Cat’s love to hunt; it’s in their basic nature, but this is something that indoor cats don’t get to take advantage of. If your cat never goes outside, how can you allow him (or her) to do one of the most basic things cats need to thrive? You might consider using Doc & Phoebe’s Indoor No-Bowl Cat Feeders.
Here’s some back story: I had an indoor cat for years; her name was Avah. She was a dear friend to me; she got me through some really tough times, and I always knew I could count on her for comfort and affection.
Avah never went outside, and for the most part, she seemed very happy and healthy until she was about 5. For some inexplicable reason (at least, to me and to her vet), at some point during her fifth year, she simply stopped thriving.
Avah’s coat grew patchy because she was constantly over-grooming herself, and she lost a lot of weight. She would hide out in my closet for days; once, she even peed in there. The best way I can describe her behavior at that point would be depressed bordering on listless. I took her to the vet multiple times, but the vet could never find anything that was physically wrong with Avah. At the vet’s recommendation, we tried changing her food, we tried engaging her in all manner of play, and eventually, we tried giving her the equivalent of kitty Prozac.
Nothing helped.
One day, I opened the back door and she ran out. I live on a ranch, and I knew that she would be safe so I didn’t try to stop her.
Over the next few weeks, Avah seemed to be doing better. I would go outside, and she would come to see me. She was still very thin and still sporting bald spots where she had licked herself bare, but she seemed happier. She would kill lizards and small birds, leaving them on our back step, which I accepted as gifts. I’d make a big deal about them to her, praising her prowess and lavishing her with affection. She might come inside for a little while, but before long she would yowl and claw at the door to go back outside. I get teary even remembering this.
Unfortunately, by this point, her health was not good and she never fully recovered; she never gained back the weight she should have had or stopped obsessively over grooming herself. Although Avah lived for another two years as an outside cat, I knew that something in her was broken, which in turn broke my heart.
A few years after Avah died, we adopted another cat, Hephaestus. One of the biggest changes we made to his previous all-indoor life was that once we knew that he was well aware of where his home was, we allowed Heph to be an indoor/outdoor cat. Heph is healthy, and he has a beautiful coat. I am convinced that being able to go outdoors to hunt and do all the other things cats like to do when no one’s looking have had a healthy effect on him.
But what if you live in an apartment, and your cat can’t safely ever go outdoors? What if your cat is starting to display unwanted behavior like scarfing and barfing, or peeing outside its clean litter box? How can you help?
After talking to Liz Bales, I think that Doc & Phoebe’s Indoor No-Bowl Cat Feeders might be the perfect solution.
Here’s how Doc & Phoebe’s Indoor No-Bowl Cat Feeders work. You fill five of the mouse-shaped feeders each day, and you hide them around the house. Cats have an advanced sense of smell, and they will “hunt” the food-filled mice when they are hungry. Your cat will be getting the food it needs, but it will also be getting the hunt-kill-eat play that it needs to keep it engaged and healthy.
It might take a bit of training for your cat to realize that they now have to hunt their food rather than getting it from a bowl, but once they’ve figured out the system — and cats are smart, they will figure it out — they’ll be getting the hunt-kill-eat play that they have been missing.
I asked Liz how practical hiding five “mice” around the house might be — what if you aren’t able to find the “mouse” later for refilling. She said that it’s normal behavior for cats to leave the “mice” where you can find them — presenting their “kill” to you as a gift, so to speak. That makes sense to me.
Doc & Phoebe’s Indoor No-Bowl Cat Feeders seem like a great way to allow indoor cats to get the hunt-kill-eat play that they need — with the reward of being fed after their “kill”. If you have an indoor cat, you might want to check them out.
At $39.99, the kit includes everything you need to get started; if I still had an indoor-only cat, I’d be using it.