LITTLE ROCK — Can you explain why my 5-year-old female cat never plays with strings or balls? I got her when she was 3 years old. She had grown up as an indoor cat. My house has three doors to the outside and she discovered soon how to slip outside. There she chases anything that moves and, unfortunately, brings it into the house as a present.
Your cat probably doesn’t find strings or balls interesting, which isn’t a problem because there are many toys available that could capture her interest and provide stimulating play.
Aspire to create an indoor environment that’s more interesting and fun than the outdoor environment, advises Marilyn Krieger, a certified cat behavior expert who has a monthly column in Cat Fancy magazine. Her Web site is thecatcoach.com.
When asked about how to deal with your issue, Krieger said, “She needs to evaluate the way she plays with the cat. If the cat does seem to be play-motivated, she needs to imitate the hunt.”
Krieger recommends using a teaser toy, which is a feathered or stuffed toy attached to a thin flexible pole. It can be bounced and dangled in front of the cat and used to create a stalk-and-capture scenario. Activity in which you use a toy to stimulate your cat’s interest is called “interactive play.” It’s more satisfying for a cat than solo play, in which a cat does something such as bat a toy mouse about by itself.
Since cats are predators and enjoy hunting, your cat is simply indulging in natural activity when it goes outside. But you can create hunt situations indoors with the teaser toy or a Cat Dancer (a coiled wire with a toy on the end), Krieger says.
To simulate a hunt, you move the toy away from the cat so that it has to stalk or chase it. Move it over the sofa, up the stairs, in and out of boxes. Your cat will jump, run and pounce on the toy.
“After you play with the cat, you start to slow the toy down as if the little animal is dying,” Krieger says. This helps calm the cat at the end of an exciting play session. “Let the cat catch it one last time.”
Then, she says, put the toy away until the next play session. If it’s left out, the cat could chew on it and swallow small bits.
You should have regularly scheduled play at least twice a day, preferably in the morning and evening when the cat is most energetic.
In addition to regular play, you can enrich the cat’s indoor environment overall. Make sure there’s plenty of vertical climbing space by adding cat trees and shelves on which the cat can climb. Put out toys such as the Turbo Scratcher, which has a circular tubelike track that contains a small ball. The cat reaches in and bats the ball around the track. It’s very simple, but entertains most cats. The center of the base is a corrugated scratch pad that can be replaced when it becomes worn.
But you don’t have to buy toys to create a fun environment. Cats enjoy boxes and paper bags. Just make sure the bag is big enough for the cat to get in and out of easily, plus cut off the handles if it has them. You can also cut holes in cardboard boxes and place toys inside for the cat to try to fish out.
Another way to enrich the environment, Krieger says, is to make life a “treasure hunt” for your cat by hiding treats (such as dehydrated chicken or pieces of dry cat food) around the house - on the cat trees and in the paper bag, for example.
As for the “presents” that your cat brings in from the outside, the only sure way to keep that from happening is to make your cat a strictly indoor pet.
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,
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Family, Pages 35 on 12/30/2009