Indoor cats need carefully planned daily enrichment to express natural hunting, climbing, and territorial behaviours that barren domestic environments cannot spontaneously provide.
Indoor cat enrichment is not optional but welfare-essential: cats are obligate hunters whose neurobiology is designed for prey-seeking, capture, and consumption sequences. Bowl-fed sedentary cats have constant food without the hunting sequence that precedes it in natural contexts — a mismatch that creates an unfulfilled motivational drive. Interactive play, food puzzles, and window perches with bird feeders outside partially address this need. Cats deprived of environmental stimulation over-sleep, overeat, and show increased anxiety and aggression.