The Enriching World of Indoor Cats: Tips for a Happy and Healthy Feline Friend

For many cat owners, providing a safe and stimulating environment for their feline companions is a top priority. Keeping your cat indoors can offer numerous benefits, including protection from outdoor dangers and a longer, healthier life. However, to ensure your indoor cat thrives, it's essential to create an enriching environment that meets their physical, mental, and emotional needs.

  1. Understanding the Indoor Cat

Indoor cats lead a different lifestyle compared to their outdoor counterparts. They are shielded from common outdoor risks such as traffic accidents, predators, and exposure to diseases. However, indoor cats may have unique needs, including opportunities for exercise, mental stimulation, and social interaction.

  1. Creating a Safe Space

Designate a dedicated space for your cat within your home. This area should include essentials like a comfortable bed, food and water bowls, a litter box, and scratching posts. Ensuring a secure, well-defined space helps your cat feel confident and relaxed.

  1. Interactive Play and Exercise

Regular playtime is crucial for keeping your indoor cat physically and mentally engaged. Provide a variety of toys that encourage natural behaviors like stalking, pouncing, and climbing. Interactive toys that dispense treats can also be a great way to stimulate your cat's mind.

  1. Enriching the Environment

Introduce elements that mimic the outdoors, such as cat trees, shelves, and window perches. These additions give your cat opportunities to climb, explore, and observe their surroundings. Bird feeders outside the window can offer entertainment and mental stimulation.

  1. Cat-Proofing Your Home

Remove or secure any potential hazards that could harm your cat. This includes toxic plants, small objects that could be swallowed, and dangerous chemicals. Additionally, ensure that windows and balconies are safely secured to prevent accidents.

  1. Providing Mental Stimulation

Keep your cat's mind active by offering puzzle toys, treat-dispensing toys, and rotating their toy selection regularly. Engaging activities like clicker training can also provide mental challenges and strengthen your bond with your cat.

  1. Social Interaction and Companionship

While indoor cats don't have the same level of social interaction as outdoor cats, they still benefit from human companionship. Spend quality time with your cat, offering affection, play, and interactive activities. If feasible, consider adopting a second cat to provide companionship, but ensure proper introductions and adequate space.

  1. Maintaining a Healthy Diet

A balanced, nutritious diet is essential for your cat's overall health and well-being. Consult your veterinarian to determine the best food options based on your cat's age, activity level, and any specific dietary needs.

  1. Regular Veterinary Care

Indoor cats are not immune to health issues, so it's crucial to schedule regular check-ups with a veterinarian. Vaccinations, dental care, and preventative measures against parasites are all important aspects of maintaining your cat's health.

cat staring window

Indoor cats

More and more people are keeping their cats inside for a variety of reasons. For example, owners may want to keep their cats safe from car accidents, fights with other cats, and theft. On the other hand, some cat owners may not want their cats to eat area wildlife. But, even though cats are living longer on average, can living inside make them sick or cause them mental pain?

Why would an indoor life negatively affect cat welfare?

 

Cats have certain wants that aren't always met when they stay inside all the time. It takes wild domestic cats about eight hours of hunting every day, which means they use a lot of mental and physical energy to find food. Pet cats that are allowed to go outside and hunt often do so even though they are being fed by their owners. This is because hunting is such an important activity for cats. On the other hand, cats that don't go outside or have limited access to it can't show all of their regular behaviors. They may become lazy and depressed, or they may act out when they're angry. An indoor setting that is boring and predictable will make this worse. Because of this, keeping our cats inside keeps them safe from harm, but it also makes it harder for them to do normal things.

What are the basic needs for my indoor cat?

 

At the most basic level, indoor cats require access to an appropriate toileting site such as a litter tray; food; water bowls/fountains; and a comfortable sleeping area. These resources should be placed in separate areas as cats generally do not like to eat or sleep near where they toilet and often prefer to drink away from their feeding area. They must also be in private, quiet locations away from any noisy household appliances, such as the washing machine that might come on unexpectedly and scare the cat, and any disturbances from other pets or family members.

How can I simulate activities that would be displayed outside?

