The indoor trade-off
Indoor cats live substantially longer on average, avoiding road traffic, predation and most infectious disease. That is a genuine welfare win and the reason indoor living is recommended in many contexts.
The cost is behavioural. A cat’s natural time budget involves dozens of short hunting sequences per day, and an indoor environment with a full food bowl removes all of them at once.
Hunting simulation is the priority
The single highest-value intervention is replacing free feeding with food that has to be worked for. Puzzle feeders, scattered portions and food-dispensing toys reinstate the search-stalk-catch-eat sequence.
Wand play should follow the same structure and end with a catch and a food reward. Play that ends in frustration without a resolution raises arousal rather than satisfying it.
Vertical space is not optional
Cats assess territory by volume, not floor area. Height provides security, surveillance and a way to avoid conflict in multi-cat households.
A small flat with good vertical routing can offer more usable territory than a large house with none.
- At least one elevated resting spot per cat, positioned with a view of the room entrance.
- Routes that allow movement around a room without touching the floor.
- A high refuge that other animals and children cannot access.
Resource layout in multi-cat homes
The standard guidance is one of each key resource per cat plus one spare, distributed across the home rather than clustered together.
Clustering is the common mistake. Three litter trays in one room is functionally one resource, because a single cat can block access to all three.
Measuring whether it is working
Enrichment success is visible in the data: more distinct activity bouts through the day, less overnight pacing, reduced over-grooming and better-distributed resource use.
If those numbers do not move within three to four weeks, the enrichment is not matched to that individual cat, and the answer is usually more hunting simulation rather than more toys.