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💫 Keeping Cats Indoors 💫

Updated: Nov 30, 2023

At Goodna Vet we are often asked if it is okay to keep cats indoors instead of an outdoor lifestyle. ‼️The answer is YES‼️


There are many benefits to keeping your cat indoors and contained within your property boundaries for their safety and well-being.🏡 Some key reasons include:


- Increases the opportunity for bonding and owner-animal interaction. 💖 - Indoor cats are less likely to become lost. 🐈 - To protect your cat from dangers such as car accidents, dog attacks, snake bites, ticks etc. 🐍 - Decreased chance of exposure to parasites and diseases such as Cat Flu or Feline Immunodefiency Virus (FIV). 🧫 - Less likely to get into cat fights and develop fight-related injuries such as cellulitis or abscesses. 🏥 - To reduce the impact of hunting and protect our native wildlife. 🦜🐨


Indoor cats do require adequate exercise 🏋🏼and environmental enrichment to stay healthy and to be able to exhibit their natural behaviours. ♥️ Here are some measures you can take to ensure that your home is a feline-friendly, stimulating 🐱 environment:


- Provide plenty of horizontal and vertical climbing space. Cats feel safer and like to be high up 🏔to view scenes from above. Tall cat towers, window hammocks and cat shelving are just a few available ideas to help provide this. - Rotate a variety of toys to keep your cat amused and interested! 🧶 - Provide hiding spaces such as cardboard boxes or cat caves to play and sleep in. 📦 - Scratching posts keep their nails in peak condition and prevents unwanted scratching of furniture. 🪑💅 It is best to provide multiple scratch posts of different variety to keep kitties interested. - Play with your cat daily and give them plenty of attention and company. 💖 - Provide nice sunny spots or window sills to lie on so they can watch the outside world for entertainment. 📺 - Cats are often social animals so we recommend adopting two cats that get along well to keep each other company. 🐱🐱 - Indoor cats should have at least 2 litter trays 💩 per cat that are kept away from eating 🍽 and sleeping areas. 🛌 - Consider enclosing your backyard 🌿with cat netting or a similar product that will still allow your pet some safe outdoors time. 🌏 - Take your pet for supervised time outside with a cat harness to enjoy the sun. 🌞 - Research shows that some products such as Feliway can help to calm cats via the use of pheromones. If your cat appears stressed, talk to your vet about these sprays or diffusers! 😌



A cat that has only ever been contained to an 🏠 indoor l lifestyle is likely to cope much better with living in this way as they have never known any other lifestyle. So it is a great idea to start training kittens to be contained early on‼️


On the opposite side of indoor 🐈 kitties, a cat that has only ever experienced living outdoors may become distressed if suddenly kept totally indoors. 😫 In these cases cats may begin to display behavioural problems 😤 due to the stress of confinement. For these cats, extending their access to the outdoors via an escape-proof enclosure or specialised backyard fencing as mentioned above is highly recommended. 🏡 A gradual reduction in the amount of time ⏰ that the cat spends beyond the property will also allow them to adjust to their new spoilt indoor life. 😻


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