September Is Happy Healthy Cat Month: The 7-Point Indoor Cat Wellness Check (2026)

Published September 2026 · ~7 min read

September is Happy Healthy Cat Month, and we’ll take any excuse to give cats the spotlight. Indoor cats live longer, safer lives, but indoors also makes their world smaller, and small problems (a boring routine, a skipped water bowl, a slowly creeping waistline) hide easily. Here’s the seven-point check our cat-owning staff run on their own homes. It takes an evening, and each point is something you can improve this week.

1. Is your cat hunting every day?

A cat’s happiest state is the hunt, and indoor cats still need it daily: two short wand-toy sessions of 10–15 minutes beat one marathon. Let the “prey” dart, hide and eventually get caught (always let them win), then feed; hunt-catch-eat-groom-sleep is the natural sequence, and running it drains energy that otherwise becomes 3 a.m. zoomies. Rotate a few solo toys weekly so they stay novel, and browse the cat toys collection if the toy basket has gone stale. Our enrichment roundup has food-puzzle ideas for cats too.

2. Does the scratching happen where you want it?

Scratching is non-negotiable feline maintenance (it sheds claw husks, marks territory and stretches the whole body), so the job is giving it a better target than the couch. The formula: a sturdy post or board next to the furniture being scratched (not hidden in the basement), ideally one vertical and one horizontal option. An affordable start is the Catit scratching board with catnip, or the lounge-style Catit chaise scratcher cats will nap on between sessions. Rub in the included catnip, reward the first uses, and the couch usually gets a reprieve within weeks.

3. Is your cat drinking enough?

Cats descend from desert animals with a famously weak thirst drive, and chronic under-drinking is tied to the urinary and kidney issues cats are prone to. Two easy levers: running water and wet food. A fountain like the Catit Flower Fountain reliably gets most cats drinking more than a still bowl, and adding a daily wet meal, like Nutrience’s Canadian-made ocean fish paté, sneaks water in with dinner. Keep water away from the litter box, and wash the bowl or fountain regularly.

4. Can you feel ribs and see a waist?

Run your hands along your cat’s sides: you should feel ribs under a light fat cover (like the back of your hand) and see a waist tuck from above. Indoor life plus free-fed kibble is how cats drift up half a kilo a year until the vet says the o-word. If the check fails, measure meals instead of topping up the bowl, make food puzzles do some of the feeding, and consider an indoor-formulated food like Nutrience Grain Free Indoor. Sudden weight loss, or a big appetite change in either direction, is a vet call, not a diet tweak.

5. Get ahead of hairball season

As days shorten, cats start trading summer coat for winter coat, and September grooming swallows a lot of loose fur. A few minutes of brushing every day or two removes that fur before your cat does, and most cats learn to love it. For shorthairs a rubber brush does the trick; longhaired cats need a proper comb-and-slicker routine (the Catit long-hair kit bundles it). A wall-corner self-groomer lets them work on it between sessions. Occasional hairballs are normal; frequent ones, or retching without producing anything, deserve a vet conversation.

6. Audit the litter box like a picky cat

The rules cats vote for with their behaviour: one box per cat plus one spare, scooped daily, in quiet locations away from food and appliances that bang to life. Boxes need a full litter change and wash regularly, and cats generally prefer unscented, fine-textured litter deep enough to dig in. The new Odourlock Lightweight multi-cat litter (Canadian-made) keeps odour down without perfuming the room. Any sudden litter box avoidance is information, not spite: rule out the box setup, then call the vet, because urinary issues in cats escalate quickly.

7. Shorter days, same routine

Cats run on routine, and fall shifts it: darker evenings, back-to-school schedules, less household bustle. Keep feeding and play at consistent times, add the evening hunt session so the pre-bed energy has somewhere to go, and give them a warm perch with a view (a window seat gets prime real estate value as the weather turns). If September has left your cat with a suddenly empty house, our back-to-school guide covers the adjustment for cats as well as dogs.

The yearly non-negotiable

Cats are masters at hiding illness. By the time symptoms are obvious, a problem has usually been brewing. An annual vet exam (twice yearly for seniors) catches the dental disease, kidney changes and weight trends that home checks can’t. If it’s been more than a year, let Happy Healthy Cat Month be the nudge; our dental care guide covers the between-visit tooth care cats actually tolerate.

The bottom line

Daily hunts, approved scratching real estate, running water and wet food, a rib check you can pass, a brush ahead of hairball season, a litter box you’d approve of yourself, and a steady routine: that’s the whole checklist. Indoor cats don’t ask for much, and September is the month to make sure they’re getting all of it. Free Canadian shipping on orders over $89 if the audit turns up gaps.

Want help choosing a fountain, scratcher or indoor food for your cat? Email our team. Several of us are owned by cats and happy to talk shop.

PetMax.ca is a Canadian-owned pet supply retailer based in the GTHA. We’ve been helping pet owners since 1993 and ship across Canada, with free shipping on orders over $89. This article is general information, not veterinary advice. When in doubt about your pet’s health, contact your veterinarian.