Jacklyn J. Ellis, Katherine Miller, and Katie Watts Separation from what is familiar coupled with exposure to an unfamiliar environment, especially to a species that is often poorly socialized to novel environments, makes shelters particularly stressful for cats. Although not all stress is bad, prolonged stress without the ability to escape or engage in normal coping mechanisms can have deleterious effects on a cat’s health, lead to the development of lasting behavioral problems, and result in a lower likelihood of adoption. Environmental enrichment can improve a cat’s perception of their environment, resulting in a reduced stress response. Space and resources in a shelter can be limited, so careful consideration of how to employ enrichment effectively and efficiently is key to the success of any enrichment program. A standard program of enrichment should be provided for all cats, while a more diverse range of enrichment opportunities may be prioritized to meet the needs of individuals expressing certain behaviors or health concerns or that have longer projected lengths of stay. It is also key to assess the impact of enrichment efforts so as to continually optimize the quality of the program overall and its impact on the well‐being of each individual. The primary role of an animal shelter is to find appropriate outcomes for the animals in their care. However, within that role they have the responsibility to provide for the medical and psychological needs of the animals until outcomes can be finalized. Despite our best efforts, the shelter can be a stressful place. The activation of the stress response largely revolves around the perception of a situation by the individual. The use of enrichment can reduce or eliminate the associated stress by influencing the way the individual appraises its circumstances. The term environmental enrichment can be defined as any addition to an animal’s environment resulting in an increase in the environment’s quality, and a subsequent improvement to the animal’s well‐being. Environmental enrichment can influence whether or not an animal perceives a situation as stressful by helping them to habituate to stimuli they do find risky, or by coping with these stimuli by facilitating concealment or escape. It can also reduce boredom by providing stimulation and opportunities for interaction. Some scholars maintain that the term should be reserved for additions that are made to the environment after the physiological and behavioral needs of the animal are met and should not be used to refer to changes that result in a reduction of stress‐related behavior (Duncan and Olsson 2001), but that debate is largely academic. Shelters should—at a minimum—focus on providing whatever is within their means to improve the well‐being of the animals in their care, with a priority given to reducing signs of fear and stress, and then providing positive experiences whenever possible. From the moment a cat enters a shelter, it is challenged by a broad range of potential, unavoidable stressors. These include the following (Morgan and Tromborg 2007): The cats in shelters tend to have a wide range of socialization histories with people, ranging from former house pets to free‐roaming, unsocialized cats (Clancy and Rowan 2003; Levy et al. 2003; Slater 2004). Many pet cats have never left the house before, while many free‐roaming cats have never been indoors. Depending on experience, genetics, age, personality, and the shelter environment itself, cats may respond to confinement in a shelter with varying levels of distress. Their stress levels can take more than two weeks to return to baseline (Kessler and Turner 1997, 1999), and some, especially unsocialized cats, will never adapt. Distress in sheltered cats is often characterized by reduced activity, withdrawal, and motivation to hide (usually in the litterbox or under bedding if no suitable concealment area is available). Stressed cats often feign sleep, which is easily mistaken for relaxation. Distressed cats are tense and so may be hypervigilant, destructive, defensively aggressive, or escape‐oriented. Overgrooming, decreased grooming, panting, and excessive drooling may also be signs of distress, as can failure to eat or use the litterbox during daytime hours. Some distressed cats refuse to eat or drink, while others will urinate or defecate where they lie rather than move from their hiding spot or bed to use the litterbox. Even cats who are withdrawn during the day may throw their cage into disarray at night when no people are around, apparently seeking to escape (see Griffin and Hume 2006 for a review of fear and stress behaviors). Youngsters and active adult cats can quickly find confinement to be understimulating, leading them to make playthings out of any item in their cage. Shelter staff may find them batting playfully at grains of cat litter or the water in their dish, overturning their bowls or litterbox, chewing or tearing bedding, or reaching their paws through the bars of the cage when people pass by. Such boredom behavior can also include biting or scratching caretakers’ or visitors’ hands or legs as though toys or prey, making it difficult or even dangerous to clean the cage or handle the cat, and potentially result in increased length of stay due to bite quarantine periods or even euthanasia. Cats displaying fearful, avoidant, defensive, destructive, or