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- Feb 24, 2021
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Recently, likely due to better diet and the addition of a younger energetic second cat, my older cat has become more playful and energetic. However he has developed new habits that I'm not sure how to manage. He just had his full senior exam and testing a month ago with clean bill of health, and has a history of no health issues.
He went from not having interest in any toys for his entire life, to wanting to play at least 3 times a day. He is obsessed with a new toy I recently found for him, so that's the only toy he reacts to. Anything else I have he shows no interest. He always starts off sitting on top of the bin where I put the cat toys and start either knocking over things or pawing at the door. We take out the toy and he is a very very slow to play cat. He will spend most of his time looking at it while lying down, and only gets bursts of rolling/grabbing once in a while. His play sessions end up lasting anywhere from 10-40mins, but he is barely playing during majority of that time. It's frustrating cus every time he looks like he's done, and we think we can go back to work, he keeps knocking things over to show he wants it out again. He also plays with the other cat but seems to prefer the toy more. The second cat is energetic but he plays with any toy we use, and plays very intensely so he wears out quickly.
I'm happy my older cat is becoming more playful, but it's difficult to make time for him every time he wants to play. Right now we are both working and studying from home, but our work requires us to be in front of computer for 8-10 hrs a day, and in the future when we have to leave the house for work, I'm not sure what we can do about it. He's never been a troublemaker but now he has learned to make noise and knock things over when he demands play time. He shows 0 interest in any self-play toys, barely pays attention to cat TV, doesn't care for our big windows, etc. He literally just wants that one single toy all the time, and wants us to engage him with it (which is difficult as he is extremely difficult to tease!)
What can I do to better this situation for both my cat and us?
EDIT: I also do not think he is asking for food nor attention from us. He's always been more independent cat and doesn't care much for pets or scritches, and when he is hungry he begs in a totally different way. The only other behavior change I can think of is that he also pesters our new cat to play, but they seem to be mismatched on their play schedule. That results in times when he is mrrrping a TON while the other cat isn't engaging him, but other times when the other cat wants to play, he shows 0 interest.
He went from not having interest in any toys for his entire life, to wanting to play at least 3 times a day. He is obsessed with a new toy I recently found for him, so that's the only toy he reacts to. Anything else I have he shows no interest. He always starts off sitting on top of the bin where I put the cat toys and start either knocking over things or pawing at the door. We take out the toy and he is a very very slow to play cat. He will spend most of his time looking at it while lying down, and only gets bursts of rolling/grabbing once in a while. His play sessions end up lasting anywhere from 10-40mins, but he is barely playing during majority of that time. It's frustrating cus every time he looks like he's done, and we think we can go back to work, he keeps knocking things over to show he wants it out again. He also plays with the other cat but seems to prefer the toy more. The second cat is energetic but he plays with any toy we use, and plays very intensely so he wears out quickly.
I'm happy my older cat is becoming more playful, but it's difficult to make time for him every time he wants to play. Right now we are both working and studying from home, but our work requires us to be in front of computer for 8-10 hrs a day, and in the future when we have to leave the house for work, I'm not sure what we can do about it. He's never been a troublemaker but now he has learned to make noise and knock things over when he demands play time. He shows 0 interest in any self-play toys, barely pays attention to cat TV, doesn't care for our big windows, etc. He literally just wants that one single toy all the time, and wants us to engage him with it (which is difficult as he is extremely difficult to tease!)
What can I do to better this situation for both my cat and us?
EDIT: I also do not think he is asking for food nor attention from us. He's always been more independent cat and doesn't care much for pets or scritches, and when he is hungry he begs in a totally different way. The only other behavior change I can think of is that he also pesters our new cat to play, but they seem to be mismatched on their play schedule. That results in times when he is mrrrping a TON while the other cat isn't engaging him, but other times when the other cat wants to play, he shows 0 interest.