Do you remember Garfield – that iconic, striped fat, orange tomcat that always sits in front of the TV and does nothing but eat lasagna?
You might think he’s the ideal image of a cute indoor cat – but an overweight and lazy feline can face a multitude of health risks.
While it is certainly not cruel to keep your cat indoors, they will need exercise lest they end up overweight, sluggish, or worse, unhealthy.
The good news is that there are many ways to exercise an indoor cat and keep your feline friend from becoming a real-life version of Garfield.
Even veterinarians recommend these indoor cat exercises to ensure that your cat stays healthy until its old age.
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1. Use a Cat Tower
Cat towers come in many heights and designs. A three-tiered cat tower is common in pet supply stores and makes for a good exercise for your cat. Your beloved kitty can jump, climb, run, and scratch on the tower while looking for treats, too!
These can save your upholstery from getting scratched and damaged. Choose a cat tower with many perches, scratching surfaces, and hideaways. It should also be made of soft faux fur and sturdy plywood. A rope can be an additional accessory.
2. Try Some Homemade Cat Toys
Cats are snobbish by nature compared to dogs, but they definitely won’t say no to a ball of yarn, balled-up pipe cleaners, or ping-pong balls. They even play with plastic bottle caps (just be careful they don’t eat them!). Just make sure the toys are not small enough to be swallowed.
For the budget-conscious, homemade toys are the best alternative. Examples of these toys are catnip yarn balls, toilet paper roll cat toy, a makeshift cat transit system, a cardboard palace or your could even make a cat toy from your old socks.
Throw the toy at a certain distance, or hold the yarn up and play catch with your kitty.
3. Exercise Using a Cat Laser Pointer
laser pointers can provide good exercise and entertainment for your cat. However, make sure that you don’t shine the laser dot directly into your cat’s eyes as it could cause retina damage. Laser pointers are best used in moderation because they can cause your cat to become frustrated with never being able to catch the red dot!
You can certainly use the laser beam as a springboard to set your feline companion into action, but this should be followed up with another toy so your cat won’t get fixated on the red dot.
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4. “Magic” Cat Wands
Wands are also one of the most enjoyable toys for cats as they provide interactive play. Attach a mouse, feather, or any other diversion at the end of the wand, and swish it around your cat. It makes for a fabulous exercise (your cat won’t ever get tired!), whose challenge you can modify from time to time. For example, you can run the wand up the stairs, hover it on the cat tower, or just wiggle it up and down the sofa.
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5. Exercise Wheels
How to exercise an indoor cat? Give your cat a taste of a human workout by making it run on a cat exercise wheel. You could choose from various types of exercise wheels and treadmills. Some exercise wheels are simple mechanisms: two rollerblade wheels and a base to keep the exercise wheel in place. Another type integrates the wheel and a cat tower, which includes food storage, scratching posts, and litter for the cats. Exercise wheels may also be customized and handcrafted to give them a unique feel. Meanwhile, you can also create a DIY cat wheel from a bicycle wheel—it’s artsy and cost-effective, no less!
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6. Get Them A Friend To Exercise With
A cat can be solitary most of the time, but it may also want a feline companion to play with. Cats love wrestling and running around, so having two or three cats in the house can provide each of them the exercise they need. Even just a pair can already give both pets plenty of exercise and you may even not need fancy cat towers anymore.
7. Obstacle Courses
An elaborate obstacle course is perfect for your cats, basically because they have to climb, run, or just jump high over boxes, books, and pillows. You could create them anytime, but it’s more fun if your home has been designed that way.
Instead of having flaps at the bottom of the kitchen door, you could make cats enter and exit on a windowsill (cats can jump from a certain height, so don’t worry about them not being able to get down), you could even incorporate a cat tunnel into your course.
If you happen to naturally keep stacks of books beside you, you can give your cats a healthy exercise by chasing them –or them chasing a toy—as they get through the obstacle course. At any rate, make sure the vertical spaces you create are safe.
8. Hockey Rinks
Hockey rinks are another way to give your cats a fun and interactive play. You could put a ball in a big cardboard box to create your makeshift hockey rink. The ball should fly off the walls and your cat should chase it in return.
9. Try Some Catnip
Catnip toys can be great for some cats, but remember that some cats won’t respond to them. On the other hand, cats may get aggressive or go bonkers once they’ve smelled catnip. An option is to create a catnip-looking toy from yarn or crocheted material.
