Environmental enrichment for indoor cats

Herron and Buffington reviewed the principles and practice of environmental enrichment for indoor-housed cats, translating research on feline behaviour and stress physiology into practical recommendations. They emphasized providing for cats' core needs, including opportunities to perform natural behaviours such as scratching, climbing, hiding and predatory play, multiple and separated resources, and predictable, positive human interaction, all framed to reduce stress-related illness like feline idiopathic cystitis. The review described how barren or stressful indoor environments contribute to behaviour problems and disease, and how thoughtful enrichment of the physical and social environment improves welfare and health. Aimed at veterinarians and owners, it became an influential, accessible synthesis underpinning the now-standard advice that indoor cats require deliberate environmental enrichment to thrive, and it complements consensus guidelines on feline environmental needs.