Indoor cats live longer, safer lives but face welfare challenges from boredom, inactivity, and frustration of natural hunting behaviours. Environmental enrichment is the evidence-based solution.
Indoor cats represent a welfare success story in terms of physical safety and longevity, but creating genuine indoor welfare requires active environmental design rather than just confinement. Cats have strong motivational drives for hunting, territory, vertical space, and predatory play that do not diminish in safe indoor environments. Failing to meet these needs produces a predictable cluster of welfare problems: obesity from inactivity and unrestricted food access, frustration-related aggression, inappropriate elimination from stress, and over-grooming. Evidence-based indoor enrichment includes puzzle feeders that engage the hunt sequence, multiple vertical structures, window access for visual stimulation, regular interactive play sessions with wand toys, and — for single cats — consideration of a compatible companion. The goal is an indoor environment that allows full expression of natural feline behaviour.