Feline Environmental Enrichment helps our cats relieve stress and enjoy their lives. The benefits are immense and will help increase the bond you and your kitty share as well as minimize health and behavioral risks. Enriching the environment for our feline companions means providing RESOURCES, RESOURCES, RESOURCES!
This means lots of litter boxes, offering multiple feeding and watering stations throughout the house, providing lots of heights and levels for perching, as well as secluded areas that provide privacy and refuge. Frequently present new toys that stimulate and satisfy your cat's prey drive and rotate your toys in and out of use so your kitty does not become bored.
2. If you are really ambitious, use boxes to build a "Rufus Tower"!
3. Cats love to chase things, simple household items can be tossed like crumpled up paper.
4. Toss in a ping pong ball into a dry bath tub for some Kitty Hockey playing!
5. Toss kibbles one at a time down a hallway or the stairs, and get her to run up and down and back and forth to eat them
6. Throw away your cat's food bowl and use Food Toysto feed your cat instead.
7. Learn how to Make Catnip Soup!Or make Catnip Marinade by placing soft fuzzy toys in container with catnip to “marinate”. You can do this as often as needed to refresh the scent. This can be financially helpful because you won’t have to buy new toys as often.
8. If you have an IPad, Search the Apple APP store and download a free interactive IPad Cat game such as Friskies JitterBug or Friskies Cat Fishing!
10. Bring the outdoors in! Bring in tree branches, rocks, leaves, things from the outdoors to pique their senses. Try hiding treats around or under these items for extra fun, or fill a box with leaves and throw a handful of treats in for your cat to forage
12. Have a kitty keeping you up late at night? Here is our Handout on Feline Nocturnal Behavior. Read this one online to access additional Internet resources.
13. Clicker Training Cats! Keeping indoor cats happy and fulfilled is more than just adapting their environment, try engaging their mind through the magic of Clicker Training!! For even more ideas about clicker training check out the library at Karen Pryor's Clickertraining.com
Indoor Pet Initiative for Cat Owners This is the link to the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine site for the Indoor Pet Initiative. It has many tips on how to reduce stress in the life of indoor cats. We feel that many feline diseases are caused or worsened by stress. Reducing stress in your cat's life can keep him happier and healthier!
What Indoor Cats Need From The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Feline Indoor Initiative Site above, this is a link to a great handout on What Indoor Cats Need.It has lots of tips on how to keep your feline companion stress free!! Decreased stress makes for a healthier kitty!
Why Can't We All Just Get AlongDid you know cats prefer to be solitary feeders? Changing the way this household of cats were fed reduced stress, tension and fighting amongst housemates.
The Cat Friendly HomeGreat tips from Europe's International Cat Care Website on how to make a cat friendly home.
Building Cat Shelves for Your Home Cats are meant to climb! It is important to provide opportunities for climbing and perching. The Moderncat.net website has ideas on how to build cat climbing shelves for your home.
"CATIFICATION" means doing creative Do-It-Yourself Projects to build an incredible world of fun inside your home. The Moderncat.net website has many ideas!
Feliway for Cats Cats communicates through smell much more than people do. Feliway Pheromone therapy comforts cats in their own language! Feliway is available at Deer Run Animal Hospital.
Play & Squeak Prey ToysBring the wild inside with these realistic prey toys. Our cats play with these for hours! All toys feature an electronic sound module that produces the amazingly realistic RealMouse™ sound - a "squeak" that is the same frequency and loudness as a real mouse! We love the Mouse Hunter! It is so looked & sounded so realistic that it had us jumping on chairs and squealing thinking our cats had caught a live mouse. Truly satisfies the prey drive of your indoor "Tiger"! (always supervise small toys to make sure small parts are not being consumed, throw away and replace if they are being torn apart)
Frolicat Toys For fun exercise for your cat with amazing automated laser toys and much more! IMPORTANT TIP--When playing with cats with any laser toy, it is important to end the session by letting them actually catch a prey toy like a toy mouse, or stuffed animal so that your cat does not feel frustrated by not being able to catch the laser spot!! Have a few treats scattered about and end the play sesson with the laser light landing on a treat for your cat to "capture" and enjoy!
Cats & WaterTips to encourage your cats to drink more water for their health with these tips!
Prevent a Great EscapeHow to keep your cat safe indoors and avert escape-artist behavior
HOW TO MAKE THE OUTDOOR FELINE SAFE!
Most cats can enjoy indoor living if we work hard enough to provide sunny sleeping spots, interactive toys, scratching posts, clean flowing water and a clean litter box. Enrichment goes a long way, but the...re are some kitties that will still jet out the door no matter how hard you work to make indoor life pleasing. For these owners, the University of California at Davis Veterinary Behavior Department offers the following ideas to make the outdoors safe, while making your cat happy:
2. Portable cat area: There are various models of outdoor kitty pop-up mesh tents. Some are very simple and inexpensive, while others are full on condos: http://www.wildwhiskers.com/or www.kittywalk.com.
3. Get cat-friendly fencing for your backyard. This isn’t cheap, but is terrific for keeping cats within your yard and other cats out:http://www.purrfectfence.com/
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