Indoor Cat or Outdoor Cat: You Must Choose
Filed Under Cat Health, Cat Safety |
Whether your cat should be an indoor cat or outdoor cat is one of the more controversial and important decisions you will have to make as a cat owner. How do you balance the needs and safety of a Happy Healthy Cat in juxtaposition to its desires? Will your cat be content with cat climbing furniture or cat climbing trees for exercise? Will it be content in cat condos houses or cat condos with stairs for that extra exercise? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an indoor cat as opposed to being an outdoor cat?
Outdoor Cats
Sometimes we forget that our little friends are (semi)domesticated wild animals. They are still built to the same specifications as a wild cat is. They have the urge to hunt and chase down prey. They like to observe the local wildlife. If you give them the chance to be an outdoor cat, they'll proudly bring you back a carcass, proof of their skill.
The downside is of course that it's a dangerous world out there for outdoor cats. They will not be the top predators, and wolves / coyotes / dogs would be more than happy to attack outdoor cats. There are diseases and infections they can catch. Traffic is very dangerous to animals of all types. Sometimes the worst predator can be other people as well.
Indoor Cats
Indoor cats give up some of their adventure for safety. They have a certain food supply. The dangerous traffic they face will be people feet, which are far more forgiving and soft than cars. Plus, they're fun to attack! A wide variety of toys exist for their "playing with prey" pleasure. It is harder for an indoor cat to remain truly active, but ways exist to help them exercise. An obvious counterpart to this is not overfeeding your cat, of course. They will always be a little sad not to be out in nature, chasing down prey.
Your indoor cat can always find a window to perch on cat climbing furniture or cat climbing trees and look out of the window at nature. They can sit in their cat condos houses or cat condos with stairs to climb. There's a wide variety out there but you can usually find cheap cat condos online. These indoor cat vs. outdoor cat concerns will be important to consider in order to keep your cat a Happy Healthy Cat.
Tags: cat climbing furniture, cat climbing trees, cat condos houses, cat condos with stairs, cheap cat condos, fat catRelated posts
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