Indoor cats need regular play and environmental enrichment to express their predatory instincts, maintain physical health, and prevent boredom-related welfare problems.
Indoor cats denied adequate play and enrichment suffer real welfare consequences: frustration from unmet predatory drives, boredom leading to repetitive behaviours, and physical decline from insufficient exercise. The welfare opportunity is significant and largely cost-free: interactive play sessions, food puzzles, climbing structures, and window perches with bird-watching opportunities provide meaningful enrichment at low cost. Welfare-centred cat keeping treats play not as optional entertainment but as a fundamental daily welfare necessity — as important as appropriate nutrition and veterinary care.