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This way, your cat won’t get sedated, or worse, crazy, even when they play with the catnip for extended hours.
10. Food & Water Workout
Perhaps a lazy indoor cat needs a tried-and-tested motivation: food and water. You may want to strategically place its food and water in places where it will have to walk or run first. You could also separate its food and water bowls to give your cat a bit of exercise in between meals. Food trails might just work, too.
Although it is in the nature of cats to sleep a lot, this isn’t enough excuse for them not to move. Help them exercise indoors so they can remain healthy, active, and entertained. We hope you and your cat enjoy trying out some of these exercise ideas!
11. Try Cat TV
If your cat has a high prey drive then cat TV can be a great way of stimulating them.
Cat’s with high prey drives tend to be the type of cats who spend a lot of time chattering at birds through the window.
If your cat has a high prey drive then they may be interested in watching some cat TV. Shows that feature birds, mice or balls moving across the screen can all be very stimulating to cats, causing them to focus intently looking for movement.
Be aware some cats may pounce and swipe at the screen so make sure your TV is well secured before trying this.
If normal TV doesn’t work there are also countless videos for cats on YouTube as well as apps for cats that allow them to catch fish and mice.
How Much Exercise Do Cats Need?
Some daily exercise and a healthy dose of interactive play may save your cat from certain health risks. Cats need consistency to be healthy and for the exercise to actually manifest any benefits. However, even veterinarians have various takes on exactly how much exercise you should subject your pet to. The only logical baseline would be your cat’s weight.
This means an overweight cat should be given more exercise than a regular cat. The starting point could be 10 minutes each day, but you could add a few more minutes in the succeeding days. In general, having a total of 30 minutes of exercise is good enough to keep your cats healthy.
Since cats are normally energetic and active in short periods of time, having three minutes of playtime a couple of times a day would be ideal. Some exercises and interactive play may be scheduled in the morning, and the rest could be done in the evening.
There should be no problem in engaging kittens to play, as they usually initiate it. Kittens also have a surprising amount of energy to continue playing even after 15 plus minutes. Older and overweight cats, in contrast, are harder to coax. Most adult cats would just lounge around and sleep, so they need a lot of distractions and enjoyable exercise.
Compared to outdoor cats, indoor cats don’t get the required exercise they should really get. Cats love to hunt, so you can give indoor cats the same feel and atmosphere as a cat’s natural habitat outside. You can set up makeshift trees for them to climb, or obstacles for them to tackle. Be sensitive around your cat. If he starts to get sluggish or bored and begins seeking your attention, get his toys and start playing with him. Make sure that interactive play lasts for not less than 10 minutes.
How To Exercise a Fat Cat?
The first thing to consider is the intensity of the activity your cat will go through; he should have at least one object to climb or jump onto. A cat should be able to stretch, scratch, and run daily. Because fat cats may feel they are dragging their bodies when they walk, making them run all of a sudden could prove to be challenging.
It would be best to start with low-tech interactive toys. Gather your ping-pong balls, yarn, feathers, and any lightweight object that could move fast. These are good distractions for your pet. If he gets interested in the toy, make sure you hold the object high, or you throw it at some distance, to compel the cat to exert a little more effort.
Another good exercise for obese cats would be making them walk up and down the stairs, or creating an elaborate cat tower for them to climb. Obesity often translates to laziness, so forcing your cat to run on the treadmill might scare him off instead of coaxing him to exercise. You can lure the cat with food as you make him walk or run. Taking your cat to an agility competition is also a helpful and effective exercise.
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What good, practical advice!
Something my cats love are the wild oats that grow on long stems near the river. Holding them by the stem and letting the small oats scurry across the rug makes them crazy! They don’t try to eat them at all, or even chew on them, it’s just the chasing.
Hoping it works for you,
Karen
Hi Tux
My Cat Reginald is already obese from being so lazy and eating too much, do you have any recommended exercises as a starter for 10 for cats who are already a bit fat and some food thats low on calories?
I think some of the above exercises would be a bit too much for Reg at this stage
Keep up the good work
Ron
Hi Ron,
The best way of helping your cat to lose weight is by restricting their calorie intake. Slowly introduce more exercise into their schedule as they lose weight so that you don’t risk damaging their joints.
A really simple idea is to take the (reduced) food and hide it bit by bit around the house. This will both reduce their calorie intake and help them burn off some calories as they look for it.
Hope that helps!