End of my rope here, in regards to cats not playing even though they have TONS of energy

[rad65]

My cats will sprint around my apartment, making the most pathetic mewls, meows, caterwauls, and any other sound you can imagine. This happens every single day. They run up to me, headbutt me, pretend like they want to play, but then the second I get any of their toys (of which I own EVERY SINGLE CAT TOY EVER MADE), they run away or hide under the bed. It's like they're afraid to play with me, but they constantly want to play with me. It's frustrating, to say the least.

The horrendous sounds they make are by far the worst part. Every noise sounds like a dying cat. I turn out my light and try to go to sleep, and all of a sudden I hear an "ACK" that seriously sounds like it could belong to a cat who just had its neck snapped. The worst part? they literally will not stop making these sounds until I get up out of bed and chase them out of my room. I don't know how every single sound out of their mouths sounds like a dying cat, but they do. I know full well that they're fighting with each other and are fine, but every time I have to check because that's honestly what I imagine death sounds like.

They do this at least four or five times every single day, including fighting 100% of the time within 10 minutes of me going to sleep. It's incredibly frustrating because every time I try to play with them, they ignore it, or I have to do 100x the work they do just to get them involved. I'll snap a rubber band and send it flying, which one of my cats loves, but then I have to walk to wherever it landed and flick it again. All he'll do is chase it, then look at it. Throwing toys results in me chasing them more often than the cats, they are deathly afraid of most Da Bird toys now for some reason (probably me vocalizing my frustrations after the dozenth time they refused to play with it), except for when I remove the feather and then they'll chase the safety pin at the end..... for about 20 seconds. Regardless of what I do to try and play with them, it lasts maybe two minutes if they're in a really playful mood, but usually more along the 30 seconds to one minute scale. I know full well that this is causing their insane and annoying levels of energy, but I can not figure out what to do to appease these animals.

Oh, they WILL play with dangling strings and whatnot, but that does nothing for my problem. They aren't getting a single lick of exercise out of that. 99% of their playing now involves lunging at a string that is less than 6" from their faces.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Are they fight-fighting or play fighting?  Are they getting some energy out by playing with each other?

 

[rad65]

Yes, they're getting out energy. That is entirely besides the point, though. The noises they make are unacceptable. They are constantly tearing through the apartment caterwauling.

They want to play, until I try to play. Then they don't want to play, until I put their toys away. Then, they want to play, etc, etc, in perpetuity.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Thank you for the clarification.  I can tell how frustrated you are.  From your first post I identified 3 problems/points: loud vocalizations while playing and play fighting (especially at night), running from you when you try to play with them, lack of exercise to get their energy out.

My honest thought; they are being cats for the most part.  It sounds like they are trying to get you to play with them like they play with each other.  They are playing with each other as cats will do.  Some cats are much more vocal than others and some are higher energy than others.  You didn't indicate whether the vocalizations are new or if they've always been this way.  I'm assuming if it was new you would have specified. 

  I'm afraid there isn't always much to do for loud cats.  I wouldn't worry about them not getting exercise to burn the energy since they are playing together so much or worry about how they are playing together.  For the nighttime fights; I'd shut your door and perhaps even invest in a simple sound machine to help drown out the noise (if they aren't disturbing your neighbors).  Giving them attention can often reinforce a behavior you want to change.  They will also pick up on your negative emotions/frustrations (the hiding under the bed, being scared of da bird). 

Mooch loves milk rings like your cat does the rubber bands.  When we play she doesn't always fetch.  I generally get a handful and when they are gone; the game is over unless she brings one back.  That's how I've always played with my cats.  Mooch is the first one that I've had that fetches at all.  So don't worry about the toys.  Give them a long break.  If they have each other and space to run and climb (cat trees or shelves); let them entertain each other and do your best to ignore the "chase me" game it seems they've started since really there is no good way to play like that with them that wont turn scary.  Hopefully that will help them not run from you and lead them back to being interested in interactive toys.  For things like mice, balls, kickeroos, catnip toys, etc you could also try rotating them instead of leaving everything available at once. 

