How to get my indoor cats exercise?

[Hokulele]

We have two cats. They are sisters and they are 7 years old. They are indoor-only. In the past couple years they have both gained weight.

Does anyone have advice on how I can help them be more active to help them keep the weight off / cut down their current weight?

[Jesskathand]

Do you leave food out all the time? Cats do better eating one or two meals a day. But don't do change things drastically. Maybe start by feeding 3 or 4 times a day and then slowly phase out a feeding.


Do they like to play? Have you tried a laser pointer?

[AAK]

How adventurous are you? I saw someone online who created catwalks all around the house. Here is one example:
http://www.brushyland.com/cats/catwalk.htm

[Hokulele]

Oh my goodness! Those catwalks are the coolest! I wish I had the time / know-how to do it!

Jessakathand - we used to leave dry food out all the time. Our cats are funny, they couldn't be more opposite in all things - one likes dry food, the other canned. But we've recently stopped leaving out dry food all day. DH is in charge of feeding them. I don't know why, but I just can't seem to take on feeding the cats. Right now he's feeding them three times a day, but hopefully we'll cut back to 2x soon.

If they feel like we've missed a feeding, they come and wake us (day or night) and since we cosleep that means they wake my toddler and I am *not* ok with that!! But I need to deal with it and get the cats on a fewer-feedings schedule.

[Oubliette8]

You could try feeding them a bit less food. Do you play with them? Maybe setting aside some time to play with the cats would be a good idea. There are lots of cat toys on the market, even food dispensing toys that you can put a portion of their dinner in so they have to work for it. And most toys are easy to make at home if you want- an old shoelace tied to a stick, an old newspaper crumpled into a ball, lots of cats like the rings from the top of milk jugs.