Scratching post and hiding place in a shelter: a study measures cortisol nearly cut in half
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
A shelter is one of the most severe chronic-stress settings a cat can go through: a small cage, an unfamiliar environment, other cats unseen but heard. A Polish study measured what a few simple added resources actually change. Our setup guidance is gathered in the cat bedding and habitat section.
Contents · 5 sections
The protocol
Wojtaś, Czyżowski, Kaszycka, Kaliszyk and Karpiński published in 2024, in the journal Animals, a study comparing 179 shelter cats split into two groups: 103 cats in a standard environment offering few resources, and 76 cats in an enriched environment with added resources, including scratching posts and hiding places (see the study). Stress was measured through hair cortisol, a marker that reflects cumulative stress exposure over several weeks, unlike blood cortisol, which only captures a single moment.
A clear gap between the two groups
Cats in the enriched group showed an average hair cortisol level of 0.059 ng per milligram of hair, against 0.101 ng/mg for cats in the standard environment — a level nearly cut in half, with a highly significant gap (p = 0.000001).
What this means for a cat at home
A shelter remains a far more severe confinement setting than a home, and this study does not measure the effect in a pet cat. But the mechanism it illustrates — fewer available resources paired with higher cortisol — has no reason to stop at the shelter door: an indoor cat lacking a scratching post, a hiding place, or accessible height via a cat tree potentially accumulates the same kind of resource deficit, just at a different scale.
What this study does not tell us
The enrichment tested combined several resources added together, not tested in isolation: it is impossible to say whether the scratching post, the hiding place, or another element carries the most weight in the cortisol drop observed. Hair cortisol also reflects the weeks gone by, not the present moment: it is not a tool for diagnosing a one-off stress episode.
Frequently asked questions
Does a scratching post alone produce this effect?
The study cannot confirm that: the enrichment tested combined several resources at once.
How does hair cortisol testing work?
Hair progressively incorporates circulating cortisol as it grows, which allows an estimate of average stress over several weeks rather than a single spike.
Does this result apply to a cat that has never been through a shelter?
The study specifically covers shelter cats, a far more severe stress setting than an ordinary home; the underlying principle is still transferable with caution. Find all our guides on the cat hub.
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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.