Could you move dinner time closer to your bedtime?  Perhaps they will settle better at night if they've got full tummies.  A cat's natural rhythm is play, eat, sleep.  If they were small kittens I would recommend crating them at night.  I use a large dog kennel that fits a small litter box, bed and water.  (When our girls first came home they could get out of rooms from UNDER the door so a kitten room wasn't a good option.)  My girls do not sleep with us and it's been this way from the beginning.  We stopped crating them when they were big enough to trust.  (We also used the spare bathroom for a time since it was bigger; we just had to block the bottom of the door with a gate.)  I think a few people here have a designated cat room for at night.  That isn't an option in my home.  But by the time we got there; my 2 were used to getting the energy out during the day and with the door shut we've had few problems sleeping through their nighttime antics.  At 9 years old; it's mostly galloping up and down the hallway; but sometimes jumping up walls to catch the lights from cars going by.

I hope that helps you some.  I'm afraid there is no quick fix or easy solution for you.  They won't change their behaviors overnight and if it's their nature; it might never completely go away even with age.  Hopefully you can find a balance to make things more tolerable for you all.

 

[catwoman707]

@rad65, are your cats spayed and neutered?

 

[di and bob]

I think they sound like perfectly normal cats! You don't say how old they are, I'm assuming that they are young and full of it. Get a corrugated cardboard 'scratcher' from Walmart or a pet store, I know my two get rid of a lot of energy on them. That racing around and yelling is what we all call the 'cat crazies' and different breeds like Siamese are more energetic and vocal then others. Yours will most likely quite down when they are older. (my 13 year old still tears through the house screaming once in a while!) I agree that getting upset and paying attention to them is what they want at night. Can you lock them out of your room at the beginning, or will they cry then? There is no easy solution here, because most of it is just normal cat behavior.

 

[skyefoxx]

Another question, do you have a laser pointer?  I have the same issue with one of my cats.  She loves to chase things, and won't play with anything else.  As you mentioned, it requires getting up very other minute to go get her toys and toss them again.  I ended up buying a laser pointer the other day on a whim and she loves it.  It beats having to keep getting up!

 

[mservant]

Many members here will refer to their cats' habit of playing and fighting like crazy at bed time, or running like a herd of elephants around their home, and I suspect many of us can appreciate the frustration you feel when this happens night after night.  Even more will identify with that experience of you doing the play with toys and cats looking on at you like you're completely lost the plot and not show any interest in the toys until you are exhausted and bored, at which point they might deign to touch one with a limp paw and then saunter off.  Both of these behaviours are normal cat behaviours and many would be concerned if a cat didn't do these.  My thoughts from your description of your cats' play and how they respond with you was the same as @MoochNNoodles:  they are inviting you to join in their cat game, join in the chase or hide and seek or what ever.  Mouse will come in a room I'm sitting in, look at me and race off, he waits in the hall then comes back in if I don't follow, he does this until I get up and follow then he does and hides behind or under something until I go to find him, look at him and then I run away from him and do the same but the other way round. You feel like even more of an idiot than you do laying on the floor twiddling with their toy mice but you burn off more calories in the process.

Cats are usually nocturnal and the challenging bit of sharing a cat's space is how to get some sleep when they want to hunt and play.  Getting in some serious run around hunting followed by some eating, again as suggested by @MoochNNoodles works for many members here including me.  Mouse will stay up but at least he tends to be more sedentary in his hunting if I've run his energy off before I go to bed.

Like @Di and Bob I wondered how old your cats are now, as my previous tabby girls got louder and louder with their calls as they got older, especially after the age of 10 or 12.  Their meows definitely got more harsh as they aged and the volume higher.  I didn't find any solution but understanding it as part of the aging process and not something they were doing just to make me suffer did help.  Especially once they were in to their 18th year and beyond with poor sight / blind.