aggressive play behaviors are likely to have difficulty attracting adopters (Gourkow and Fraser 2006; Weiss et al. 2012). Furthermore, research indicates that stressed cats are at increased risk of physical illness (Tanaka et al. 2012; Stella et al. 2013) that can further increase their length of stay or increase risk of euthanasia. Also, any animal with a prolonged experience in a chronically barren environment may be subject to lasting detriments to brain structure and function (Rosenzweig and Bennett 1996), a welfare concern both during and after a cat’s stay in a shelter. While research examining the efficacy of environmental enrichment to improve the welfare of shelter cats is still sparse, clearly stress and deprivation can reduce a cat’s quality of life (both physically and psychologically) and its chance of successful adoption. Stress in shelters is not limited to the animals, however. Shelter staff are likewise regularly exposed to stressors; high turnover and compassion fatigue are common. The creation of an environmental enrichment program is one way to heighten morale by increasing positive interaction between cats and staff, which can reduce stress for both (Carlstead et al. 1993). Interacting with one’s own cat has been shown to improve negative moods. Cats have even been found to be sensitive to human depressive moods and are more likely to initiate interactions and rub against owners when they are exhibiting them (Turner 2017). It is reasonable to suggest these benefits could be extended to interacting with shelter cats. The effects of enrichment can extend to adopters as well, who seem to show a preference for cats that are more active or housed in more interesting environments (Fantuzzi et al. 2010). Enrichment can also facilitate positive interactions between cats and adopters (e.g., through play with interactive toys), helping adopters to bond with a cat while encouraging the cats to approach, important factors in the choice to adopt (Dybdall and Strasser 2011; Weiss et al. 2012). For ease, scientists often think about enrichment in several categories. Different systems of categorization are used in different texts. Ultimately, the idea that every environmental enrichment item falls into one of these categories is false—many items fit into more than one of these categories. However, the purpose of these categories is to help get caregivers thinking about the range of ways they can improve an animal’s environment, and to help brainstorm innovative ways to improve the environment’s quality. Structural enrichment is probably the most basic type of enrichment when considering the environment in which an animal lives but can go a long way to helping meet their needs if thoughtfully used. This category refers to all architectural aspects of an animal’s environment including space, materials, furnishings, and the organization of these components. See Chapter 16 for further discussion of optimizing feline housing for behavioral well‐being. Confinement to small spaces can be one of the biggest stressors a cat faces in a shelter, as it limits the cat’s ability to flee from perceived threats. Increasing the space available can decrease stress by allowing for the behavioral coping strategy of fleeing. The easiest way to increase the space available to a shelter cat is to house it in a foster home. This is recommended for all cats, unless prohibited by medical (i.e., requires continued ongoing treatment and/or monitoring that cannot be provided by a foster home) or behavioral (e.g., cat is unsocialized to people and unsuitable for a traditional home environment) reasons, or if the cat has a short projected length of stay and can be fast‐tracked for adoption. At very least, space requirements should allow for separate functional areas for resting, eating/drinking, elimination, and locomotion. See Chapter 16 for more information on feline housing. Providing hiding opportunities to shelter cats is crucial. When available, cats engage with them at very high rates. Both Vinke et al. (2014) and Ellis et al. (2021) found that when provided a hiding box, shelter cats will spend approximately 50% of their time inside. Using a preference test, Ellis et al. (2017) found that cats chose to spend significantly more time in the compartment containing a hiding box than in the compartment containing other types of enrichment (a motion‐activated toy or an elevated shelf). The ability to conceal themselves from perceived threats is an important behavioral coping mechanism for stressed cats, and the provision of a hiding box can greatly reduce stress in shelter cats. Vinke et al. (2014), van der Leij et al. (2019), and Kry and Casey (2007) all found that cats who were provided a hiding opportunity had significantly lower Cat‐Stress‐Scores than the control group, while Kry and Casey also found that cats with a hiding box were significantly more likely to approach a researcher during an approach test and slept restfully significantly more often than the control group. Ellis et al. (2021) found that cats provided with a hiding opportunity had significantly lower fecal glucocorticoid metabolites and greater food intake than cats who were provided with an elevated shelf or the control group. There are a range of ways that hiding opportunities can be provided for shelter cats, including cardboard boxes (such as the Hide, Perch & Go™ box [British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada], which can also be used as a carrier in which to send the cat home), carriers, or hanging curtains across cage fronts. Elevated areas, such as shelves or other platforms, have been described as essential for cats’ well‐being (Rochlitz 1999). Shelves or perches provide environmental complexity and the opportunity for active behavior as well as vantage points from which cats can monitor their surroundings (Ellis 2009) and could play a key role in exhibiting vigilance to cope with novel circumstances. Podberscek et al. (1991) found that communally housed laboratory cats spent 58% of their resting time on elevated shelves, and Ellis et al. (2014) found that after their initial habituation period, singly housed cats spent 53% of their time on elevated shelves. These findings suggest that elevated perches are a resource of value to confined cats, and that their inclusion in enclosure design may be important. Many standard shelter cages come equipped with a shelf, but additional shelves can be added by including cardboard boxes (such as the Hide, Perch & Go box) in cages or cat trees and/or shelving units in out‐of‐cage spaces. Scratching is a highly motivated behavior in cats; even declawed cats do it. Scratching has a variety of functions, including claw maintenance, stress reduction, stretching, exercising the muscles involved, and communicating a message—both through the visual cues their scratches leave behind and by depositing pheromones from their interdigital glands (DePorter and Elzerman 2019). Destructive scratching is usually easy to redirect if appropriate scratching surfaces are provided (Mengoli et al. 2013). Although it has not been shown to be a common behavioral reason that cats are relinquished to shelters (only 1%; Casey et al. 2009), Wilson et al. (2016) reported that preventing damage to objects in the house was the leading reason that owners elected to declaw their cats. Providing appropriate scratching surfaces in shelter may help increase the likelihood of recognizing and using these surfaces for scratching in subsequent adoptive homes. The use of appropriate scratching surfaces can be further increased if scratching options are selected that most closely align with the individual’s preferences. Zhang and McGlone (2020) found that adult cats prefer to use upright scratchers covered with cardboard or rope, and that adding catnip or silvervine to scratchers can increase its use. Zhang et al. (2019) found that kittens prefer S‐shaped cardboard scratchers. In shelters, small, disposable cardboard scratchers (such as the Stretch and Scratch, Encinitas, CA) could be hung vertically on the door for adult cats housed in cages as space is limited, and for cats housed in larger environments scratching surfaces can be provided in the form of scratching posts or as a part of a cat tree. For kittens, where possible, the inclusion of an S‐shaped scratcher is advisable. Cats in shelters spend the majority of their time inactive (91%; Ellis et al. 2014). Providing comfortable resting places can provide relief from hard surfaces; encourage cats to rest in an area away from their litterbox; permit digging and exploration (e.g., if food is tucked inside or under it); and facilitate hiding. Crouse et al. (1995) found that when provided a cushion, cats demonstrated preference by spending the vast majority of their time in a lying posture on the cushion compared to other surfaces. They also found that the provision of a cushion dramatically decreased the percentage of time they spent lying in the litter pan. Roy (1992, as cited in McCune 1995) found that cats prefer resting on materials that offer a constant temperature, and Hawthorne et al. (1995, as cited in Rochlitz 2002) found cats seem to prefer polyester fleece fabric over less textured fabrics. Importantly, Desforges et al. (2016) found that removal of an enrichment item that provided multiple resting places resulted in an increase in aggression. Thus, co‐housed cats require multiple widely spaced beds to reduce the likelihood they will be monopolized or fought over. Contrary to popular opinion, cats are a social species (Macdonald et al. 2000). Providing cats opportunities for social interaction can be an immensely effective form of enrichment, as it provides stimulation, comfort, and may also facilitate social learning. Provided a cat is socialized to humans, most find human interaction very rewarding. Shreve et al. (2017) showed that cats preferred human interaction to a biologically relevant scent, toys, and even food. More than simply an enjoyable experience, human interaction can also help reduce stress and prevent disease development in shelter cats. Rehnberg et al. (2015) found that cats provided extended social interaction (60 minutes/day) with humans had a significant reduction in Cat‐Stress‐Score from day one to day two, while cats provided standard social interaction (20 minutes/day) did not express a similar reduction. Gourkow et al. (2014) found that cats deemed “anxious” on arrival at the shelter who were “gentled” (gently pet and spoken to softly, 40 minutes/day) were more likely to be rated in a positive mood, had higher S‐IgA, and were less likely to develop upper respiratory disease than anxious cats that were not gentled. Gourkow and