Hiding spots, bowls, litter: what a study of 565 households reveals about real cat homes
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
Most owners believe they equip their cat well. A study published in 2025 by Taylor, Mackie, Heath and Paramasivam in Veterinary Record surveyed 565 UK households to check what is actually true, measured against the five pillars of feline welfare defined by veterinary behaviourists (see the study). Our other habitat guidance is gathered in the cat bedding and habitat section.
Contents · 6 sections
The good news: a resting place with real privacy
The first finding is fairly reassuring: 94.5% of surveyed households provide their cat with a resting place that offers real privacy, away from foot traffic and prying eyes. That is exactly the principle covered in our guide to one hiding spot per room: a cat that can withdraw undisturbed manages daily stress better.
The blind spot: shared bowls in multi-cat households
56.1% of households in the study have two or more cats. Yet contrary to the recommendation of one resource per cat plus one spare, 19.9% of these multi-cat households share a single food bowl between several cats, and 69.4% share a single water source. This pooling, often driven by limited space or habit, leaves the shyest cats with restricted access to food and water without the owner necessarily noticing.
The link to problem behaviour
66.4% of households report at least one behaviour they consider a problem, and by far the most common is scratching furniture. This echoes what our article on shelving in multi-cat households documents: poorly distributed vertical space and resources fuel tension that owners often blame on a cat's temperament rather than on the setup.
What this means for your own home
Three simple checks fix most of this without buying anything new: count how many water and food bowls are simultaneously available if several cats share the home, make sure at least one hiding spot per living room stays accessible without confrontation, and observe who actually uses which resource — a more assertive cat can monopolise a water point without any visible conflict alerting the owner.
The study's limits
The sample relies on volunteer respondents to an online UK survey, not a random draw representative of every cat-owning household: the percentages illustrate a trend among broadly engaged owners, not an official national statistic that generalises to other countries.
Frequently asked questions
Does every cat really need its own bowl?
It is the recommendation that best limits invisible access conflicts, especially for water, which 69.4% of multi-cat households in this study still share between cats.
Is furniture scratching always a scratching-post problem?
Not only: the study links problem behaviour to overall resource provision, not to the scratching post alone. Find all our guides on the cat hub.
In our shop, for this use: Litter scoop with stand and bag roll in the handle (€20.90) · the whole shop
For your cat, at Le Félin (same family, zero commission): Arbre à chat en osier (from €174.99)
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Cats universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.