Is your indoor cat happy? Tips to make playtime more fun

While you may have made the decision to adopt a cat and keep your feline indoors to protect him or her from myriad outdoor risks, your pet may start to feel a bit stir crazy. Yours is certainly the right decision from an animal wellness standpoint, but it can limit the number of activities your feline can enjoy and may cause your companion to become a bit more lazy than you originally hoped. To keep your furry friend consistently stimulated and feel at home in your environment, follow these tips - they may help to improve your cat's quality of life.

1. Use rooms with a view to your advantage. According to Vetstreet.com, since your feline won't be venturing outside anytime soon, he or she may still love to watch birds and other wildlife outside. When you're making a few cat-friendly improvements around the house, consider extending the size of your window sills or add a few floating wall shelves near your window. This will give your cat a quiet spot to take a nap or keep a close eye on what's happening outdoors.

2. Fulfill your feline' scratching needs. Without an outdoor environment to work with, your feline may start to claw at your couches or other furnishings if you don't have an effective scratching post. You can put a few smaller posts around your living room, but a cat tree may be the best investment. This will combine many of the rope or carpeted materials that your cat loves to scratch with a series of vertical platforms that will give him or her a better view of the house. Cats love being in high places where they can survey their domain, and this is certainly one of the best ways of doing so.

3. Touches of greenery. Houseplants can be a big issue for cat parents, as some can be poisonous or spit back up very quickly. If your feline seems to be very fond of your plants, consider placing them on ceiling-mounted hooks where they will be inaccessible. Of course, rubbing up against these plants is just as important as ingesting them for your feline, so consider investing in cat grass that can be nibbled on throughout the day and can recreate what your cat is used to in the outdoors.