- Joined
- Jan 15, 2020
- Messages
- 150
- Purraise
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When we took her in she was 2 months old and had no problem playing on her own! Usually I would start to play with her and she'd continue all by herself. She'd roll balls around, she'd play with hanging toys, she'd run around the apartment after imagined prey... and all was well. The kitten was happy. We were happy.
But now that she's 5 months old she's completely stopped playing on her own! She's usually walking around bored trying to get me to play with her, but I can't do that as much as she wants (which is all the time), as I quickly get tired and (honestly speaking) rather bored. And I have other things to do, as well.
Comparative examples:
- If I roll her a ball she doesn't continue rolling it on her own like before. She runs after it, touches it with her paws and then turns around proudly and waits for me to roll it again. That's how we usually play, and I have to run around the whole apartment rolling a ball and picking it up to roll it again. I can only take 10 minutes of running around like this...
- If I take a toy tied to a rope and hang it down somewhere she used to play with it on her own, jumping and biting it and rolling on the floor while holding it in her paws. Now she shows no interest in doing that whatsoever with hanging toys, and I have to take the rope and continuously roll the toy all around the floor to get her to play with it.
The kitten is bored, and we're unhappy because she's unhappy. And I feel guilty, too, thinking that if I was a better kitten parent I'd play with her more. But it's very exhausting and repetitive.
I tried new toys and that doesn't work. I bought her new toys of her favorite types, fluffy mice and feathers, but nothing catches her interest anymore. Not unless I'm the one directing her play session.
How do other people teach kittens to play on their own? Why has our kitten stopped doing that?
But now that she's 5 months old she's completely stopped playing on her own! She's usually walking around bored trying to get me to play with her, but I can't do that as much as she wants (which is all the time), as I quickly get tired and (honestly speaking) rather bored. And I have other things to do, as well.
Comparative examples:
- If I roll her a ball she doesn't continue rolling it on her own like before. She runs after it, touches it with her paws and then turns around proudly and waits for me to roll it again. That's how we usually play, and I have to run around the whole apartment rolling a ball and picking it up to roll it again. I can only take 10 minutes of running around like this...
- If I take a toy tied to a rope and hang it down somewhere she used to play with it on her own, jumping and biting it and rolling on the floor while holding it in her paws. Now she shows no interest in doing that whatsoever with hanging toys, and I have to take the rope and continuously roll the toy all around the floor to get her to play with it.
The kitten is bored, and we're unhappy because she's unhappy. And I feel guilty, too, thinking that if I was a better kitten parent I'd play with her more. But it's very exhausting and repetitive.
I tried new toys and that doesn't work. I bought her new toys of her favorite types, fluffy mice and feathers, but nothing catches her interest anymore. Not unless I'm the one directing her play session.
How do other people teach kittens to play on their own? Why has our kitten stopped doing that?