Kitty Needs Help With Playtime

[sjoh197]

So we adopted a stray cat from outside in March. She underwent surgeries and was rather sleepy, shy, and quiet when we got her. Now I can hardly ever get her to pipe down...

This kitty often begs for playtime. We play with our kitties for a decent amount of our evening and sometimes morning. I work from home sometimes and play with and pet the kitties extra those days. The two big kitties play with each other throughout the day, but the new kitty is left out. I have tried to incorporate self interactive toys into her routine, but she just follows me around yelling at me to play with a wand toy. Sometimes I simply need to do dishes and laundry, or go to work, not be the other end of "da bird". When she is not desperately seeking attention, she is sleeping on my lap, always. (I love it)

I have an arsenal of wand toys, catnip toys, furry mice, bird chirping toys, springs, turbo scratcher ball toys, 2 cat towers, and a bird feeder outside the window. I don't know what else I can give her to help her be entertained when I'm unavailable.

 

[sabian]

This is a tough one. I recently got a rescue and his favorite toy turned out to be a piece of matted fur that he chewed out himself, a plastic bag from the grocery, and a balled up piece of aluminum foil. Go figure! All the store bought toys he ignores. I did go and find a toy that looked and felt as close to the fur ball he enjoyed so much and he actually plays with it. I just recently had him shaved so no more natural fur balls for awhile...lol. Maybe you should try and find a toy that closely emulates what you do when you play with her. Maybe a battery operated toy that has a feather on a stick that flops around. I googled Battery Operated Cat Toys and they have a large selection at Amazon that weren't to expensive. It's always a gamble when buying cat toys though.

Some more info may be helpful. What is the age difference between her and the other cats? Do they ignore her? Why do you think she doesn't play with them? It sounds like she has chosen you to bond with for whatever reason. Hope this helps.

 

[ArtNJ]

The kitty is strongly bonded with you because you are home a lot and give him a lot of attention. This is both good and bad. I don't think there is a magic solution. The thing most likely to work would be putting him in a room or basement when you need "me" time. That way, it won't diminish the bond the way just ignoring him would. I realize this may not appeal, but there are not great solutions as far as I know. Similarly, allowing indoor/outdoor has many pitfalls as well.

 

[sjoh197]

So the white kitty was estimated by the vet to be between 1.5-2 years old. Our two big kitties are 1.5 and 2 years old. The big kitties do not like the white kitty, and it took two separate full introductions to get them to tolerate each other. We have a smaller apartment, and 3 kitties was never the plan.

I like the idea of electronic toys, although they always seem so flimsy. Luckily I don't have a problem with her disliking toys. She loves toys... as long as I'm on the other end. I did find one white furry long catnip toy that she likes to jump on sometimes.... but other than that, nothing by herself. She rarely looks outside, and has all but ignored the birds and squirrel on the bird feeder.

I don't mind that she bothers me about playtime, its more that I feel bad for her and want her to be entertained when I can't play. I will definitely look into the electronic toys for now.

 

[sabian]

I agree that the battery toys do seem flimsy. I would try a cheaper one to see if it works and if it does maybe something more durable after. A lazar pointer may be the way to go if she likes that. That way she's playing with what the toy does and not the toy itself. I agree that there may not be an easy solution but, this seems to be more of a psychological thing with her than anything else. She's not being accepted by the other cats and she knows it so, she is bonding with you where she feels safe.

As long as the other cats are not aggressive toward her this may work itself out over time and they may accept her in time. If they are aggressive that's a different story all together. I wouldn't ignore her but , when you are doing work around the house try using the toy to distract her so you can get something done. I would have her in the same room with you and she could still be close by and you could still talk to her while she plays.

I'm surely no expert here and I'm applying things I've learned from Jackson Galaxy in the show My Cat From Hell. I've never been to his site before but my guess is you may find a wealth of info there. I think he would agree that in the end you want all the cats to get along and co exist. From the pic you have up she looks to be very loving and enjoys snuggling and human contact. That's not something all cats will do. My last cat was like that and he demanded a lot of attention and sometimes I just had to say no and tell him to lay down. He would get the message and just hang out close to me. I would talk to him while I was doing what ever I was doing so I wasn't ignoring him. He just wasn't getting the attention that he wanted. A compromise if you will.

Keep me updated if you will. I recently lost both my cats and have since gotten a rescue I'm working with and plan on getting another one by the end of the year. Your experience with this may come in handy. Hope this helps.

 

[kashmir64]

An empty 16 oz water bottle with four pennies in it. Sealed back up. They wil roll it around for hours.

 

[sabian]

Good idea! I'm going to try that!

 

[sjoh197]

The two big kitties were initially aggressive to the white cat, but after the second round of introductions, they now are barely aggressive sometimes. If they start chasing each other and run into the white cat, they will be mean, or if the white cat tries to join them in playing, the can be mean sometimes. Mostly they just ignore each other now.

She hasn't engaged in any kind of destructive behavior, and is just now finally using a cat scratcher that I got her (she doesn't seem to understand them). I'm going to go look for some electronic toy suggestions elsewhere on the site... or post a question if I can't find anything current