Chirpy Cats | Helping cats live enriched lives with their people

How to Engage your Cat’s Foraging Instincts With This Fun Food Puzzle

cat playing with food puzzle made with egg carton

Feeding your cat with food puzzles is a wonderful enrichment activity that encourages natural foraging behavior, prevents boredom and provides mental stimulation for your cat. Your cat wants to work for food and you can show him how. Follow the below tutorial to make your cats their own cat grass puzzle feeder.

”Whatever he has on his plate must be tastier than mine,” says Charlie the cat. “I will eat a few morsels, then move onto Ollie’s plate, it looks like he has more,” says Sly Pie the little Tuxedo kitty.”
The Chirpy Cats

This is the daily suppertime scenario at the Chirpy house, or at least, this is what I think the cats are thinking. We have Mr. Food Thief Scarf and Barf Charlie trying to steal food. We have ADHD Ollie taking a bite then darting off, and Sly Pie trying to snatch Ollie’s leftovers. Yes, feeding 9 cats is like watching them playing musical chairs with their food bowls. If we’re not vigilant there’s always one cat who has eaten more than his fair share, and another cat feeling a little shortchanged.

How to Engage your Cat’s Foraging Instincts With This Fun Food Puzzle

How to Make This Unique and Simple Cat Grass Pond Using Water Beads

cat grass pond with water beads and robot fish

01/04/2020
Chirpy Cats
17 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat enrichment, cat grass, cat grass water beads, watering hole

Make this interactive grass pond for your cat using water beads to grow the cat grass. No soil needed. Dress up the grass pond with some robot fish and surprise your cat with a unique and fun cat enrichment experience.

When you find yourself stuck indoors your cats might be judging your every move… or smothering you to bits! Either way, if you’re going to do this “stay at home” thing right, there is a whole lot you can do to improve the bond between you and your cat. Sure, plenty of extra snuggles are wonderful but let’s examine a cat enrichment ‘cativitity‘ that would make your cat say, “She’s a keeper.”

How to Make This Unique and Simple Cat Grass Pond Using Water Beads

Bring your cat’s toys back to life with Sheer Fun for Cats

how to get your cat to play with old toys

Breathe new life into your cat’s old toys with just a touch of mystery, creativity and knowing what your cat wants.

As a cat owner, you’ve probably found your fair share of treasure troves of your cat’s forgotten old cat toys under the couch or fridge. Perhaps some toys have suffered the inevitable unfortunate fate of being sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. Or sometimes they just lie around, looking tired, sometimes tattered and mostly forgotten.

Until you trip over one and stub your toe against a chair and mutter to yourself through gritted teeth, “I should really get rid of these cat toys!”

06/01/2020
Chirpy Cats
16 Comments
Haiku
Monday Haiku, new year goals, polydactyl cat, zoomies

As I scroll through the Chirpies Instagram photos of years past I see a pattern. Our 10-year old Jimmy Fancy Feet is more often than not captured digging his paws into mounds of snow. We call him our snowcat and we think that his polydactyl mittens give him an advantage in the snow, with his built-in ‘snowshoes’ the other cats lack. This makes him the leader in catio snow expeditions and the chief shoveler of snow.

15/12/2019
The Lady Cat
25 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat Christmas tree, cat DIY, cat enrichment, cat lifestyle, Holiday cat decor

If your household is ruled by a furry tree dweller, guess who cannot resist climbing the Christmas tree every year! Yes, Tigger has his sights set on diving into some tinsel and hanging precariously from a branch of your pristine Christmas tree. Nothing is going to stop him, not even the thought of losing his balance and feline dignity when it all comes crashing down. But there is a solution to this madness. Yes! Read on for how to make a Christmas tree for your cats.

How To Create an Enrichment Christmas Tree For Your Cat’s Delight!

How honeysuckle can uplift your cat to another level of olfactory enrichment

02/12/2019
Chirpy Cats
14 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat enrichment, cat science, honeysuckle wood, olfactory enrichment

Tartarian honeysuckle is another great way to enhance your cat’s olfactory enrichment experience. If your cat gives catnip the cold shoulder, spoil your cat with some Tartarian honeysuckle which has similar effects to catnip.

He watches from the sidelines as his friends roll around doing the familiar and much-loved catnip dance of ecstasy. “Some cats have all the luck” he ponders as he yawns and walks away disinterested.
George, the Teetotaler of the Chirpy Cats

There’s always one cat in every multi-cat household that is immune to the effects of catnip. With only roughly 70% of cats responding to catnip, how do we cater to the other approximately 30% of cats feeling shut out of the party? Luckily for these cats with a bad case of FOMO, there is another way they can experience a similar frenzy of ecstasy. Tartarian honeysuckle wood may just be the cat stimulant your cat was missing out on all along.

How honeysuckle can uplift your cat to another level of olfactory enrichment

Remembering Earl Grey 2020 Calendar and giving back to Community Cats

2020 cat calendar featuring handsome grey cat

18/11/2019
The Lady Cat
23 Comments
Haiku
2020 cat calendar, Chirpy Cats, Earl Grey, senior cat

There was a lot of procrastination about featuring Earl Grey, my heart cat, on our 2020 cat calendar. Not because of a lack of photos, but precisely because I had to go through all of his photo archives through the years, some of which you can imagine, brought on a flood of tears, some smiles and then a sense of “Well, this is the most natural thing to do.”

Remembering Earl Grey 2020 Calendar and giving back to Community Cats

Beyond the Dark Hedges, A Meowlloween Mystery!

Halloween tortie cat walking through the catio tunnel

31/10/2019
The Lady Cat
17 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat garden, catenrichment, catio, catvine, halloween

The Chirpies always enjoy their tunnels in the catio especially when their humans are present. In between garden cleanup, I decided to keep some cuttings of the sunflowers, Swedish Ivy and Cosmos stalks. Why? Well, when you live and breathe cat enrichment ideas, you don’t pass up an opportunity to let your imagination run wild! A combination of olfactory enrichment, Halloween and a setting from the TV series, Game of Thrones.

Beyond the Dark Hedges, A Meowlloween Mystery!

Enhance Your Cat’s Playtime with these Frighteningly Cute Pumpkin Spider Toys

gray tabby cat sitting among halloween DIY cat toys

29/10/2019
The Lady Cat
18 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat DIY, cat enrichment, catcrafts, halloween

Give last year’s mini foam pumpkins new life by transforming them into furry eight-legged beasts to taunt your kitties in their sleep. These little spiders have just the right mix of cute and creepy and can be suspended above your cat’s Meowlloween salad bar for curious paws to whack around.

Enhance Your Cat’s Playtime with these Frighteningly Cute Pumpkin Spider Toys

How to Make Mini Witch’s Broom Cat Toys from Textures and Scents your Cat will Love

tortoiseshell cat sitting next to water fountain meowlloween salad bar

24/10/2019
The Lady Cat
20 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat grass, cat salad bar, cat vine, meowlloween

Transform a cat vine stick or catnip stem into a witch’s broom for your cat’s Meowlloween salad bar. Interesting natural textures and scents that your cat is naturally attracted to provide plenty of enrichment for bored kitties.

At the Chirpy Cats house, we start preparing our indoor cat salad bar when the days are cooler and life in the catio garden winds down, preparing for winter. This is the perfect time to collect stems, vine twigs, and dried grasses from the garden to make an assortment of cat’s delights for indoor cat enrichment. Not forgetting the catnip harvest which will provide catnip throughout the long winter months. Add to the drama of your Meowlloween salad bar with these cute DIY mini witch’s brooms.