Daily exercise helps keep cats physically healthy and mentally engaged.  

It’s very easy for a cat to become a couch potato (trust me, I have a big orange one laying on my couch right now)! Luckily there are simple ways to encourage getting up and moving around. It may seem like cats loves to lounge, but inside each cat is a wild feline waiting to come out! 

Here are a few easy tweaks to their the daily routine to get them up and moving! 

put your cats’ food in different spots throughout the house. Trailing kibbles throughout the kitchen, family room or down a stairwell will tap into their amazing sense of smell and their desire to hunt for their food. I take my couch potato’s food and toss it under the kitchen table. He pounces on each kibble and flicks it around before gobbling it up. This slows down his eating and makes him feel full longer (because his dinner isn’t gone in 2.2 seconds)! 

Our kitty friends are urning to stalk, pounce and climb up high. Anything we can do to trigger these behaviours will make them happier kitties! 

Cat toys can get expensive but a basic feather wand is a great $5 investment. Cats love pouncing and chasing the feather wand up, down and all around. The Kong active feather boa is my cats favourite feather toy. 

I flick the feather wand on the inside and around an open box. This gets them jumping in and out chasing the feathers and tiring them out! 

I cannot rave enough about cat exercise wheels. If you are able to invest a few hundred dollars into a cat wheel, I would highly recommend it. The wheel encourages walking/running safely indoors! 

There are different companies that make the wheels ranging in quality and cost. Some fit one cat at a time, and others fit multiple cats at a time. Researching and reading reviews on what wheel would work best for your cat(s) is definitely recommended. 

There are DIY videos online showing you how to make your own wheel if you are feeling like attempting a build project (but I prefer the already assembled option)!