Easy Enrichment Ideas to Keep Your Indoor Cat Happy
By Shelly Tirrell, Sunshine Pets - Kailua, HI
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means Sunshine Pets may earn a small commission - at no extra cost to you - if you buy something through them. I only ever share products I actually like and would use with the dogs in my care.
Cats may spend a lot of time sleeping, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need things to do!
Indoor cats still have natural instincts to climb, scratch, stalk, chase, hide, and hunt. Giving them ways to use those instincts can make their environment more interesting and give them some much-needed mental and physical activity.
And enrichment doesn’t have to mean filling your house with expensive cat toys. Sometimes the simplest changes can make the biggest difference.
Here are a few easy ways to add a little more fun to your cat’s day.
Let Them Hunt for Their Food
Instead of putting every treat directly into a bowl, make your cat work for a few of them!
Try hiding treats in easy-to-find spots around the house or putting part of their dry food into a puzzle feeder. Food puzzles and hidden food give cats an opportunity to “hunt” and problem-solve while they eat.
If your cat has never used a puzzle feeder before, start easy. You want them to figure it out and have fun - not stare at you wondering why you made breakfast unnecessarily difficult.
A few things that can help:
Bring Out Their Inner Hunter
A few minutes with a wand toy can be one of the easiest ways to add activity to your cat’s day.
Instead of just waving it around, try making the toy act like prey - hide it behind furniture, move it along the ground, pause, and let your cat stalk and pounce.
And most importantly, let them catch it sometimes! Interactive play that allows cats to stalk, chase, pounce and capture mimics parts of their natural predatory behavior.
One of our enrichment staples: Interactive wand toy
Quick safety note: Toys with strings, feathers or pieces that could potentially be swallowed are best put away when playtime is over rather than left out unsupervised.
Give Them a Good Window Seat
Sometimes enrichment requires absolutely no participation from us.
A window with birds, people, leaves and neighborhood activity can provide plenty for a curious cat to watch. The ASPCA specifically recommends creating a comfortable window-watching spot as an easy form of environmental enrichment.
If your windowsills aren't quite cat-sized, a window-mounted perch can turn an ordinary window into prime kitty real estate.
For your neighborhood watch captain: Window cat perch
Rotate Their Toys
If your living room currently has 14 cat toys scattered across the floor that nobody has touched in three weeks, try putting most of them away.
Leave a few favorites out and swap them every several days. Rotating toys can help keep them interesting rather than having the same toys available all the time.
You may be surprised how exciting that forgotten toy suddenly becomes when it reappears.
Give Them Somewhere to Climb
Cats don't only use the floor - they naturally make use of vertical space too.
Cat trees, shelves, and perches give cats additional territory and places where they can observe what's happening around them. Elevated spaces are specifically included in feline environmental-needs recommendations.
You don't need an elaborate cat wall, either. A sturdy cat tree or well-placed perch can be enough to give your cat another place to explore.
For cats who like the penthouse: Cat tree or climbing tower
Give Them Something They're Allowed to Scratch
Scratching isn't a bad habit - it's normal cat behavior.
Rather than trying to stop it completely, give your cat appealing places where scratching is encouraged.
Some cats prefer tall vertical posts, while others would choose a horizontal cardboard scratcher every time.
If you're not sure which your cat prefers, offering both is an easy experiment.
Try:
Never Underestimate a Cardboard Box
Finally, before you spend anything at all...
Give your cat the Amazon box.
Boxes can provide places to hide, investigate, nap, and play, and feline environmental guidelines specifically recommend cardboard boxes as simple safe spaces.
Add some packing paper, toss a toy inside, or simply put the empty box on the floor and see what happens.
Sometimes the free enrichment wins.
Find What YOUR Cat Loves
Every cat is different.
One might spend half the afternoon watching birds from a window while another couldn't care less about the window but will chase a wand toy until your arm gets tired.
The goal isn't to keep your cat entertained every second of the day. It's simply to give them opportunities to climb, scratch, hunt, play, explore, and choose what they enjoy.
Try one or two new ideas and see what gets your cat interested.
Looking for a few ideas to get started?
We've put together some of our favorite types of toys, puzzles, scratchers, and other enrichment finds in one place:
And if you're a Kailua cat parent who needs someone to keep your kitty company while you're away, Sunshine Pets offers personalized cat visits with feeding, litter care, attention, and playtime based on what your cat enjoys.
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