Are You Playing With Your Cat All Wrong?
Playing with your cat is one of the joys of living with felines. It’s a way to deepen the animal/human bond but important for their physical and emotional wellness as enrichment and exercise. More so for indoor-only cats. All cats (even those who go outdoors) benefit from twice daily interactive play sessions for at least a few minutes. Younger, athletic cats will need more. With a vast selction of toys available these days from catnip mice to wand type toys of every stripe, you’d think everyone would know how to play with their cat but I keep seeing the same mistake.
Are you playing with your cat all wrong? We’ve all done it. Tossing a mouse, ball, wiggly toy towards a cat, sometimes placing it right under their nose. Sure, if they’re hungry for attention, they’ll swat at it and play but it won’t feed their hunting instinct. (See our article about the 6 steps of the feline hunting sequence with images) Cat’s are hard-wired to hunt and kill prey. When we play with a cat, the toy becomes the prey and it’s up to us as the director of the fantasy hunt to make it as believable as possible. Mimic the motions of what a live critter would do. If you’re not sure, study a video of a mouse scurrying, a snake slithering, rabbit zigzag hopping naturally vs attempting to escape from prey.
The #1 Prey/Play Tip: Don’t move a toy “prey” towards the cat. In nature, if a cat is out and about, you won’t see prey run, crawl, fly or jump towards their predator. They run and hop away as fast as their little legs go. The only exception is when an animal is threatened and tries to protect their young. I’ve see Odin, a master hunter/tree climber get blasted with squawking birds flapping their wings when he got too near their nest, but it’s rare.
In nature, it’s always fight or flight. In a home setting, with play or real prey .i.e. a mouse or moth you’ll never see a real mouse move towards the cat. That’s what makes the hunt so fun and satisfying. Remember: during and at the end of play make sure your “Hunter” has caught his “prey” to his satisfaction.
20 Comments
meowmeowmans
Those are some great tips! We like stalking our prey, too!
Austin Towers
The Staff has learnt pretty well! I think it was her teacher! MOL But I do like to hunt outside! 🙂
Layla Morgan Wilde
yes, you’re lucky that way and you’re a marvelous teacher.
Connie Marie
Felix loves to play fetch, he’ll bring back the noisy ball everytime. I know this is a no no, but they love to hunt my feet under a blanket. Now a true story: when my son and I lived with my Mother on her farm, I took care of the barn cats, they never ran from me. Well there was a mouse caught only by his hind leg in a plastic trap, I kinda scooped him in a big bucket, (I’m very scared of mice) he got his foot out so I took him out to an open part of the yard to let him go. I didn’t see cats around, but there was a Ginger one just sitting there and the stupid mouse ran right up to and into that cats mouth!! I wish I had a video! I can’t to this day believe I let a mouse loose to save it and it ran right up to the
Cat!!!
Layla Morgan Wilde
That’s a great story. Poor thing must have lost its mind in the glue trap.
Layla Morgan Wilde
It’s true for most of us these days.
Ellen Pilch
That is interesting, I usually pull the toy away, but not all the time.
The Island Cats
The mom likes to hide our toys like under a blanket so we can really go hunting after them.
Sweet Purrfections
Never thought about play that way. Thanks for the advice.
Brian Frum
We love the prey play and the Dad is doing it up right!
The Swiss Cats
Good advice ! If only we got play sessions more often : twice a day is not enough ! Purrs
Tamago
That’s a good advice! My boys love to chase the toys when I toss them around. When Niko gets excited, his tail puffs up really huge 🙂
Kathryn
Excellent tips. We use the red light, and toss a toy mouse around for the cats. They love it.
Deziz World
Yeah mommy twies but she”s not always da bestest prey. MOL But she’s gettin’ better everyday. Gweat posty. Have a pawsum weekend.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Lexi
Mark's Mews
Toys should allus be tossed over the head fer good grabbing. Duh!
Mark's Mews
Toys should allus be tossed over the head. Duh!
Dorothy
Our Hitch loves to hunt “Prey” that runs under furniture or appliances to hide. So of his favorite toys are HEXBUG Micro Robotic Creatures. He enjoys the mouse toy they make for cats but his favorite are the insects that weren’t originally made for cats. In videos the HEXBUG insect has been mistaken for a real beetle causing concern for the insect. Luckily it’s a battery operated toy and no living creature is harmed during the hunt. Except maybe me. Retrieving the toy from under the stove can wreck havoc on my knees. You can find the Hexbugs on Amazon but it’s much less expensive and the selection is better at the HEXBUG website. Happy Holidays and Brightest Blessings to everyone!
Skeeter and Izzy
Run lil mousie run!!!!! My indoor kitties also like it when I throw a toy into the air so they can catch the “birdie” in flight. My Izzy is a pro at the jump and catch game! My Shadow (feral) has been on a rat binge of late. I’m not sure where he has been catching them but I have been gifted with a total of 10 very large ones in the past two months. They have also been different colors. There have been light gray ones, dark blue gray ones, chocolate brown ones and even a black one. He has been getting plenty of exercise! I know they are not at the house so he has to carry them to get them home. These guys have weighed a pound or more each. I have been greatly honored by my little Shadow!
Luvs to All!
Skeeter and Izzy & the Feral Gang + Twig & Peanut & Romeo & the Angels >^..^^..^<~
Layla Morgan Wilde
Up in the air is away 🙂 Shadow is sending stong rat medicine wisdom your way!
Summer
My human is pretty good at doing the prey thing… she just doesn’t do it OFTEN enough!