Mary Allen
Does your cat sometimes have to stay at home alone for a longer period of time? This is how you make her time particularly entertaining.
Even if cats are not classic herd animals, very few of them like to be alone. It doesn’t really matter if they appreciate direct interaction with you or are simply more comfortable with human presence, times, when the animals need to be alone, can be problematic. So it’s good to have a few tips and tricks ready to keep your house cat busy when you’re away.
In principle, it is of course advantageous if your animal is never completely alone because it lives with conspecifics or has free access. But such arrangements are not always possible for a variety of reasons.
It is then all the more important to provide stimulating employment opportunities indoors as well. That’s how it’s done!
Busy with food
Most cats are excited about their favorite food. If you are going to be away for a long time, a feeder that offers a few bites at a programmed time can provide a highlight of the day in your house cat’s life.
It is more sophisticated, more stimulating, and in any case more advisable for cats that tend to be overweight to hide the food so that the cat has to make a little effort to find it. Chunks of dry food or dried pieces of meat are best for this purpose.
Specialist shops offer various toys that can serve as hiding places for food:
- toy balls from which bits of food fall out during play,
- Fummel boards, on which you have to show some skill to get to the goodies,
- Intelligence toys that require not only paw skills but also a bit of brain power.
These toys ensure that the animal has a mission while it is alone. If you don’t want to spend any money on it, you can also make fumbling boards and the like yourself using simple means, for example, yogurt cups and toilet paper rolls.
Special hiding spots
A very simple variant of hiding the food is to place the dry food in the apartment in a targeted manner. Do this in different places and if possible in such a way that your cat does not notice. So the animal unexpectedly encounters treats during its explorations and life doesn’t get boring.
If the pieces of food found require some fiddling work, the house cat will completely forget that its reference person is gone.
In summer you can also try serving ice cream. Some cats love these treats, especially when there’s a frozen chicken heart or similar treat inside the ice cream. However, you should definitely make sure that your animal tolerates cold things well and also cannot choke!
Other occupations
Now of course it is not the best idea to only occupy cats with food. After all, obesity is a widespread problem in cats. Kidney diseases and other diseases also make diets and strict food control necessary.
But you can also address the animals with other stimuli. It is well known that cats react extremely to smells such as valerian or catnip. It is, therefore, a good idea to make toys or scratching corners interesting with these smells from time to time. There are also toys filled with these herbs, which lead to long play sessions for some animals.
Cat-friendly environment
A cat that needs to be alone a lot should not have a monotonous and monotonous environment. The apartment should be stimulating and varied and offer climbing, scratching, and hiding places.
A new cat toy from time to time is also not wrong, because cats are curious animals that like to explore and try new things. Therefore, it is also ideal if there are comfortable window seats for cats to observe the outside world.
If your cat is one of those rare specimens that likes to play with water, you might also consider having a water bowl accessible in the bathroom. Of course, this must not be filled so deep that danger arises, but many an animal can spend hours splashing around in water that is almost paw-deep.
Ultimately, the following applies: variety makes the difference. Every day should offer something interesting, then even a cat can be alone. Create variety and let your creativity run free. Then neither you nor the cat will be bored.