- Not a substitute for professional veterinary help.
This article was written by Rover Cat Expert, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and Certified Cat Behavior Consultant, Mikel Delgado.
Much like humans, cats can experience situations that threaten their mental health, and cause anxiety, fear, and depression. Because our cats can’t directly tell us how they are feeling, we must watch their behavior for signs of stress. A few warning signs include:
- Changes in appetite
- Changes in sleeping patterns
- A lack of interest in play or interaction
- Hiding behavior
- Not using the litter box consistently
- Decreased self-care, such as grooming
These, and any signs of illness, such as vomiting or diarrhea, are an alarm bell to check in with your veterinarian and make sure nothing is wrong with your cat physically. But what about when your cat is having problems emotionally? What can we do to prevent our cats from becoming stressed and depressed?
Although sometimes cats are described as low-maintenance, they have mental, emotional, and physical needs. By providing for those needs, we give our cats the best chance of being mentally happy and healthy. Here are eight surefire ways to help your cat unwind!
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1. Provide a Solid Routine
A 2011 study showed that just changing the time of day that cats were fed, and the person who fed them were enough to cause cats to show sickness behaviors, such as vomiting, not eating, and diarrhea—even though the cats were physically healthy. This research highlights just how sensitive cats can be to changes in their environment.
Although there are always times that we must travel or adjust our schedules, it can put your cat’s mind at ease when they know when to expect things.
Try to feed your cats, clean their litter boxes, and play with them around the same time each day. This makes their environment predictable, and allows them to anticipate when certain things (like mealtime) will happen. It also prevents putting them in the unpleasant situation of demanding what they need! (No one likes their cat meowing for food in the middle of the night!)
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2. Give Your Cat Outlets for Normal Feline Behavior
Although cats are domesticated, they have retained many of their wilder instincts. Some of their behaviors, such as climbing and scratching, are perfectly normal feline behaviors but can be annoying to live with, especially if you don’t provide appropriate targets.
By giving your cat tall cat trees to perch on, and sturdy scratching posts, you can give them opportunities to climb and scratch to their heart’s content, without damaging your furniture!
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3. Provide Safe Space
Cats are wary by nature—after all, it’s a dangerous world for a small kitty! Cats aren’t just predators, they are prey to many species. There often comes a time when they feel the need to hide or just retreat.
Be sure your cat has some hiding spaces where they will not be disturbed. This could be a shelf in a closet, a cozy cave-style cat bed, or even just a box tipped on its side with a blanket inside.
Research has shown that having the choice to hide when needed helped cats in a stressful situation (living in an animal shelter) cope better and recover from stress faster!
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4. Be Gentle With Your Cat
We love to pet cats, a lot! They are soft and cute! But cats can be very sensitive to touch, and generally prefer frequent, short interactions, rather than a lengthy, intense petting session.
Cats may show signs of overstimulation, meaning that they have had enough (or too much) handling. Signs include a swishing tail, ear movement, a cranky meow, moving away, or quick head turns looking at your hand. That means it’s time to stop petting!
Get to know your cat’s likes and dislikes when it comes to petting and respect their boundaries. That stops them from getting irritated and it protects you from being bitten or scratched.
And on that note, don’t roughhouse or wrestle with your cat. That can make them feel defensive and gives them a green light to be rough with people. Instead, only use hands for gentle petting, and direct any play behavior toward toys.
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5. Clean the Kitty Litter Box—A Lot!
Cats are naturally fastidious! They can keep themselves clean, so most cats do not need bathing, although you can help them with regular brushing to help prevent hairballs and keep them looking lovely.
However, one area they need your help with is keeping their litter box clean! Because cats are naturally so tidy, having a dirty litter box can be stressful. A dirty box makes it hard for cats to cover their waste, something they do instinctively to protect themselves from detection by predators! Even though your home may not have any predators, your cats are programmed to want to erase all traces of pee and poo, by digging and covering after they eliminate.
A 2017 study demonstrated that cats prefer a litter box that is free of obstacles, meaning no poop or pee clumps in the box that they have to navigate around! Most cats prefer an unscented, sandy, clumping litter, and it’s best to scoop the box at least once a day (although twice a day is even better).
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6. Maintain Your Cat’s Physical Health
Cats are experts at hiding when they don’t feel well, but pain and illness can compromise their well-being. The best way to ensure that your cat has a great quality of life is to take them for a yearly physical check up with a veterinarian. As your cat gets older, they will need additional screening tests (such as blood and urine testing), and will need more frequent exams.
Routine preventative care is the best way to ensure you are protecting your cat’s health and catching any health problems early, which means you are ensuring they have the longest and happiest life possible.
7. Provide Daily Interactive Playtime
Just like exercise can help us ward off depression and anxiety, getting your cat moving can help them, too! My favorite way to entertain cats is through interactive play, meaning by using wand toys to mimic prey and bring out your cat’s natural hunting instincts.
By acting like a bird, bug, or mouse, you can get your cat leaping and pouncing, or at least playfully batting at the toy! Play is a great way to boost a cat’s confidence, and can be a nice bonding activity as well.
Too many cats are spending too much time on the couch, but just five to ten minutes a day of interactive play can make a huge difference to your cat’s happiness.
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8. Prevent Boredom
Although cats sleep a lot, they shouldn’t be sleeping all day! When cats get bored and frustrated, that’s when annoying behavior problems can crop up (like meowing at 3 a.m. to play).
We can prevent boredom by making sure that our cats have lots of fun activities to keep them busy, like cardboard boxes to play in, a sunny window to birdwatch in, cat grass to chew, and fuzzy mouse toys to toss around!
Get your cat using their brain with food puzzles—toys that dispense treats or food when your cat interacts with them! Clicker training your cat to do some fun tricks is another way to let them show you just how smart they are. Providing problem-solving opportunities like food puzzles and training keeps your cat busy and out of trouble!
Signs Your Cat Is Well-Balanced
How do you know that these strategies are working? A happy cat is physically active and social: playing, scratching, and climbing. They eat, sleep, groom, and use their litter box. When they rest, their body is stretched out, or they lay on their side. Happy cats enjoy being with their humans, and may purr or rub against you, or just sit near you.
Even when putting these suggestions into action, some stressed out cats may need medical support. This is why it’s so important to first talk to your veterinarian if you think your cat is experiencing stress or anxiety.
However, your cat’s mental health starts with YOU, and hopefully you now have plenty of ideas to help create a zen oasis for your cat in your very own home. By keeping your cat happy, you’ll see that your own happiness increases as well.