8 Tips to Keep Your Indoor Cat Happy
Keeping your feline friend happy and stimulated is important. Cats living indoors can get bored easily, and most cats can be a handful when it comes to keeping up with their instinctual needs especially when they live indoors and need space to roam. Urban, suburban or country cats are hunters or predators in nature, they don’t necessarily have to be outdoors all the time and there is risk involved with setting your cat free such as diseases and the dangers of urban environments like traffic and pet theft and poisons.
Cats cannot be trained to ignore their natural hunting instincts or know how to navigate the urban jungle. The only sure way to protect them is keeping them indoors. While life indoors is definitely safer the question now is how do you make your cats happy inside the house?
Below are a few useful amazing tips you can try to keep your indoor cat happy.
1) Consider Adding Perches and Cat Trees
Cats are natural climbers and boy do they like to climb but how can they do it indoors? Well, you can make your home seem like your cat’s natural habitat by adding a couple of wall-mounted structures like perches or cat trees.
Your feline friend loves jumping, climbing and perching around. Instead of letting them do it outside, you can bring the outdoors inside your home.
2) Give them the Best View of the Outside
As natural-born predators, cats love to survey and stalk the outside wonders so keeping them indoors can be a complete bummer. The thing is, you can still show them the outside without actually letting them out. Bring them near a large window so they can enjoy the view. Put their beds near one or if the window’s too high, add a perch beside it so they can sit down and enjoy the show.
Cats aren’t really hard to please if you think about it. Letting them bask in the sun and watch the birds and the trees in the yard are enough for them to have a good time. If you don’t have that spectacular view, there are also DVDs made for their enjoyment. Aren’t our little friends simply one of a kind?
3) Build them a “catio”
If you have a huge space to spare just right outside your house, you may want to consider building your furry friend a protected outdoor patio, otherwise known as a “catio.” It’s the next best thing to letting them outside because by building one, you are actually letting your cat enjoy the outdoors, although protected by a screened fence.
Building them a catio also gives your pet the opportunity to smell the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. It helps them cover more ground than just the corners of your house.
4) Invest in Toys
If there’s one thing about our furry friend that makes them so adorable, it’s the fact that they are inherently playful. Give them something to play with like a ball of yarn or an interactive laser wifi pet camera you both can enjoy. You don’t have to settle for a ball of yarn there are so many cat gadgets out there today it’s amazing!
Get them toys that push them to move like laser pointers or cat dancers. Let them push balls along a track if you must.
Keep a variety of toys and interactive gadgets for them so they won’t get bored too easily.
5) Help them practice their hunting skills
Your feline friend is a natural predator who likes to hunt for his own food and though they do appreciate prepared meals, that hunter’s instinct won’t just simply go away.
Even if you keep them indoors, there are ways to help them channel their inner huntsman with toys that mimic a mouse. Just let them stalk and hunt these prey-like toys to their liking. By doing this, you’re not only giving them something to keep themselves busy with, you’re also giving them a form of exercise that can help fight boredom.
Keep a variety of toys and interactive gadgets for them so they won’t get bored too easily like the Pawbo theme park.
6) Give them something to scratch
Felines are fascinating when it comes to their behavior. They seem to just do a lot of things that come naturally to them.
Cats are natural scratchers to sharpen their claws, which mean they like scratching surfaces by nature. You wouldn’t want one of those surfaces to be furniture or an appliance so make sure to give them something to scratch.
Each cat has his or her own favorite scratching material and oh how we hate when they scratch on furniture! Among the best alternatives are natural-fiber ropes, rugs, or even corrugated cardboard.
Another great idea would be to incorporate these scratching materials with the perches and cat trees for a multi-functional way to keep them happy. By giving them something to scratch on that they enjoy you can keep your cat happy and your furniture safe. At amazingpetstuff.com we love the Ultimate Cat Scratcher Lounge because it ticks off all the boxes your cat will love and it looks amazing!
7) Consider getting catnip
Your furry friend has another known obsession that can be totally useful in making him follow your command and invoke euphoria, catnip. Catnip has long been associated with felines because of its effect via pheromones from a unique oil call “ nepetalactone” This oil by special receptors in your cat stimulates these pheromones and gives them a sense of euphoria and happiness much like alcohol in humans.
Cats love to nibble on other plants too. Unfortunately, not all plants are safe to munch on so why take the risk of exposing your cat to plants that may be toxic or hazardous to them when you can get one that makes them go crazy?
Catnip will help you encourage your cat’s plant-nibbling nature without making you worry about hidden dangers or toxicity.
While not every cat responds the same way to catnip some go crazy and some chillout but the majority of them love it! Making it a great way to train your cat and keep them happy.
A good tip is if you want your cat to stay in his new cat bed, try to sprinkle a few leaves on top of it. If you want to introduce them to a new toy that they seem to just ignore, sprinkle a bit of the catnip over it.
There are a couple of ways you can take advantage of catnip when it comes to your furry friend, you just have to be creative.
8) Give them Love and Attention
Keeping your kitty indoors isn’t exactly a walk in the park. While you may spoil them with toys it is your attention and affection that can make all the difference.
Take the time to play with them. Take them outside once in a while either by carrying them in your arms or with the use of a leash or harness. Personally grooming them is another way of showing your affection and care.
Take the time to simply hang out and cuddle them because this simple act of affection can go a long way. Yes, they may be aloof and yes, they may not be as reciprocative as dogs are but they do appreciate these little loving gestures.
The biggest obstacle to staying indoors is boredom but with a few adjustments and a couple of toys, you can make your cat’s indoor life equally wonderful with that of the outdoors. While the said tools can help keep your feline friend occupied, there’s still no better way to fight boredom than giving them the attention and affection they need.
Just being there for them like friends do for each other should keep your cat happy despite the confined space.
