KEY1 Basic ——Fundamentals of a Cat-Friendly Home · Part 1
· Adapting Cats to New Environments: A Gradual and Careful Approach
The process of changing an environment for a cat should be slow and careful. Adult cats (those over one year old) spend a large portion of their time sleeping. On average, they sleep for 14 to 16 hours a day, or even more. This is why they often appear lazy, napping constantly. Aside from sleeping, the rest of their time is spent eating, using the litter box, playing, or simply lounging in their favorite and familiar spots. From this, we can observe that cats have very predictable routines, making it more difficult for them to adjust when their environment changes, especially compared to other pets.
If you are doing partial renovations at home, it’s recommended to move the litter box and food bowl gradually. Experts suggest moving them a few centimeters at a time. Similarly, furniture should be changed in small increments over time. When moving to a new home, it’s best to place the cat and its essential belongings in one small room, allowing it to become familiar with the new environment. Some more curious cats, especially those with active personalities, might not be able to resist exploring the new surroundings after just a few hours! However, it’s not advisable to confine the cat, water, food, and litter box all together in a cage. This is not a recommended option for settling them into a new place.
Designing for Heights and Hidden Spaces: What Cats Love
As mentioned earlier, cats have a very regular biological clock. Aside from sleeping, they tend to spend time in places where they feel safe and comfortable. Typically, these are high places or spaces where they can hide their bodies—areas that are highly favored by cats. Additionally, since cats have a strong sense of territory, when there are two or more cats in a household, it’s important to minimize overlap in their essential items (water, food, litter box, etc.) and their movement paths. This can help prevent conflicts and reduce stress for the cats.
· Finding Security from Above: The Comfort of Heights for Cats
Like lions, leopards, and other carnivorous felines, domestic cats have retained their hunting instincts even today. They need to stay elevated to observe their “prey” clearly. While herbivorous animals move horizontally to graze, carnivorous cats excel in vertical movements, jumping up and down.
Therefore, in residential design, instead of focusing solely on the width of horizontal spaces, it’s more beneficial to create vertical pathways for cats, while ensuring their movement paths are separate from those of the humans in the household. This allows cats to establish their own safe territory. I would recommend incorporating cat shelves or climbing structures in the design, combined with windows, so that the cats can enjoy the feeling of being able to look down from above.
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