Indoor cats require intentional enrichment provision to meet their behavioural needs as obligate carnivores, with inadequate enrichment a primary cause of behavioural and stress-related disease.
Cats confined indoors without adequate enrichment experience chronic frustration of their prey drive, territorial behaviour needs, and natural activity patterns. This manifests as stress-related illness including idiopathic cystitis, over-grooming, inappropriate elimination, and intercat aggression. The solution is intentional environmental enrichment that enables cats to express key natural behaviours safely indoors.