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Cat Owner's Manual › Chapter 3: Daily Interaction With Your Cat › Cat Exercise and Play ›Cat Games, Toys and Amusements
Because of their innate curiosity, cats can turn virtually any household item into a game, toy, or amusement. Sometimes, such play can lead to the destruction of valuable personal property. To prevent this, try any of the following activities.
Chapter 3: Daily Interaction With Your Cat
Comments for This Page (7) | Post a CommentMy cat Dreidle's favorite toy is coated paper cash register receipts. When I come home from shopping and crinkle a receipt, he comes running from wherever he is and we play fetch, then he plays,KILL IT Don't let this happen to you. Er, regarding the window perch with the bird feeder outside. I went one step further and put out a bird house. This was a big mistake as my cat was watching the chickadee parents nesting for weeks and then as soon as the chicks were born, he got out of the door and in 30 seconds knocked down the pole the house was on and killed the entire family (except the Dad who was loudly calling for his departed family members). I love cats but they are first and foremost cunning predators. We have actually made our kitties a cardboard kitty condo from our TV box & they LOVE it especially our younger cat Gromit....he will literally THROW himself from one level to the next trying to get whatever it is we may be tempting him with at one of 5 openings! His ABSOLUTE fav is PAPER! Pretty muc hANY paper but especially newspaper (yeah reading the Sunday paper at our house is a bit of a challenge LOL) ....we have holes cut in the box & will tempt him w the paper jsut at the outskirts of the holes & OMG! he goes NUTTS!!! It was simple to make, cost nothing but a bit of time & let me tell you they love it more than ANY store bought toy!!! Not to mention it was a GREAT wa y to recycle/reuse our large TV box!!! ☺ My cat Nicky was basically raised when he was a kitten by my dog and although he sleeps long hours like a cat, he is everybit like a dog in many ways. We have not had the dog for several years but Nicky still reacts to dog play none the less. When I talk in a gruff voice and say things like "I'm going to get you" like you would if you were playing with a dog, Nicky turns instantly into Dog Mode. He runs from one end of the room to the other and sharpens his claws on a rug or whatever. Then I run and hide behind a door or a counter and he runs after me and acts surprised when he finds me and I jump out and Boo lke I used to with the dog.. Then Nicky immediately turns and runs the other way as if wanting me to chase him. We can do this for as long as it takes me to get tired out. When we go to bed at night I whistle a certain way like I used to for the dog and Nicky comes from where ever and he lies down between me and my husband. He has his own pillow and sleeps with his head on it and his paw stretched under his face just like my husband. He never moves all night . The funny part of it is no human taught him this so we think he just learned it from the dog years ago and doesn't realize that he is not a dog sometimes. My cat Nicky was basically raised when he was a kitten by my dog and although he sleeps long hours like a cat, he is everybit like a dog in many ways. We have not had the dog for several years but Nicky still reacts to dog play none the less. When I talk in a gruff voice and say things like "I'm going to get you" like you would if you were playing with a dog, Nicky turns instantly into Dog Mode. He runs from one end of the room to the other and sharpens his claws on a rug or whatever. Then I run and hide behind a door or a counter and he runs after me and acts surprised when he finds me and I jump out and Boo lke I used to with the dog.. Then Nicky immediately turns and runs the other way as if wanting me to chase him. We can do this for as long as it takes me to get tired out. When we go to bed at night I whistle a certain way like I used to for the dog and Nicky comes from where ever and he lies down between me and my husband. He has his own pillow and sleeps with his head on it and his paw stretched under his face just like my husband. He never moves all night . The funny part of it is no human taught him this so we think he just learned it from the dog years ago and doesn't realize that he is not a dog sometimes. Post a Comment for This Page
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CAUTION: Avoid play objects that are small enough to be swallowed, and don't allow unsupervised play with anything incorporating string, ribbon, twine, etc. Check store-purchased toys for pieces that might detach and be ingested. It is also wise to watch a cat as it plays with a new toy, to see if any unexpected problems arise.
EXPERT TIP: When playing with a kitten or cat, always direct its playful aggression toward toys. Never allow them to pounce or smack at your hands or other extremities. They may get the message that launching attacks on unsuspecting humans is acceptable behavior.
The Cat Owner's Manual is a basic guide to cat care.
If your cat is a mature, laid-back, “been-there-done-that” kind of guy (Nemo thinks he's seen it all), he/she may not react to any of the activities mentioned above unless he/she is totally bored. Only when I trigger his hunting instinct he gets excited. To him, playing=hunting. No respectable prey would be batted away and then come back for more like a ping-pong ball or a string. A laser beam makes even less sense to him. He looks for the source and that’s it. He knows it’s you. The only thing that gets him going is fishing-rod type of toy. I’d move the toy as a real prey would—run quickly from cover to cover or hides behind some barriers. I try to move the prey away just before he reaches it. It gets Nemo nuts. This, however, is a relatively slow game. You will see a lot of stalking and waiting. You will also see intensive charging and jumping when he/she decides to go for it. It is a mind game between you and your cat. Also, there’s a commercial toy called Da Bird. It imitates the movement of a bird very well. It gets Nemo crazy in an instant.