- The cats look so happy… How do you guys do it ?
We get asked this question a lot !
With thousands of customers visiting our cafe, we are proud to have received such amazing feedback, especially referring to our cats' well-being & how happy they look.
Today I will share with you our little secrets & how we achieve it on a regular basis. Perhaps you have cats yourself & look for some inspiration to improve their well-being, hence I hope you will find our tips helpful.
Cat Rules - The standard part of any cat cafe, but a paramount part. Anyone who comes in to a place which involves animals should be informed what is allowed / not allowed. Cats are living creatures who have feelings & can be affected on a psychological & physical level. A respectful approach is always requested & supervised, if any of our customers upsets our cats, they are asked to leave our premises (we have a policy of 3 warnings).
Capacity - We do not overcrowd our cafe. We can have up to 16 people maximum per slot. We could accommodate more, but that was not a vision of our cat cafe in the first place. We are here to create a serene experience for everyone.
Cats are very sensitive, solitary beings & they can easily sense their surroundings. By receiving too much attention, they can become overstimulated, irritated or even frightened & they will just hide away. We always work on preventing this from happening (one of the reasons why we also have an age restriction of 10+, to keep cafe as tranquil as possible for our cats).
Music - We play relaxing, zen music in the background to create a tranquil atmosphere in our cafe. Over the last 1.5 year, we have received a tremendous amount of feedback, from our customers describing their mood as more relaxed after leaving our cafe. The amazing fact is that cats are incredibly receptive to the human's mood & can be influenced by it. If a customer is relaxed, cats are more likely to feel relaxed too. This is the reason why we work hard on creating that serene feeling in our cafe. Soothing music can also help relax the cat, prevent from any potential fighting. If you are interested in exploring it more, you can find plenty of music designed just for the cats on youtube itself! Try it with your kitty as you might be surprised with the results!
High shelves - We all know cats love high places, so do ours. Either for fun, to watch the world around them with greater confidence or simply for having some space, without being interrupted. We have provided plenty of those in our cafe. They can climb whenever they want to & we are cool with that :)
Hiding places - Cats need to sleep a lot. Up to 16 hrs a day. We have many hiding places where our cats can sleep without being interrupted. Additionally we have a special room where our customers do not have access to, so our cats can rest & recharge. If you have cats at home & look to boost their happiness, get them a cosy cat tree, or perhaps just a box with a blanket in it will do the job! (and more cost effective ;-)).
Feliway - We use Feliway diffuser 24/7. This pheromone works on cats' brains to calm them down & help relieve stress and anxiety.
Stimulation - Since our cats are indoor cats, we continuously work on keeping them engaged & making sure they get plenty of activity. That means changing their toys often, as they can get used to them quickly & loose interest. Also, our huge cat wheel keeps them active too. Many times I would hear cats walking on the wheel having their morning workout (7 am !). They use it a lot even without our invitation, that is a clear sign they do enjoy it!
Kittens - We have learnt our lesson quickly. First month after opening we rescued older cats and that did not work well. We needed to find them new homes immediately, because cats were fighting. After that initial month we started introducing younger cats to existing cat family, and since then we did not have any cat politics whatesoever ! On the top of that, younger cats love to play & engage, where more mature ones prefer to have more space & one to one connection, so we feel cat cafe environment is only fair for younger cats.
New arrivals introduction - We introduce our kittens from a small room by reception, from where kittens cannot get on the main floor (so older cats will not feel threatend, similarly current family residents can access the room with the kittens easily.) By implementing this technique we allow older cats to approach kittens first, so they feel more ‘’in charge’’. There are on average three days of curiosity mixed with hissing. We always play with the kittens in the meantime, to make sure they also feel comfortable in the new environment. Also by introducing play, it helps to lower any potential tensity between kittens & older cats. They would usually watch them out of curiosity, from there slowly turning into shared play. Once all comfortable with each other we let the kittens roar on the main floor.
Lastly. We always watch our cats for any behavioural changes, if they show any signs - for instance they seek going outdoors, do not want to engage with larger group of people anymore, but rather look for one to one interaction, or just simply do not get along with the rest of the cats as they used to, we find them new home. We do not keep our cats forever, when constantly observe them & when we feel the time has come (usually 1.5-2yrs old) we find them new final homes.
I hope you found this read helpful & got better clarity on how we do things in our cafe & perhaps picked up some inspiration for your own kitty. Please always remember if your cat might be behaving in a way which makes you worried, take him to the vet ! Health always comes first & since cats are great in hiding stress / pain sometimes might be difficult to detect it. Always remember to monitor your cat's external environment + his internal well-being.
Thank you for your time :)
Ewa =^..^=