Helping Your Pets to Stay In Shape and Active

When it is warm outside in the summer months it is easy to get your pets motivated to exercise. Getting them to move in the winter when it’s cold is much harder. We all like to stay indoors when it’s cold and wet, but an inactive pet could mean health problems.

Tips to Help Keep Your Cat Active

Outdoor cats are hunters, and love to bring you presents in the form of birds, mice or even a rabbit and leave them on the doorstep. These days, because the roads are busier, and for many other reasons people are keeping their cats indoors. Keeping them inside does limit their space to explore and chase around. So, they shouldn’t be left to get lazy.

Cats like people, and many other kinds of animal, like company. So, if it is possible have at least one more other cat in the family, any other pet or try not to leave them alone for too long. If you work long hours, and they will be left for a long time on their own, it may not be the right time to have a cat. This is not always possible, so if you have to leave your pet for a few hours, always make time to play with them at least twice a day. Not only will this be a good bonding exercise, but it will give your four legged friend exercise, too.

Not all pets, and especially cats, are toy lovers. In any case, if they are going to be left leave some toys for them to play with in case they want to. You don’t have to spend a fortune on toys for your cat. If you are a knitter, you no doubt will have some spare wool around somewhere. If you don’t have any wool, a piece of thread or even some rope will be just as much fun.

Cats love to climb, whether they are domesticated or wild. If you don’t want them climbing all over the furniture, scratching or pulling threads get them a climbing frame suitable for a cat. These are also excellent get away places for your cat if there are children or other animals in the house.

If your cat will play with toys, a good one from experience, is a rubber ball with a bell in it. They love things that jingle, or make a noise so this will give your cat hours of fun.

Therefore, you don’t have to worry whether your indoor cat is getting any exercise or not. Find them items in the house that will keep them occupied and you are on to a winner.

If you are looking for some ebooks to help you learn about cat care, try our set of Loving your Cat books.