Hey, fellow pet lovers! 

I realised that most of my posts are canine related and I wanted to write a post that was about Pooss, so I had a little brainstorm and decided to write about how to care for an indoor cat.

Pooss is the first indoor cat I have ever had and she was also an indoor cat before she came to us. In this post, I want to mention how we keep Pooss entertained and happy each and every day, as there are plenty of great pet products and tips and tricks to keep your furry friend entertained when they are constantly stuck indoors.

Let’s jump straight in and learn how to care for an indoor cat!

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Caring for an Indoor Cat

Having an indoor cat is pretty simple but the hard part is trying to make sure you are providing your furry friend with enough mental stimulation and physical exercise.

In today’s post, I want to mention how we keep Pooss both mentally stimulated and physically active, the latter being the hardest part. I am going to talk about some great pet products that we have already reviewed on the site, like the many Catit products we currently have for Pooss.

• Get your furry friend various pet products for daily mental stimulation.

One of the easiest things to do to help keep your indoor cat mentally stimulated is to buy great pet products that they will play with and can entertain themselves with on a daily basis.

We have got Pooss quite a lot of toys mainly Catit products since she seems to love them and I like the company. I have already done a lot of Catit reviews so will stick some links to the posts down below and you can check them out. I would say one the best things we have got Pooss is her Catit Grass Planter as she absolutely loves it!!

As well as her Catit Senses Grass Planter, we have also got her

• Catit Senses 2.0 Digger.
• Catit Design Senses Super Roller Circuit.
• Catit water fountain.

The Catit water fountain is another great buy that I love and the Pooss uses it daily as she refuses to drink out of the girl’s water bowls, to be honest, I don’t blame her, they do eat smelly tripe!!!

• Make sure your cat has their own space in your home.

Since Pooss is an indoor cat and she lives in a very active flat with two other dogs then it is vital that she has her own space to go and get away from all the noise and hassle of everyday life. We have so many different spots in the flat where she can go to get away from the girls and have some much-needed alone time if wants.

We got Pooss the PMS Kitticat Sunshine Window Cat Bed and she loves it!!

I mention in the product review that a lot of pet parents seemed to give this window cat bed a negative review but all I can say about it is great things and Pooss seems to use it a hell of a lot. If your cat is a house cat then it is so important that you provide your furry friend with their own space, as your home is all they have.

• Take time out of your day to play with your cat.

Again if your cat is a house cat then it is so essential that you take time out of your day to play with them, just like Nia and Lily get their daily walk, the Pooss gets half an hour of play time a day to give her some physical exercise and keep her happy.

My girl Pooss loves chasing after feathers and thankfully being a raw feeder we get a lot of them off the whole Prey we get for the girls, well mainly Nia as Lily is too fussy to humour the idea of eating whole prey. Another thing Pooss loves, is chasing after the laser pen she has so much fun and goes mental, I cannot express how important it is to spend time with your feline friend each and every day.

• Make their meals as varied as possible and provide them with a separate eating area.

Pooss cannot go out and catch wild prey so we try to make her diet as varied as possible, much to her despair as she would be happy just eating minced pheasant for the rest of her days. But ensuring your pet’s mealtimes are varied adds an extra layer of stimulation to their lives and that is so important when they cannot go and about like a normal cat.

Another thing to mention is that you should create a separate eating area for your cat, especially if they live with other pets like Pooss does. She has a few different spots in the house where she likes to eat such as her window sill and her Kitty Cubby. Meal times are a vulnerable time for pets and providing your cat with a separate area to eat they will feel more safe and comfortable.

• Provide your cat with vertical spaces they can go up to get away from everything.

Cat’s love vertical spaces because they feel safe when they are high up. Make sure you have at least one spot in your house where your cat can climb up and be away from everything.

We got the cat a Kitty Cubby at the start of the year and she loves it!! If you have space in your home and your cat likes boxes, which is almost every cat then it is worth ordering one or getting a cat tree house. We plan on getting Pooss a nice tree house next year but for now, her Kitty Cubby seems to be doing the job.

There are a few things I dislike about it though and that is the fact that it is very flimsy and breaks easily. Once you have put your initial design together there isn’t much hope for you rearranging it as most of the plastic joining parts seem to break easily.

• No lilies in the house!!

