Keeping kitty occupied

[Eireann]

My younger girl is a real pain in the butt.

She waits until I'm gone, or asleep, and then she hops up on the kitchen counter and goes exploring. Or she hops up on my desk and chews up paper. She's stupid, but she's smart enough to know that I don't allow this sort of behavior. So she waits.

I'm looking for a toy that'll keep her busy all day and all night, or for as much of it as possible. I think she needs to just wear herself out so that she doesn't get into important papers, or into the trash. She's really more of a puppy than a four-year-old cat, and she loves to play.

What works for your cats?

[Moirae]

lol. I wish I knew. I have an 8 year old kitty who pesters the living crap out of me when I'm at home. If I were to play with her 24 hours a day, it STILL wouldn't be enough. She needs a friend, but she hates other cats, and I don't like dogs, so not sure what to do.

[fireheart]

Maybe one of those balls or toys that has a battery inside and doesn't stop moving?

Whatabout a zhu Zhu pet :P

[Moirae]

Maybe one of those balls or toys that has a battery inside and doesn't stop moving?

Whatabout a zhu Zhu pet :P

Hehehe, ooo my kitty thinks they're going to attack her. Anything that makes a whirring noise is NOT a toy, its something to run away from and hide.

Maybe the OP will have better luck.

[Geek King]

MIne always has liked the big plastic disks with the ball that rolls around the rim, and has a catnip scratch in the middle. Just dump the old `nip out and replace with fresh once in awhile.

You may want to put it away at night if you sleep lightly, though.

[blas]

My parents go to the extreme and use mousetraps on the table to discourage Tiger and Baby from going on the table.

So far, neither one of them have gotten stuck in one, but they've set them off. I think that's overly harsh, so I don't advocate it, but it's sort of worked for them.

I made barricades today around the mousetraps, these giant empty peanut jars, everywhere on the table. I doubt they'll be going on the table now.

[sms001]

You may want to put it away at night if you sleep lightly, though.

Wow do I hear that! I had a kitty that could send that ball like a playground tetherball ace go for the kill. You'd swear it was gonna hit escape velocity.

[Mikkel]

Do they like cardboard boxes? My cats will rather lurk inside a box than anything else, except eating.
They are both hiding in a box now. The youngest love to shred them too.
I don't know if something allowed will have the same attraction as being naughty, but you could try it.
Perhaps you could even put the box on the worktable or kitchen counter?

[Falor]

Toys seem to be a matter of 'experiment until you get it right,' unfortunately. We have six cats. One ignores toys, three love the catnip thingy dangling from an elastic string, three (not the same but some overlap) love the chirping bird shaped thing, one makes toys out of randomly shed pigeon feathers, another makes a toy out of, well, anything (kitten).

I don't know how viable a solution it would be, but closing doors would probably be a more certain solution (if floor plan will allow). That's our preferred method of keeping delivery drivers from being bitten (albeit playfully) or swatted -- we lock her conniving little tricksome cat in the bathroom until they leave.

[blas]

Six cats? Oh my lord. I have a circus at my parents' place with an older bitch cat, an overly curious fat kitten, and an old entitled lab retriever.

[ArcticChicken]

I don't know how viable a solution it would be, but closing doors would probably be a more certain solution (if floor plan will allow).

If you don't have a door you can close, but do have a door frame or other narrow passageway, you can try stacking two of the extendable baby/dog gates, or a gate on the bottom with a top to bottom curtain. Most cats I've met won't jump if they can't see where they're going to land.

[Eireann]

Well, this girl - it's kind of hard to describe her. She's adorable, and the biggest slut in the universe, which is another reason why I think she's really a puppy very cleverly disguised as a cat. She's also stupid, but not so much that she tries these antics when I'm there to stop her.

They already have several toys, including a walnut that I threw on the floor for her, hoping she'd play hockey with it all over the place. She has. Now I don't know where it is; under a chair, most likely.

They have a toy the shelter lady gave me. She put a few dried peas in a film canister, crocheted around it, and voila! Instant toy. Kitty will pick it up in her mouth and wander around, making weird noises. They have a catnip toy. They have a ball tied to the couch. I'm not even sure what else they have.

But trash and a piece of paper, regardless of importance, are far more interesting.

[Kittish]

Yea, cats are like kids in that respect. "Found" toys are almost always much more entertaining than 'real' toys.

There are things called shock mats or zap mats or something similar, they're plastic mats with a bit of wiring running through them, put them down whereever you don't want kitty to go, and when she steps on it she gets a small static shock. Unpleasant, but not dangerous. Put one or two on your desk, and I'm sure she'll get the idea pretty quickly.

And on the kitchen counter as well, though on that I'd go more along the lines of remove anything she shouldn't get into from it, put it inside a closed cabinet. My cat is allowed onto the two kitchen counters we have that aren't used for food prep, and she uses those as a perch to watch what's going on as well as springboard to get to the top of of the cabinets. She seems quite happy with the arrangement, the only time she shows any interest in the other counters is when I'm preparing something that smells yummy. And even then, she goes first to 'her' counter, because I'm more likely to give her tasty tidbits that way.

Far as toys go... find some type of toy she seems to like and lay in a supply of them, and give her one whenever the previous one disappears. And occasionally look under the fridge and stove and such for vanished toys. Since you said she enjoyed kitty hockey, have you tried giving her milk jug caps? Or even small lightweight plastic items? My cat has (of all things) the dose cup from a bottle of Nyquil that she LOVES to carry around and bat and chase. It skitters so nicely. I did make sure to wash it when I found her playing with it, but gave it right back.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I've heard of putting double-sided tape (or loops of regular packing tape or whatever) on the edges of counters to deter cats; they don't like getting their feet stuck. We never really had that problem with our cats; there's one counter they're allowed on, under the bay window in the kitchen, but that's not a food counter (they like to sit in the window and watch the bird feeder just outside it); I guess the layout of my parents' kitchen makes the other counters less interesting or something, cuz they never really tried to get up there. Sometimes the boy will get up on the table but usually only when there's something interesting on it. Guess we were lucky that way.

My cats like plastic drinking straws. We used to find them in the hall closets all the time cuz they'd knock them under the doors. (Just keep an eye on them and replace them when they get too chewed up.) We discovered this one night when they were small; they used to like to play with peas (they'd play soccer for a bit and then usually the girl would eventually eat them). My parents have a central vacuum system and under the pantry cabinet in the kitchen is a little vacuum opening thingy with a kick switch, and when you switch it on you can just sweep stuff right into it. Girlkitty got her pea stuck in there once (it was off; but it would have been most entertaining if she had managed to flip the switch as she was flip-flopping all over trying to reach in there for the pea). I tried to get it but couldn't reach so I got a bendy straw to use. They were so intrigued by the straw they played with it for the rest of the night.

[Moirae]

Ooo, my kitty loves drinking straws. She runs around with them in her mouth. Twist ties too. We had this toy that was a rod attached to a string attached to a mouse. She hated it, but managed to rip the toy off one day, now she thinks we can't play with her enough. Apparently the string is much more fun than the mouse. lol