Phillips (2015) found similar results for cats deemed “contented” on arrival at the shelter. Liu et al. (2020) found that gentled cats were also less likely to spend time at the back of their cage, which may make them more attractive to potential adopters. Moreover, they showed this with only six to nine minutes of gentling daily. Offering cats opportunities to interact with humans on a regular basis can be time‐consuming for staff, but volunteer programs are a helpful resource for meeting the time requirements. All human contact with sheltered cats should be positive, consistent, and avoid excessive restraint. Cats less accustomed to close contact with people may prefer interaction via a toy or treat or for the person to sit nearby and simply read aloud rather than attempt physical interaction (although for well‐socialized cats there is evidence that restricting physical interaction may induce frustration; Tuozzi et al. 2021). Incorporating simple training procedures into daily caretaking is a simple way to increase positive human social interaction, desirable animal behaviors, and mental stimulation. Training techniques are discussed in Section 17.3.3.3 and in Chapter 18. Cats have a flexible social structure, whereby they can live independently or in groups, depending on availability of food and other resources (Macdonald et al. 2000). Housing cats communally can provide them with social companionship and motivation to move and play. Uetake et al. (2013) found that group housed cats spent more time in locomotion and social/solitary play than singly housed cats and tended to have lower cortisol‐to‐creatinine ratios. However, when selecting cats to house communally, it is important to consider whether they have been previously socialized to other cats. Kessler and Turner (1999) found that cats without previous socialization to other cats had significantly higher Cat‐Stress‐Scores in group housing conditions as compared to single housing. Care should also be taken to ensure group housed cats are appropriately matched by age, health, and behavioral compatibility (Newbury et al. 2010). Well‐socialized juveniles and kittens may adapt most quickly to new social groupings and can greatly benefit from the socialization and exercise that co‐housing provides. While it is advisable to avoid admitting or housing cats that are not socialized toward people in shelters at all due to the inherent stress (Kessler and Turner 1999), invariably this happens from time to time. These cats often come from colonies and therefore are likely to be socialized toward other cats and may find great comfort in communal housing. The initial introduction of unfamiliar animals is often the time of highest social tension, so integrate several newcomers at once on a weekly or biweekly basis to reduce frequency of stressful introductions (Ottway and Hawkins 2003). To reduce aggression, the new cat may be housed with food, water, bed, and litterbox in a large wire dog crate inside the communal cage for the first day or more, depending on its and the resident cats’ reactions (Griffin and Hume 2006). Use of Feliway® (CEVA Animal Health, Lenexa, KS), may ease the introduction (although see Section 17.3.4.1 on olfactory enrichment regarding evidence of efficacy). Ideally, staff will provide the chance to play and eat treats simultaneously to form initial positive associations. An elevated perch or hiding area with two exits and at least one soft bed should be provided for every socially housed individual. All such resources as well as food bowls, water bowls, and litterboxes should be spatially dispersed to minimize fighting and monopolization (Newbury et al. 2010). Staff should check on newly introduced cats multiple times during the first few hours and days to monitor for signs of bullying, fear, or aggression. While it is not generally recommended to house cats with other species, there may be circumstances where this could be beneficial to individual cats. For example, if a dog and cat are surrendered together and are reportedly bonded, housing them communally could have obvious benefits to both of their well‐being. Cognitive enrichment provides animals with opportunities to solve problems and offers some degree of control over their environment. Control may be the single most important factor in maintaining quality of life, and enrichment is an important means by which it is provided. An animal has control when it can help itself by expressing a behavior that satisfies a need. Animals without control develop unresponsiveness termed learned helplessness (Maier and Seligman 1976). It usually also offers the opportunity for the animal to earn a reward. The wild relatives of domestic cats spend a large proportion of their day seeking, obtaining, and processing food and other resources, often traveling great distances, remembering and locating past food sources and caches, exploring unfamiliar places, and learning new useful behaviors. Foraging and hunting are means of gaining sustenance as well as gathering information about the environment. Confined animals have few options to occupy themselves in this way, which may result in frustration, lethargy, and weight gain. Foraging enrichment offers opportunities for mental and physical activity and can be part of an enhanced activity program for overweight cats (Clarke et al. 2005). Reduction in food