Lilies are truly beautiful flowers but they are very dangerous for our feline friends and if you have a cat then Lilies are a no go. Not all Lilies can kill your cat and some are less dangerous than others such as benign lilies like the Peace, Peruvian, and Calla lilies. The reason these lilies are not as dangerous is they aren’t true lilies and don’t come from the Lilium or Hemerocallis species.

Don’t be fooled though as these benign lilies can still cause your furry friends some harm if ingested and this is because they contain insoluble oxalate crystals that irritate the mouth when ingested. Signs that your cat has ingested some of the plant or some pollen from a Peace and Calla lilies are

• Drooling.

• Pawing at the mouth.

• Foaming.

• Transient vomiting.

• Difficulty breathing, however, this is rare

There are some lilies what we would call true lilies such as the Lilium or Hemerocallis species that can cause serious harm and even death if ingested by your cat. These Lilies to watch out for are

• Tiger lilies.

• Day lilies.

• Asiatic hybrid lilies.

• Japanese show lilies.

• Easter lilies.

• Rubrum lilies.

• Stargazer lilies.

• Red lilies.

• Western lilies.

• Wood lilies.

All parts of these above lilies are highly toxic to our furry friends and apparently even just 2-3 small petals or a small drink out of a vase that your lilies are in could be enough to cause acute kidney failure.

A. Lee, D. (n.d.). Easter Lily Poisoning in Cats. [online] Pet Health Network. Available at: http://www.pethealthnetwork.com/cat-health/cat-toxins-poisons/easter-lily-poisoning-cats [Accessed 20 Aug. 2018].

So no lilies in your house whether you have an indoor cat or an outdoor cat!!

• Windows and your cat’s whereabouts?

Pooss hasn’t ever tried to escape out the window, thankfully, but some cats do and especially curious house cats! Make sure you’re always aware of what windows are open and your cat’s whereabouts so they don’t do a runner.

If you live somewhere with large windows and haven’t got your cat a PMS Kitticat Sunshine Window Cat Bed, then you definitely should as something else that is great about this window cat bed is that your pet can sunbathe during the day and watch the wildlife outside.

• Be careful what houseplants you bring into your home.

Like we mentioned above with the lilies you have to be super careful what houseplants you bring into your home when you have pets. Personally, I love houseplants and think they make a place feel so much nicer but you have to be super careful as some are poisonous to our canine and feline friends.

I plan on writing a more in-depth post about what houseplants are toxic to our pets in the upcoming months but here are a few houseplants to watch out for

• Aloe Vera.

• Asparagus fern. 

• Chinese Evergreen.

• Golden Pothos.

• Scratching post.

A vital and cheap thing to get your furry friend is a scratching post, they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and if you have a cat you should definitely have a scratching post. We have one in the sitting room and a DIY one in the gym, which I plan on doing a post on because it was super easy to make and turned out pretty well.

If you don’t have a scratching post then this could backfire on you pretty quickly, as cats love to claw things and if it isn’t their own scratching post it will be your furniture or personal belongings.

• Litter trays.

We have more than one litter tray for Pooss, they both have a roof over so the girls cannot eat her poo, which is so gross and has occurred many times!!

Having an indoor cat means you need to provide them with a safe place they can go to the loo and they need to feel comfortable when doing so. By giving Pooss more than one litter tray she has various options and doesn’t have to go in front of Nia and Lily. Make sure you regularly clean their littler tray out, as cats are super clean freaks and will refuse to go if it isn’t cleaned out frequently.

• Asses all indoor risks.

The last thing to talk about is indoor risks, having a house cat means you have to asses all indoor risks and make sure everything inside your home is safe. There are many things that could negatively affect your cat or could be poisonous like the lilies we mentioned above, as well as flowers or poisonous houseplants you also need to be careful what cleaning products you use, always check your washing machine before you put it on and make sure your pet has a safe place to go when people come over.

Always make sure your house is as cat-friendly as possible and double-check whenever you plan on getting a new houseplant or some lovely flowers to ensure they won’t do your pet any harm.

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I hope everyone liked this post, I plan on writing more posts about Pooss and have some good ideas so stick around. If you guys ever have any post ideas or anything you would like me to write about then leave a comment down below. If you haven’t checked out last weeks post then head over there now as I talked about National Check the Chip Day!

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