Cat addicted to laser pointer

[Caspers Human]

Cats will chase almost any bright spot... a flashlight... a reflection from something shiny... even a spot of sunbeam coming through curtains. It's natural. The laser just heightens that response.

No, I don't think that playing with a laser will hurt a cat as long as you don't get it in his eyes.
The reason I say "habituated" instead of "addicted" is because I think the cat thinks it's really, really fun to chase the red spot.

When I was at college, many years ago, I had a helium-neon laser that was salvaged from an old laser copier. It was about 12 inches long, 2 inches in diameter and it got its power from a power supply that plugged into the wall. It was so powerful that you could see the spot from, literally, a mile away. Yes! I measured the distance!

I could sit by the window of my third-floor apartment and shine it across the street and cats would chase it from a block away! They would seemingly appear from nowhere just to chase the red spot!

With that in mind, I don't think a tiny, little diode laser that runs on watch batteries will do any harm.

If your cat lives indoors 100% of the time like Casper does, the exercise he gets chasing the red spot will be good for him.

However, if your cat does get too riled up it might be wise to limit his playtime with the laser.
Just keep his playtime down to ten or fifteen minutes at a time and maybe one or two sessions per week.

 

[Kleee]

I'm new here and was having the same issue with one of my cats obsessed but laser light where he begs for it tries to open the drawer he knows it's in and doesn't like to play with any other toys. He's not quite as bad as it used to be but he also used to stare at the floor long after the light was gone. So I limit his playtime with it. We're actually playing with it right now I just turned it off and he's staring at the floor lol. He seems to have learned though now that he's older that the light comes from this thing in my hand and he recognizes the sound of the key chain it's on. So in order to satisfy his Instinct of hunting and catching I let him catch the chain as his quote reward end quote. But when he was little he got that wild look and only recently now that he's 4 years old did I even attempt Laser Play with him again to give him exercise. But I think if the original posters cat is really acting so strange which it sounds like it is I would take the laser away permanently and eventually she'll forget about it. At least mine did. But he still, even during the time he didn't have access to the laser light, he would Chase light on the wall if it reflected off my phone or my ring on the wall.
Now, i put catnip on his kicker toy and distract him.

 

[davidc59]

Sometimes i use the laser light to coax the cats in at night ,if shaking the dry food box doesn't work.