What are some things I can do to maximize cat wellness at home?

Maximizing kitty cat wellness at home, basically environmental factors. A lot depends on the indoors or outdoors, but essentially proper nutrition, keeping them current on vaccinations, flea and tick controls, proper exercise, and playing with them. Grooming, making sure they're grooming and making sure they're on time for their vet visits is also an important factor.

You can do quite a few things, even things as simple as appropriate feeding, trying to maintain proper weight, and having a safe environment for them so they can't hurt themselves or get into things. Cats get a little trickier beyond that. Because cats can get upset and be very picky about certain things, these things can cause stress in their lives. And when cats have stress in their lives, they put stress in your lives—sometimes urinating in inappropriate places or causing other issues.

Some other critical cat-specific things have to do with litter box maintenance, how many litter boxes per number of cats in the household. The general rule is to have one more than the number of cats that you have. For some people with five cats, for example, that's a little bit much, but it’s imperative to adhere to those numbers. Also, don't have eight litter boxes lined up in the same room. If you have a three-story house, you're going to want to probably have one on each story and in different parts of the house. You're going to want to have them where the cats can feel comfortable. This isn’t always our most convenient location, as you don’t want to tuck it somewhere that a cat's scared to go or feels trapped to go. Instead, use places where the cat is comfortable and wants to go. Most cats also appreciate frequently scooped litter boxes. Don't change anything if they like their litter—don't give them newer, different litter. Some of those things can stress cats out. And when you have stressed cats, it is going to affect their wellness in general.

You should also consider enrichment. Cats like to lay around a lot and lay in the sun and enjoy things, but they also enjoy playing. Some cats like the laser pointers, having something you can interact with, having different levels, and having little cat trees or places they can climb or get away.

And then if you have a multi-species household - if you have little children, dogs, or other creatures in the house - cats want a special place to go to be away. If they feel like they need to get away from the hustle and bustle, having that place is also very important for their enrichment and their wellness in general.