ICatCare Launches Social Media Campaign To Encourage ‘Purrfect Play Every Day’ For International Cat Day 2023
9 months ago 
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Pioneering cat welfare charity International Cat Care (iCatCare) is encouraging cat owners to take five minutes a day to play with their cats to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. The two-week social media campaign, ‘Purrfect Play Every Day’, will launch on 1 August and has been developed to inspire human behaviour change leading up to International Cat Day (8 August) and beyond.
The campaign is designed to motivate owners to play with each of their cats separately for at least five minutes every day with a wand toy, an activity that less than 30% of cat owners are currently engaging in according to our recent survey. Wand toy play provides a safe outlet to perform natural predatory behaviours (a critical feline welfare requirement) and offers key benefits such as:
Reduction in hunting behaviour (studies have suggested up to 25%)1
Increased mental stimulation
Encouraging exercise and maintenance of a healthy bodyweight
Reduction of certain problem behaviours (including attention-seeking and destructive behaviours)2
Strengthening the human-animal bond2
Improved quality of life2
iCatCare will be sharing expert advice to help owners understand the benefits of play for cats of all ages, as well as providing tips and tricks for safe play with the whole family. The campaign will feature downloadable resources and short videos veterinary professionals can share with cat owners that also tackle the issues around common barriers to regular play with cats, such as being too tired or unable to make play a daily habit (reported by approximately 20% of cat owners).
Sarah Ellis, Head of Cat Mental Wellbeing and Behaviour at iCatCare said: “Despite daily wand toy play having a plethora of welfare benefits to cats, our research has found there to be several barriers preventing owners engaging regularly in this behaviour. We have designed a campaign to help owners overcome these barriers, giving them the knowledge, skills, opportunity and motivation to enjoy daily play with their cats.”
To help support our Purrfect Play Every Day campaign, follow @icatcare on social media, share our content and tag us in your posts using #InternationalCatDay and #PurrfectPlay.
For more information, visit: https://icatcare.org/international-cat-day/
References:
1. Cecchetti M, et al. Provision of High Meat Content Food and Object Play Reduce Predation of Wild Animals by Domestic Cats Felis catus, Current Biology, 2021; 31 (5): 1107-1111. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220318960
2. Henning J, et al. Cats just want to have fun: Associations between play and welfare in domestic cats, Animal Welfare, 2023; 32 (e9): 1-11. Available from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/03F9B841EFF468344BC1B0D01D37CBC6/S0962728623000027a.pdf/div-class-title-cats-just-want-to-have-fun-associations-between-play-and-welfare-in-domestic-cats-div.pdf
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