Mens sana in corpore sano! A sound mind in a sound body! This famous Latin phrase from the Satires of the Roman poet Juvenal also goes for us cats, too. Just like humans, we carry out a number of activities to keep ourselves physically fit and healthy. What’s more, if you keep us in good physical shape, you are assuring us a long, high-quality life at your side … which is what we all want, right?
Keeping us in good shape not only contributes to our being incredibly gorgeous, but also has a positive influence on our health. Even so, you know we’re not very active and you have to push us a bit for us to keep ourselves fit.
If you have the possibility there at home for us to be able to get outdoors, whether out in the yard or the nearby areas, we’ll be able to run, play, explore and even hunt, which would suit us just fine. But if you are apartment dwellers, which is most often the case, you’ll have to keep us entertained with games in order for us to burn calories and develop our hunting instincts.
We need to be stimulated by attention-getting toys. If they’re moving toys, all the better, because we’ll run around after them trying to catch them. I would also recommend that you put a large object in one of the rooms for us to be able to climb up on and hide. Don’t forget a scratching post where we can keep our muscles in good shape and refrain from ruining the furniture.
You must be aware of the fact that if we stay indoors all day long, we’ll very likely get bored with the toys we have, so please get us some new ones every now and then and, above all, spend at least 20 minutes a day playing with us to keep us happy. Remember that we’re intelligent pets and need your attention.
It’s also very important that you take good care of what we eat. Take our breed, age, size, lifestyle and any other aspect you think important into account for buying us the food that is best for us and give us the recommended daily amount. Avoid giving us junk food, which will only make us gain weight and end up, in many cases, with diabetes.
If we’re treat-lovers, you can always give us the treats designed specifically for cats from time to time. But, please remember that we must eat our recommended food twice a day without having our food constantly available because, if not, we’ll get chubby and our health will suffer.
