Ok, this is a question I never thought I would ask... but my cat is... let's say "mellow" and doesn't play actively. In fact he doesn't play much at all... I've had cats on and off my whole life and I've never seen a cat that just doesn't play. I adopted him at about 2 years old so I don't know his young history, and he's ~17 lbs (the vet says he's 2-4 lbs overweight) so I don't think he was brought up to play actively.
I've tried playing with strings, shoe laces, feathers, feathers on strings, bunches of feathers on strings... laser pointers... balls... rechargeable balls that wobble around the floor... and balls with bells and crinkles. I've literally tried crawling around the floor with him playing with said toys to "show him it's a toy" and (of course) I've tried just holding him and tickling and such.
Sometimes I can get him to follow a laser pointer or feather for a few minutes, and sometimes I can get him interested in a ball for a short time. I've heard him when he's alone, rolling a ball around... and he's gathered most of the feathers in one place. So I know he's interested a little... but running / jumping / or even playing for more than a couple minutes every other day is just about impossible.
It doesn't seem healthy to be a solo indoor cat that doesn't get physical once in awhile... and I'm running out of tricks. I bought one of those ball-tracks (the tube-things with a two balls inside that he can bang around) but he's going through UTI recovery right now so I don't know how that will work out yet...
Any ideas for the future? Or am I just overthinking it?
Thanks
Scott & Milo
I've tried playing with strings, shoe laces, feathers, feathers on strings, bunches of feathers on strings... laser pointers... balls... rechargeable balls that wobble around the floor... and balls with bells and crinkles. I've literally tried crawling around the floor with him playing with said toys to "show him it's a toy" and (of course) I've tried just holding him and tickling and such.
Sometimes I can get him to follow a laser pointer or feather for a few minutes, and sometimes I can get him interested in a ball for a short time. I've heard him when he's alone, rolling a ball around... and he's gathered most of the feathers in one place. So I know he's interested a little... but running / jumping / or even playing for more than a couple minutes every other day is just about impossible.
It doesn't seem healthy to be a solo indoor cat that doesn't get physical once in awhile... and I'm running out of tricks. I bought one of those ball-tracks (the tube-things with a two balls inside that he can bang around) but he's going through UTI recovery right now so I don't know how that will work out yet...
Any ideas for the future? Or am I just overthinking it?
Thanks
Scott & Milo