The 5 pillars of feline health and welfare: A cat friendly home
A cat’s environment plays a vital role in their physical and emotional wellbeing. By understanding the five pillars of feline health and how they relate to your home, you can help your cat feel safe, confident, and fulfilled.
1. Providing Opportunities for Play and Predatory Behaviour
Cats are both predators and prey, which means they naturally seek height and safe vantage points. Kittens in particular love to climb, and being up high helps them feel secure while also offering mental and physical enrichment.
What you can do:
Provide sturdy, well-anchored cat trees that are appropriate for your cat’s size and weight.
Install cat-friendly shelves to create vertical space.
Ensure climbing structures are placed away from curtains to prevent accidental climbing mishaps.
Encourage interactive play using toys such as feather wands (always supervise and put them away after use).
Simple household items like paper bags can be great fun—just be sure handles are removed to avoid entanglement.
What to avoid:
Avoid using hands, feet, or dangling jewellery as toys. Kittens that learn this behaviour may continue it into adulthood, when their bites and scratches can be far more painful.
2. Providing a Safe Place
When cats feel threatened or overwhelmed, their instinct is to flee. If escape isn’t possible, stress levels can rise significantly. Every cat should have access to a quiet, private, and warm space where they can retreat.
Ideas for safe spaces:
An upturned cardboard box with two exit points.
A covered “cave” style bed, especially important in multi-cat households.
Space under a bed with a blanket draped over to create privacy.
Baby gates can be helpful to keep children or visitors from disturbing a resting cat—cats should never be stared at or approached when hiding.
3. Multiple and Separate Key Environmental Resources
Cats experience the world largely through scent, and strong smells can impact their behaviour and health. Food odours can contaminate water sources, discouraging cats from drinking enough, which may affect urinary health.
Best practices include:
Avoid the “double bowl” method where food and water are placed together.
Use ceramic or stainless-steel bowls rather than plastic, which can retain odours.
Consider water fountains, as some cats prefer running water.
Keep food, water, and litter trays well separated—just as we wouldn’t want to eat in the bathroom, neither do cats.
Litter trays placed discreetly in cupboards or accessed via a cat flap may work well, particularly in multi-cat homes.
4. Respecting a Cat’s Sense of Smell
Cats use scent to communicate and feel secure in their environment. When they rub their cheeks along furniture or door frames (called bunting), they are marking their territory with familiar scent.
How to support this:
Be mindful when using strong cleaning products or furniture polish, as these can remove scent
Provide scratching posts in both vertical and horizontal styles. Scratching helps cats deposit scent, stretch their muscles, and maintain healthy claws.
5. Providing Positive and Consistent Social Interaction
Cats thrive when they are given choice, control, and consent in social interactions.
Forced handling, such as being restrained in a backpack or unable to move away, can be highly stressful.
Allow your cat to approach you on their own terms.
Respect their signals and boundaries—positive interactions build trust and confidence over time.
If you want help and support then you may find my advice sessions helpful.