How to Enrich Your Cat’s Life

When we get pets, we first think about our own amusement: having a four-legged friend seems to be fun. Owners spend a few minutes per day with their cats, but the rest of the time, animals are left to themselves. They can quickly get bored, which results in damage to the surrounding objects, nasty temper, depression, and emotional withdrawal from the owner.

In this post you will find how to enrich your dog’s life; cats have different temperaments and we should treat them differently. If you want to make your cat’s life brighter and full of emotions and impressions, there are a lot of ways to entertain it. In this guide, I come up with a few exciting options that will bring joy to both your pet and you. By enriching your cat’s life, you can reap multiple advantages:

●    Encourage its mental and physical development;
●    Strengthen the bonds between family members and pets;
●    Correct cat’s behavior;
●    Help pet acquire some new skills;
●    Get rid of bad habits.

Without further ado, let’s review the best ways of keeping a pet entertained.

Catios
Cat patios or ‘catios’ are DIY constructions that remind of exercise pens or crates in the zoo. To put it simply, this is a constrained outdoor space that features various facilities for a cat:

●    Cathouse;
●    Scratcher;
●    A place to seat;
●    Stairs, bars, and perch.

Thus, a cat can enjoy the feeling of walking outdoors without actually leaving the house. A catio is a place where it can rest, play, exercise, and enjoy any other physical activity. You can also leave the favorite toys there – they will help establish a positive connection with this place from the very beginning.

If you don’t have a house, you can organize a catio on an apartment balcony. Install shelves and a multi-level cat house inside, don’t forget about a scratcher and heat insulation. Also, make sure the windows stay closed, and your cat is safe.

YouTube for cats
Did you know that there are YouTube channels created especially for cats? When you need to leave for a while, you can set the Autoplay for the videos about wildlife – it will entertain your cat during social distancing.

You can find such channels and videos by making queries like “videos for cats”, “video to entertain a cat”, “TV for cats”, and so on. I recommend Paul Dining, CatPet, and Little Paws & Family.

Watching videos not only entertains your cat but also distracts it from sadness and some bad habits.  It provides new emotions and impressions, not mentioning that it’s fun for people to watch.

Also, there are ‘Catching Mice’ online games available: just start the video and watch your cat playing. But make sure the TV set is stable enough and won’t fall on your pet!

Give your cat a beautiful view
If you’ve got a nice view from the window, don’t deprive your feline friend of the joy of seeing it. Organize a comfy place on the window sill: put a cat window hammock and let your pet rest there. It will watch what’s going outside, which is a great pleasure, especially when you live in apartments in a city.

Alternatively, you can install a bird feeder behind the window. Your pet will have fun watching birds, and, probably, try to catch them. Once again, I repeat that safety is the priority: make sure your cat won’t jump out, and the window is closed tightly.

How can all that be helpful for your cat?

●    It’s exciting and entertaining;
●    The view might calm down your cat and let it relax;
●    It helps to maintain a healthy cat’s vision.

Make playing with your cat a habit
Some cats become very lazy and inactive because of the owners ignoring their wish to play or simply leaving toys around. Do not let your cat be like that – keep it active! Organize various games: catching a bait, playing with a teaser, chasing one another, sun twinkles, or whatever your furry friend prefers. Take up the habit of playing with your cat for about 10 minutes in the morning and evening. It will bring you several significant benefits:

●    Maintenance of physical activity and healthy weight. Even 20 minutes of exercise will help your cat burn calories and boost metabolism. Do not simply throw cat’s toys around – they rarely encourage playing. Instead, you have to make sure your cat stays active by being involved. It will help you prevent cat’s obesity and depression.
●    Stronger spiritual and mental bond with a cat. It’s not a secret that owners spending enough time with their cats get a warmer emotional response back. You are more likely to establish a friendship with your pet and make it trust you by playing with it.
●    It’s fun! Isn’t that what you got this pet for? We enjoy playing with our pets not less than they do.

Train your cat
You can correct your cat’s behavior by training it. It takes time, but it can be very easy if you follow certain proven techniques. Also, you can train your cat to perform small tricks and give treatments for that. Training improves a cat’s cognitive abilities and helps it to avoid mental problems in the senior age.

You can check YouTube videos and follow animal bloggers to get some general recommendations. In most cases, it helps. Be patient and keep rewarding the cat – it will do the trick sooner or later.

Please, note that the cat should never be punished or forced during training. Going physical or showing aggression will make training a real nightmare for a cat – the revenge will follow, don’t doubt that. Your main goal here is to give your cat a small mental exercise that would diversify its being.

In a word
As a loving and caring pet owner, you want your cat to lead a truly exciting and satisfying life. It’s impossible without your participation and encouragement, so switch your fantasy on and make up the new ways of entertaining your furry friend.

I hope that the activities mentioned above will prove to be useful for your pets. By experiencing new emotions and having new experiences, a cat maintains intelligence and psychological health – it’s a fact. So keep your furry friend engaged in the life around and let it share the happiness with you.

Jimmie O’Chutt is a father of Ronnie - a cat with a chronic impaired kidney function. He has 25 years of experience owning a cat. He shares valuable tips on CatPet - a blog about cat nutrition and care.