 

It is important to provide indoor cats with suitable levels of stimulation by providing an environment that promotes natural behaviours such as chasing and pouncing, climbing and scratching, hiding, and more natural feeding opportunities. As cats are highly motivated to hunt, owners should encourage hunting-type behaviours indoors. Toys that mimic prey in texture and movement will attract the cat's attention and stimulate chasing and pouncing behaviours. Being able to catch the toy is very important to prevent frustration, for example, chasing the light from a laser light pen can be frustrating for the cat if it cannot actually catch the light. Owners should interact with their cat using fishing rod-type toys but should also provide toys that the cat can play with independently.  Cat nip toys are suitable for most cats but some do not respond at all and others may become aggressive.

Cats wouldn't naturally eat just once or twice a day, rather they would have several small meals. Providing the cat with foraging opportunities where they can find small meals in various locations is more natural. Food challenges can be made increasingly more difficult by using bought or home-made puzzle feeders.

Scratching posts should be provided to allow the cat to sharpen its claws. These can be incorporated into climbing and activity centres which encourage the cat to perform natural climbing and jumping behaviours. This also provides much needed exercise. Cats also like to observe and rest on elevated surfaces so make the most of vertical space by providing beds at the top of these climbing trees or on top of wardrobes.

cat tree

What other forms of stimulation can I provide my cat with?

 

Visual stimulation can easily be provided via a window sill allowing the cat to look outside onto a garden, or a DVD specially designed for the enrichment of cats. However, visual stimulation should be provided with caution as the cat may become frustrated if it cannot access the source of stimulation, for example chase a bird it can see outside.

Outdoor enclosures can provide a cat with the sights, sounds and smells of the great outdoors but with less of the risks. Ideally, free access should be provided from the house via a cat flap allowing the cat control over its use of the enclosure. The enclosure needs to provide shelter from the elements and a place to hide from other cats if it cannot return to the house by itself. Again the vertical space should be utilised by proving shelves, ramps and climbing trees. Cat friendly plants can be provided and there should always be fresh water and litter tray provided if the cat cannot choose to return inside.

Owners can also provide mental and physical stimulation in the form of positive reward training. Initially, simple, desirable behaviours can be rewarded with small food treats but these can become more complex as the cat gets the hang of it!

Are indoor cats predisposed to any medical conditions?

 

Indoor cats are predisposed to developing cystitis because of the stress associated with their lifestyle so make sure they are encouraged to drink by providing clean, fresh drinking water away from their food and in a number of different receptacles.

Cats lead a less active life when kept indoors and are therefore at risk of becoming obese and developing related medical problems such as diabetes. Therefore, owners should consider feeding the cat a low calorie diet. Owners should also consider providing grass for the cat to eat, this will aid digestion. Puzzle feeders will also extend the cat's feeding times and reduce the amount consumed. Opportunities for exercise should be provided, such as play and climbing.

Although indoor cats are less likely to be exposed to viral and bacterial infections as outdoor cats they are still at risk from both infections and parasites, especially if they are in contact with other animals in the household that go outdoors or they themselves have restricted access via an outdoor enclosure or from a stay at a cattery. Therefore, vaccinations, internal and external parasite prevention is still important.

How can I reduce any stress experienced by my indoor cat?

 

Cats like to be with other cats, but they would only normally live in groups if there were plenty of resources and fair distribution, if the cats were related to each other, and if there was no competition for resources like food, water, places to go to the bathroom, and access to the outdoors. As long as these things aren't true, living close to other cats can be very upsetting. If there are more than one cat in the house, each cat should have all of these things available to them and they should be spread out so no cat has to "queue" to get to food or the litter box. These things shouldn't be put in places where one cat can stop another cat from getting to or from them.

Feliway is a man-made version of the facial signal that cats use to mark their territory and feel safer. It can be used to help cats feel less stressed and safer in parts of the house that may be hard for them.

Conclusion

Keeping an indoor cat can lead to a fulfilling, safe, and healthy life for your feline friend. By providing a stimulating environment, ensuring regular exercise and play, and offering love and attention, you can create a harmonious living space for both you and your beloved companion. Remember, a happy indoor cat is a contented cat, ready to share years of joy and companionship with you.