Exercise for a now mostly indoor kitty?

butzie

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Butzie is becoming more and more an indoor kitty. Yeah!

I am worried that she will gain weight because she is indoors more. I don't really know what she does outdoors, but she always brought in any prey, alive, and played with it in the house.

Lately, I have been playing with her and "da bird" every day for 10 - 15 minutes and sometimes 2x per day. She also likes to somewhat terrorize the real indoor birds but they all have this truce.

I feed her a half a can of the new Friskies Select brand with the veggies, etc. I give her a handful or two of Nutro's natural choice complete care adult. She likes Greenies, but she is now much more interested in the Nutro's.

She doesn't eat people food except for a little tuna fish and what I give her she doesn't finish and I don't give her much.

Does this sound reasonable?

BTW, I tried to search this forum for exercise and indoor cats and there were so many posts related to these words that there was no room in the buffer. Never had that happen to me before.
 

mews2much

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My cats are all indoor and Sasha and Meeko have always been thin.
Give her toys to play with and she will be fine.
Mine love the fake catnip mice and balls.
 

javern

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depends on what motivates them to play, I had to try several toys to find one they really liked. Thing in a Bag and Kitty Swat are two favorites. Any toys that have a fluffy feather they like to flip in the air and chase around the house. Often they just play with a wadded up paper ball and bat it all around the house.
 

mschauer

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I feed her a half a can of the new Friskies Select brand with the veggies, etc. I give her a handful or two of Nutro's natural choice complete care adult. She likes Greenies, but she is now much more interested in the Nutro's.
I don't like the foods that contain veggies. It's just carbs that cats don't need. To keep her from gaining weight you just need to not give her a chance to overeat. When I was feeding a 50/50 diet of wet and dry, mine (all young average size adults) got 1/4 cup of dry in the morning and 3 oz of wet in the evening. Be sure the measure the dry so you don't end up giving more than you intend. Also, you might want to buy a scale. Weigh her once a month or so and if she starts gaining weight adjust her diet. I think it's a good idea to monitor their weight anyway. Weight changes are sometimes the first sign that something is wrong.
 

dragoriana

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Charlie has been indoors for 18 months, and he had to adapt after being an outdoor kitty for 9 odd years. He loves to go crazy and flip under our old couch and scratch it up
when he's just had a drink or he er...has gone to the litter then he zooms around the house and burns some energy. I also throw around little foam balls for him and he plays soccer with them. And tease him with anything pointy within reach that he can chase around in my bedroom. (he isn't too 'into' new toys)

But like most cats, he just likes to sleep around alot as well. The vet said he was the perfect weight, so i must be doing something right.

Charlie gets half a scoop of dry in the morning, then another half in the midday (we did this because he likes to wolf down too much food) and then his wet food at night which is about 1/3 or 1/4 a can.

Even though i read that they should have half or so a day, that much food would be way too much for his little stomach to handle, so i kinda don't understand.

It sounds like you're doing everything right. Maybe a little less of the wet or dry, as it seems she's doing a good amount of exercise.

But of course everyone is going to do things differently and give you different advice


She's going to get a sufficiant amount of exercise outside though, because it's on her terms


If she hasn't actually put on weight yet then i wouldn't worry too much, just see how she goes.
 

maxy24

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Get both independent toys and interactive toys so she can play by herself or with you. keep interactive toys in a drawer so they only come out during play time. Mine like to chase them up and down the cat trees, across the furniture etc. Some cats like when the toys are dragged on the ground, some like when they fly and some prefer bug like toys, tiny dots like laser pointers or the butt of a pencil dragged on the floor. They often like when kibbles are tossed across the kitchen floor for a good kibble hunt.
Remember mental excercise is just as important as physical, actually I'd say that is the greatest difference between inside and outside life. Inside things can get repetitive, no changing scents or surroundings, no searching for food or hiding spots, it's very boring. So try and make things change, bring in random boxes and throw them on the kitchen floor, when you're done put them in the garage or in a shed and bring them back another day. bring in stuff from outside so they can investigate. When it snows i bring some in for them to check out, even though sticks and rocks and such may seem the same everyday to us, who knows what new smells they may carry every day. I even let the cats sniff my food before I eat it (of course they are not ones to touch it or try and eat it so I'm safe) because they always show interest, exercising the senses is great.
You could also clicker train the cat, just for fun, to let her work her noggin to figure out how to make you click! you could teach agility too. You can use a feeder ball or even make some sort of obstacle for her to get her kibbles from. lots of things to do if you are creative.
Neko is my odd one. he does not really like toys but he plays fetch with one homemade toy and LOVES to play tag with me (we invented that long before Willie came along, Willie can't figure out how to play so it's our special game).
I'm glad you can keep your kitty inside and safe and am even more happy that you are concerned about his health in doing so, many people forget the importance of exercising their indoor kitties and forget how eventful outside can be, we need to try and recreate a little of that.
 

gailc

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Bobber seems similar to Butzie. However with our cooler climate she put on her winter weight already in October. She probably gains a couple pounds every fall and loses it in the spring when she is outside more. She does spend some time outside still but with the temps dropping and now with a winter snow storm going on she doesn't like the snow as well as when the ground is dry.
We have lots of steps in the house and she seems to get enough exercise going up and down them.
 
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