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The Power of Choice Referencing a recent study that indicates pet cats might be getting short shrift in terms of environmental enrichment, Andrea Carne discusses how this essential element of feline welfare can be brought to a wider audience
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n the world of cat behavior, one word that catered to, depending on various finally seems to be gaining more factors including age, person traction is enrichment. From ality and current health sta what I have seen, more and tus. more cat guardians are coming to realize that it StressFree is no longer enough to By adding enrichment provide their cats to a cat’s environ with the basics of ment, we not food, water and shel only give them ter. As such, enrich everything they ment, or need, but go fur environmental ther by offering enrichment to be them the power exact, is also be of choice which coming more of a increases their sense of key strategy in control over their envi keeping pet cats ronment and improves © Can Stock Photo /cynoclub happy and their quality of life and A recent survey indicated that only approximately 7% of Australian cat guardians use a feeding toy as an healthy, both builds confidence. In doing enrichment tool for their pet physically so, we aim to have the and mentally. happy consequence of keeping their stress levels and all the stressrelated health problems to a Enrichment minimum. If we look at it in its most basic form, enrichment may be defined as It’s a pretty powerful word, then – enrichment – and, as a behavior “the act of improving the quality or power of something by adding consultant, I use it as my number one tool when it comes to helping something else.” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). Now, let’s place that in solve cat behavior issues. Whether it’s inappropriate toileting, aggres the context of a pet cat’s home environment. By enriching a cat’s envi sion in a multicat household, rough play or any other number of issues, ronment, we are adding things which improve the quality of that envi adding or increasing enrichment to the environment is a key part of any ronment for the cat. behavior modification program. Get the environment right and behav While environmental enrichment is all encompassing and does in ioral issues will often dramatically decrease or be eliminated altogether. clude the basic resources of food, water, toileting areas and resting So having said all this, the question I’d like to ask is this: Is the aver places, it also pays attention to the type, number and locations of these age cat guardian aware of the importance of environmental enrich resources. For example, a basic environment has food delivered in a ment? Unfortunately, a recently released study involving Australian cat food bowl. An enriched environment offers food in lots of different ways guardians indicates they are not (Lawson et al., 2019). In actual fact, the including puzzles, dispensing toys and treasure hunts. A basic environ study found that even the most basic of environmental needs of pet ment has a single litter tray in one corner of a room. An enriched envi cats are not always being met (Lawson et al., 2019). These findings were ronment has several litter trays, appropriate to the number of cats in based on an online survey that investigated lifestyle factors and the pro the household, located in private spots throughout the house and vision of environmental resources. The survey received responses from cleaned regularly. 12,010 cat guardians across Australia – and, in my opinion, the results Enrichment also covers things like play, human interaction, hiding may alarm anyone involved in the fields of cat behavior and welfare. places, vertical space and opportunities to explore natural cat behaviors Basic Resources – in a variety of different ways which offer choice and variety. It needs Of particular concern, the study found that litter tray management to be individualized to each cat in the home to ensure all needs are
...a basic environment has food delivered in a food bowl. An enriched environment offers food in lots of different ways including puzzles, dispensing toys and treasure hunts. A basic environment has a single litter tray in one corner of a room. An enriched environment has several litter trays, appropriate to the number of cats in the household, located in private spots throughout the house and cleaned regularly.
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BARKS from the Guild/May 2020