As small, quiet, independent creature cat seems to be the purrrrrrfect apartment pet. However, just because they seem like they are low-maintenance it does not imply they need no maintenance. If you don’t wish to renovate your home and change the furniture every once in a while, you should keep your feline pet happy and entertained as much as possible.
This applies to providing your cat toys and space for his/her needs. And cats do need toys. Lots of them. Indeed, confined indoors for most of their life cats can easily become restless and claw anything their paws can get.
We bring you tips to keep your pet entertained and satisfied and their primordial urge in check at all times, even when you are not around.
A small digression: Did you know that, aside from the hours you spend with your furry friend, owning a cat may cost up to £17,200 in food, toys, vet bills, and other various expenses during his/her average lifetime.
Stock Up on Various Toys
Does your cat like toys that imitate birds, mice or bug catching? There are many types of toys made for cats and not every cat has the same taste in toys. Therefore, you need to ensure you know what’s your cat’s fancy. In case you are not certain what toys will coax your cat, get one of each and test which of them will stimulate him/her to interact the most.
If your cat is into treats and snacks, try to keep him/her occupied with a food puzzle toy. These toys are typically shaped like a ball made to be stuffed with small pieces of food or treats. The snacks are realised once the cat figures out how to turn it the right way. This kind of toys are good for stimulating his/her brain as well as muscles.
Now that you know what toys your cats prefer, make sure you have plenty of them and to frequently rotate them as cats get bored playing with same ones after a while. Another reason to stock up with different toys is the inevitability of them being misplaced under the heavy piece of furniture. The trick to avoiding stashing under the furniture is to put the ball in the empty bathtub for the cat to bat around.
Provide a Fun Zone for Your Nosey Pet
Chances are your cat spends a lot, if not 100% of his/her time indoors. For that, you should optimise your living space to accommodate cat’s instinctive needs. Stimulation and recreation are also necessary to maintain its good mental health, not just to save it from dying of boredom. Therefore, it is very important to enrich the environment for the cat.
A special space set for the purpose of playing, climbing, hiding and gazing is important. Even if you don’t have an extra room to devote to a cat’s retreat, a window or a corner of a room will be enough. But, before setting up a nice cat tree or a scratching post especially made for climbing and claw exercises, make sure your belongings of a great personal value stay paw-intact. One of the solutions to avoid sacrificing your precious furniture is to call a company that provides favourable storage pricing services.
A Room with a View
One way to help make a cat’s environment richer, larger and safer is to give him/her some supplementary vertical places. The window is an excellent choice for that as it is like television for the feline, with hours of exciting, free of commercials programming of birds, sounds and people to spark their hunting instincts all day long. You can hang a perch on the window sill, which represents a high area with a view or vantage point. It will provide your four-legged pet hours of free, albeit unexciting, entertainment. Therefore, it would be ideal if you can afford multiple perches as some cats like it better to watch their habitat from various vantage points.
Another solution to keep your playful cat entertained indoors is to hang a bird or squirrel feeder in view of a window or a closed aquarium. You can place the cat’s bed or the blanket, on which it likes to take the naps, close enough so it can enjoy in the flocks, jumping squirrels or perky fish and lick his/her whiskers while ogling.
Passive Entertainment
If there is no possibility for you to place a bird feeder near your window or on it or you have a hard time to feed them, try some cat videos with the volume pumped up to keep your fluffy cat entertained. There are plenty of videos available for cats to go through on YouTube. You can put them on while you are at work and the cat should be a lot happier with this passive kind of entertainment.
Videos are not the only passive entertainment you can to which you can resort to. Soothing sounds are also good. If you find that your cat reacts to certain music styles, you can collect more and put it on to play quietly while you are away.
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