Environmental enrichment choices of shelter cats

Choices made by cats between different types of environmental enrichment may help shelters to prioritize how to most effectively enrich cat housing, especially when limited by space or funds. This study investigates the environmental enrichment use of cats in a choice test. Twenty-six shelter cats were kept singularly in choice chambers for 10 days. Each chamber had a central area and four centrally-linked compartments containing different types of environmental enrichment: 1) an empty control, 2) a prey-simulating toy, 3) a perching opportunity, and 4) a hiding opportunity. Cat movement between compartments was quantitatively recorded using a data-logger. Enriched compartments were visited significantly more frequently during the light period than during the dark period. Cats spent a significantly greater percentage of time in the hiding compartment (median = 55%, IQR = 46) than in the toy compartment (median = 2%, IQR = 9), or in the empty control compartment (median = 4%, IQR = 4). These results provide additional evidence to support the value of a hiding box to cats housed in a novel environment, in that they choose hiding relative to other types of environmental enrichment.