Welcome to issue #18 of Chumka’s Weekly!

Hello there furriend and happy Caturday! Sorry for missing last week’s newsletter - sometimes life just gets waay too busy! 💛

10+ ways to enrich your indoor cat's life

Here are some simple ways that you can “upgrade” your kitty’s life (indoors) - that are not scratching posts, cat tree, window watching etc…

1. Food puzzle. You can use it as “feeding bowl” or as a little extra activity. Check out my review below on our favourite kitty puzzle

2. Snuffle mat. They are almost like pet puzzles but this time your kitty needs to find the treats with his nose. Chumka LOVES his snuffle mat so it’s totally worth the “hype”. You can buy one from a pet store or make one yourself!

3. Install bird feeder. You can either hang it on a nearby tree or put one right on your window. That’s like live kitty TV haha

4.  Set up bird bath (bowl). If you don’t want to set up a feeder - it does need a regular cleaning and it also might attract rodents - you can set up a little dish for birds to bath in. Great alternative!

5. Harness train your cat. It does take time and commitment so it might not be for everyone but if you’re able to, it’s totally worth it! The only “side effect” is that your cat might become a pain to deal with when they want to go outside (everyday 🙈😂)

6. Rotate toys (and get/make new ones). Cats easily get bored with their toys and lose interest in them. It’s recommended that you store their toys out of sight and rotate them - that way you won’t need to spend $$ on getting new toys every so often. Also check out my blog post below for 12 easy ideas for $0 DIY cat toys!

7. Turn the TV on for them. I know it might sound dumb but some cats genuinely enjoy it. Chumka really gets involved with some animal/ nature documentaries haha

8. Grow cat grass. Bringing nature to the cat, rather than bringing the cat to the nature hehe. Cat grass also helps with digestion and can help with stinky poops 💩 You can get little cat grass containers online or at a local pet store

9. Switch or rotate their diet. Chumka recently went through a feeding strike because he was bored of eating the same stuff over and over again. Switching to a different brand or protein is a great way to enrich your cat’s life! It also has great benefits - it prevents developing food allergies, helps to keep gut bacteria happy and diverse, keeps a cat happy, etc.

10. Install cat shelves. Our friend David and their kitty Raja are absolute goals when it comes to cat enrichment. You should check out their Instagram for some crazy awesome videos of Raja “hunting” on the cat shelves. David even made a simple (yet really awesome) guide for building the shelves yourself! Click here to check his website and download it.

More reading material on the topic…

Did you know…

Cats are “sweet blind” - they appear to be one of the few animals on the planet that cannot taste sweetness. Although they have taste buds just like we do, the receptors on their tongues that are responsible for detecting sweetness are not particularly sensitive.

Read the study finds here

New from Chumka’s Instagram

For some reason the embedding feature (for Instagram) isn’t working. But if you want a good laugh to start your weekend with - click here to watch a hilarious compilation of Chumka’s zoomies

Some cool finds from the internet…

You know how I mentioned that you can turn the TV for your cat to enjoy? Well, there is an actual DOG TV site lol. There are so many different channels to enjoy - from relaxation to stimulation videos and live stream of all channels combined 😂

Memes to brighten your day

That’s it for this week, see you all next week for another Chumka Weekly!

~Paulina & Chumka 🐈‍⬛