.
5. Hang on to those cardboard boxes
Cats love boxes. They give them a place to hide, play, and even scratch and bite. The good news is they are easy to come by too!
6. Freestyle
Play with your cat in other ways (that are separate to allowing them to exhibit hunting behaviour). Cats will enjoy playing their own made-up games with their owners, and this is a form of socialising for them. If you know your cat likes to hide behind corners waiting for you, play along and spend some time interacting with them in this way.
Share this article with anyone you know who has an indoor cat. Also, get more tips and tricks about looking after your cat from our free downloadable pdf here
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