Indoor cats depend entirely on their owners to provide stimulation, exercise, and environmental complexity. Good enrichment prevents boredom, obesity, and behavioural problems while promoting positive welfare.
Indoor cats face welfare risks that stem from under-stimulation rather than danger — chronic boredom, insufficient physical activity, and social stress in multi-cat homes. The hunting motivation system is a core aspect of cat psychology: cats that cannot hunt or play equivalents show increased anxiety, redirected aggression, and over-grooming. Environmental enrichment for indoor cats must be active (interactive play sessions with prey-mirroring toys twice daily at minimum) as well as passive (climbing structures, hiding places, window views of wildlife). Puzzle feeders replace the cognitive engagement of foraging with something analogous. In multi-cat homes, providing sufficient resources — at least one litter box plus one per cat, multiple feeding stations, multiple resting places at different heights — prevents the chronic resource competition and social stress that causes significant welfare harm in cats who cannot avoid each other.