While most of us might think our cat has it all; someone to prepare their meals, toys to entertain them and a day full of sleeping, it may not be exactly what your cat wants. We need to look at the day from your cats perspective and more importantly, their ancestry. The cat that is in your home is not too far down the evolution path from its ancestor, the African Wild Cat. Your kitty still has natural instincts to seek and hunt food. Without helping to provide outlets for these natural desires, our kitties tend to find outlets on their own and we rarely approve.

There’s good news! Providing enrichment activities for your cat can be cheap, easy, and most of all, fun! When trying to think of enrichment activities for your cat, always start with their strengths; scent and sight are the easiest. Scent may include hiding food. This doesn’t have to be too challenging for your cat. Take an old shoe box, cut holes in the lid and a few on the sides and then throw in some treats or dry food. (Note: If you free feed your cat, they may not be as motivated to work for their food. If scheduled feeding isn’t an option, try putting toys in the box instead.)

Sight enrichment might be the most important, because cats are visual learners. An easy idea to keep your cats visually stimulated and their brains working is to put bird and/or squirrel feeders in view from a favorite window or perch.