intake is a common sign of stress in shelter cats (Ellis et al. 2014; Tanaka et al. 2012), so it is advisable to provide food in a bowl until a cat has demonstrated that it is eating an acceptable amount of food. Once acceptable food intake has been established, food can be offered in a puzzle feeder. Ideally, food delivery will mimic cats’ natural feeding strategy, which is to hunt, chase, grab, bat, or pounce to obtain multiple small meals (Young 2003). The device should be difficult enough so that the cat is not able to get all the food out at once but not so difficult that they give up. The Aikiou Stimulo Cat Activity Feeding Center (Aïkiou, Quebec, Canada; see Figure 17.1) or Catit® Senses 2.0 Digger (Catit, catit.com) are good options for dry food, because cats are only able to get a few kibbles at a time, tubes of different lengths can be used to increase/decrease the difficulty, and they are easily cleaned. For wet food, ice cube trays can be a quick and easy way to increase the length of a meal and the mental/physical effort required for the cat to access the food. There are also many inexpensive and easy DIY ways to increase the stimulation cats get from meal time, such as scattering food in bedding or shredded paper, hiding it in nooks and crannies, creating a scent trail with tuna juice to a hidden meal, tucking food into wads of paper or empty paper towel rolls, or freezing canned food inside empty plastic bottle caps or halves of plastic Easter eggs to make it a moving, lickable challenge. Making creative forms of foraging enrichment is usually an appealing project to shelter volunteers. Cats vary in their motivation and skill to work for their food, however, so if food is provided solely or primarily through foraging devices, monitor to ensure each cat consumes its daily ration. Clean and disinfect foraging devices before reuse to limit disease transmission. Figure 17.1 Feeding enrichment with the use of a puzzle feeder (Stimulo Cat Activity Feeding Center, Aïkiou, Quebec, Canada). Source: Courtesy of Jacklyn J. Ellis and Toronto Humane Society. Play can be a fantastic way to reduce boredom, increase physical activity, and help a cat gain confidence in its surroundings. The traditional shelter environment does not inherently stimulate play but providing toys can help increase this behavior. Toys can be separated into two categories: interactive toys that require human participation (such as wand toys), and solo‐play toys (such as balls or felt mice). In a toy preference test, Denenberg (2003) found cats played for longer with interactive toys, likely because the movement of the toy generated by the human simulated prey and stimulated a range of natural behaviors (such as pounce, stalk, bat). Interactive toys should be available to people interacting with cats at shelters as they likely confer the most benefit to cats, but these toys should not be left in the cat’s enclosures, as they often contain components that could be dangerous for the cat to have access to while unsupervised (e.g., they could consume the string portion of a wand toy). Solo‐play toys tend to stimulate less interest from cats but should be available at all times to increase environmental complexity and allow for play from those cats that are interested. Cats seem to prefer small to large toys (de Monte and Le Pape 1997) but solo‐play toys should not be so small that ingestion of these items is possible. Cats can habituate to and grow bored of toys surprisingly quickly (Hall et al. 2002) so a daily toy rotation of appropriate toys is recommended to increase interest. Fantuzzi et al. (2010) found that active cats were more likely to be adopted, so if the presence of toys in the cage does stimulate more play this may increase the cat’s chances of adoption. However, the authors also found that potential adopters spend more time looking at cats with toys in the cage, regardless of activity levels. So even without the increase in play, the presence of these toys may aid in adoption. Training can provide mental exercise to cats who are eager to work to earn kibble or treats or to play with a toy. Training can also encourage physical exercise, for example, by teaching cats to walk on a harness and leash or perform tricks. Shy animals can be taught to touch their nose or cheek to an outstretched target or approach the front of the cage for a treat. Handling, husbandry, and veterinary procedures can be eased through desensitization and counter‐conditioning training to change the animal’s perception of these experiences from aversive to positive (see Figure 17.2). The stress inherent in animal shelters can make learning more difficult, and training can be considered too time‐consuming, but Kogan et al. (2017
17
Feline Enrichment
17.1 Introduction
17.2 The Value of EnvironmentalEnrichment
17.2.1 Value for the Cats
17.2.2 Value for the Staff and Adopters
17.3 Categories of Enrichment
17.3.1 Structural Enrichment
17.3.1.1 Enclosure Size
17.3.1.2 Hiding Opportunities
17.3.1.3 Elevated Perches
17.3.1.4 Scratching Surfaces
17.3.1.5 Resting Places with Soft Bedding
17.3.2 Social Enrichment
17.3.2.1 Interaction with Humans
17.3.2.2 Interaction with Other Cats
17.3.2.3 Interaction with Other Species
17.3.3 Cognitive Enrichment
17.3.3.1 Feeding Enrichment
17.3.3.2 Toys
17.3.3.3 Training
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