Everyone knows how much cats love to sleep. While they’re descendants of the king of the jungle, these low-maintenance pets have become extremely regal at resting. But any animal which sleeps as much as cats must offset all of their inactivity with plenty of regular exercise.
Unfortunately, running around your house is never enough exercise for indoor cats. So simply follow the creative tips below to help ensure your kitty stays healthy and trim, while burning up all of their extra energy.
Not-so-wild cats
When cats live in the wild, they’re natural predators so they’re always able to keep themselves pretty fit. Their sleek, nimble, and agile bodies were built for running at high speed, climbing up trees, and hunting their prey. It’s also why they enjoy feeling enclosed and hiding or retreating in cat caves or spots up high where they can sit and watch.
This also explains why there’s never any overweight cats in the wild. But unlike their wild cousins, indoor cats don’t have many of the same natural opportunities for that kind of aerobic exercise. So indoor cats need to get their daily physical activity from somewhere else.
Laser pointers
Known as the holy grail of all cat toys, laser pointers are one of the most effective ways of ensuring your kitty is exercised. These cheap and fun little devices can keep most cats happily entertained for hours until they’re completely exhausted. Encourage your cat to chase the red laser beam dot of light around the room, along floors, up walls, and over furniture.
Remember to always end your laser play with something similar for kitty to get their paws, claws, and teeth into. Otherwise, they’ll end up feeling extremely frustrated. You can also invest in an automatic laser pointer which has been designed specifically to exercise cats when you don’t have time to play with them. They can even be programmed to keep your kitty entertained while you are asleep or away from home.
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Scratching posts
As scratching has been a natural part of being a cat since the dawn of forever ago, most of them will love using a scratching post or tree. Not only will a scratching post encourage your cat to exercise, stretch, and strengthen its muscles, but your kitty will also use it to climb up and jump from.
You can also position a tall scratching post beside a window so your cat can think about catching birds, mice, squirrels, and other animals your cat would naturally prey on. Cats are very interesting animals, even more so after learning how to care for them from an online vet assistant course. Oh, and even declawed cats will retain their scratching instinct, and enjoy the texture of a post while doing the same scratching motions.
Simple pleasures
Remember that most cats are pretty simple creatures. So instead of going out and spending heaps of money on exercise toys, it’s the littlest things that will give cats the most pleasure and keep them entertained. As cliché as it sounds, cats are just as happy chasing around a ball of yarn or piece of string being pulled slowly away from them across the floor.
In fact, there’s nothing cats enjoy playing with more than an empty box or a paper bag. Or just put their favorite ball into a bucket or bathtub so your kitty plays around with it for ages because it can only bob up and down without going anywhere.
Treats trails
You can take advantage of your cat’s natural hunting talent by hiding a trail of healthy treats in all kinds of weird and unusual places around your house. Of course, make sure to only use pet food ingredients that are healthy and natural.
This is a great idea because not only will it provide your cat with plenty of exercise, but they will also get a little bit of adventure from their past lives as well. Just remember not to ever let your cat watch as you hide them and always put them in different places each time. Oh and don’t forget to check that kitty found them all too.
Rising above the challenge
Despite playtime being so important for their overall health and well-being, getting cats to exercise can be challenging. It turns out that these furry little fuzzballs must have some kind of memory of their previous life as royalty because It seems they only ever do what they want, and only when they want to do it.
But once you find out which of the above tips will work, you can ensure your feline friend gets enough physical activity each day to lead a very healthy and happy life with you.
