Keeping kitty occupied

[Parrothead]

This might help wear her out and this might help her chill out. The Feliway is sold at Petsmart, and is used in the shelter I volunteer at.

[dendawg]

Have you tried a laser pointer? Cats in general are suckers for that little red dot.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Have you tried a laser pointer? Cats in general are suckers for that little red dot.

That worked on my cats for about 5 minutes..

(OK, maybe longer than that but they got over it fairly quickly).

[Sapphire Silk]

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.

Taz doesn't wait until I'm asleep, the brazen hussy. She just does as she pleases. She's starting to understand what No and Off the table mean, but she has the attention span of a gust of wind, so she's back at whatever mischief she was into almost before I turn my attention away form her.

She has a plethora of kitty toys, including some ones my previous cats refused to play with. She plays with those, but also likes things like a plastic fork, my scruncii's, any bit of string or paper (especially foil), my colored pens and, of all things, my glasses

I can't keep my glasses on the nightstand anymore when I go to bed. She'll steal them and play with them while I'm sleeping. Last time, I almost stepped on them trying to find them when I woke up in the morning (I am VERY nearsighted).

She loves windows . . . all my cats have. There's one on the other side of my night stand, and I'm having trouble keeping her from trying to get to the window. I'm thinking about getting one of those cat ledges for the window and pulling the blinds up slightly so she can look out in the hopes she'll bypass the nightstand.

She also loves playing in a big box I've currently got sitting in the living room. She treats my furniture like a jungle gym, and loves leaping from one couch to the other.

The only part I hate is when she treats my laptop like a superhighway, running over it as I'm typing something. She's so fast I barely have time to register my frustration before she's halfway across the room.

[Eireann]

Yeah, this girl - I've never had a kitty like her.

When someone comes over, she is ALL OVER that person. Chirp? Chirp? Chirp? Rub. Head-butt. Wet little nose everywhere. Rub again. Flop and play with foot. Dig claws into thigh.

Then, during the night hours, she turns psychobeast and goes nuts.

That laser pointer might be a good idea. I was also thinking about one of those stands with a ball hanging from it. Though she might keep knocking it over and waking me up at unearthly hours.

[Kittish]

Eireann, your cat may be the exception, but so far I've NEVER seen a cat show any interest at all in those little stands with the ball on a spring thing.

Laser pointers are good, if the cat likes them, though that is necessarily an interactive activity. I've had cats that went totally bats over them and cats that completely ignored them.

I've had one cat that just loved straws, she'd come right up to anyone and pull the straw right out of their drink if they had one, bold as brass. She chewed them all to heck and gone and chased them around and in general had lots of fun.

Most cats I've known are also fairly fascinated by pens, most especially when they're in use, but I've had cats steal my pens when I wasn't using them too.

Play with her as much as you can manage in the 2 or 3 hours before you head to bed, try to wear her out enough so that she sleeps at least part of the night. As much as possible encourage her to be awake and active during your normal waking hours. It might take a while, but your cat CAN be trained to sleep pretty much when you do.

[AccountingDrone]

Hm, you can't go wrong with the plastic pull tab thingy from milk bottles, the flat bag clip from bags of bread, little balls of foil and empty boxes.

[Sapphire Silk]

Taz likes bottle caps.

[protege]

Right now, there are toy mice all over the house. They're in the living room, kitchen, their water dish in the bathroom, basement...and occasionally in my bed

But, Baxter *loves* the plastic rings that come on gallon milk jugs. He actually begs for them if I open a new gallon. Again, these are all over the house--he'll bat them around, and carry them all over the place. Sally on the other hand...seems to want anything he's playing with. Doesn't matter what it is, if he's happy with it, she'll want to take it.

[Eireann]

I did use the plastic lid to some jar once, but she kept chasing it under the chair where I only found it when I vacuumed, so I threw it out. With all the toys she has, she still hooks dried turds out of the box and plays with those.

[The Last to Know]

http://www.lafauveriesboutiqueenglis...rie.com/4.html

ever seen one of these? forgive me I don't have a clue how much it is, but I'm thinking I might get one for my youngest cat Doc. When we moved all of my cats became indoor only cats and Doc has gotten fat and while I love his belly - I know it's not good for him. I don't know if I could get him to run on it though and if he did - it would have to be downstairs so as not to wake anybody up.

[Eireann]

That might work! I'll also look into a laser pointer.

[telecom_goddess]

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.

That's my 8 year old girl Katerina to a T. I have no ideas either...