When playing how do you play with your cat?

I do a mix of aerobic for Libby (jumping high, and kind of doing flips) and stalk and catch. I play with her for a half hour in the morning, my husband plays a half hour with her in the mid afternoon, and when I come home I play with her before I cook, and then before I get ready to sleep I play with her again for about a half hour.

She doesn't stop, I don't know when she wants to stop. When she lies down sideways and kind of swats at the toy, I take it that she's tired, so I put the toys away. But she goes to the drawer with the toys and attempts to open it. How do you do the cool down? Do you let her catch the toy? Then do you feed her the treat.

I use the wand toys, throw balls and the laser pointer to make them run & jump for a long as they remain interested...but they play amongst themselves for fun. Jake likes to fetch paper balls...Milo use to when he was young too.

Sometimes i spin a string w/ a toy on it around me and make Shermie run in crazy circles. Or I dangle toys to let him jump (though he's not a very confident jumper yet). I also kick little balls around and he runs after them. His attention span is very short though, so I have to keep mixing it up with him. He likes the laser pointer also. I dunno, I don't really have a schedule or a strategy on when and how I play with him. As long as I do it before I go to bed so that he's tired. He's been a little sick still from the shelter so he hasn't been interested in too much play. Lots of exploring though!

For the nth time here (sorry everyone) - the all time favorite thing all my cats over years and years love to play with (you're involved!) is a cord (vs 'string') with a knot on the end, dragged, jiggled, whatever, under sheets on the bed, under newspaper sheets on the floor, anywhere under something, pulled towards you. They just have to pounce on it! The shyest cat will come out of herself to play if you try it.

Originally Posted by Larke

For the nth time here (sorry everyone) - the all time favorite thing all my cats over years and years love to play with (you're involved!) is a cord (vs 'string') with a knot on the end, dragged, jiggled, whatever, under sheets on the bed, under newspaper sheets on the floor, anywhere under something, pulled towards you. They just have to pounce on it! The shyest cat will come out of herself to play if you try it.

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lol I have plenty of those around the house. She also likes my husbands shoelaces too!

Popsie really doesn't care about toys. Our play consists of me crouching on the floor just around the corner of a wall, and then he'll get all crouched down and jiggle his butt then run and jump at me. We've always played like that, it's pretty funny.

My cat Frosty loves to play fetch. She used to love doing this with a rattle mouse but now, she prefers tin foil balls ... the smaller the better. We throw them, she chases them down and brings them back to us. It's her favourite game in the world.

Mischief likes the wand with cord that has feathers and a bell at the end. Drag it real fast on the floor, and she can't resist. She attacks it every time. This toy is the only way be can get her to have a workout!

Now I feel bad. I don't play with my cats. They amuse themselves enough, I didn't know I was supposed to play with them.

I do clicker train with my cats, though, so it's not like I ignore them. I guess that could be considered playing. Smeggie and I are working on 'Rory Calhoun' (standing on his back legs for longer periods of time. Eventually I'll work on getting him to walk around like people) and Lemony is learning to touch things with her paw.

I can't have 'cat toys' as they're usually too small to have around the dogs. They've destroyed every larger toy I've tried to bring home as well. I had a string with a ball on it once, tied it to the bedroom doorknob. That lasted ten seconds before the dogs tore it off. But then the cats tore the dog's 'I wanna go outside' bells off the backdoor, so I guess they're even.

Oh, they do like to play with pop bottle caps and the little plastic ring under the cap. Those are their favourites. And shredding paper towel rolls. Sometimes I'll just give them a roll to annihilate.

I don't have a set play schedule for Oliver... and the only time the toys actually get put away is during vacuum time, and then they come back out.... between the cat and dog, our house looks like a daycare center, haha... so basically, Oliver will let us know when he wants to play... he's got all kinds of toys: wands, balls of all sorts, mice, catnip toys, milk rings, toilet paper tubes, feather toys, toys hanging from door knobs....

Mine both like to play fetch with toy mice - it works really well because when they want to play they will find one and drop it at my feet. When they are tired they just won't bring it back to me but rest a while and then go find it when they are ready to play again!

Because of this they decide when they want to play. Sometimes we don't see a toy mouse for hours, and then Radar or Sonic will trot up with one and drop it on our feet to tell us they want to play

I think I have the two laziest cats in creation. They love to watch me playing with stuff (wand toys, motion toys, you name it), but actually chase anything? Sometimes Cindy will get interested in stalking and pouncing on a wand toy, but only if it's moving on the ground. They both like stuff moving under rugs or paper or what not, sometimes they pounce, sometimes they just watch. Swanie likes to have a romp with one of his "mousies" now and then (big, fur mice that he can chew and kick at), which he lets me know by sitting in front of the toy closet. Actually, Swanie's favorite game is treat toss. I toss him a treat, he chases it and eats it.

Fortunately, they get exercise chasing each other around

Libby'sMom,

that is great that you have scheduled times for play with your cat! She may not seem like she is done when you are, but I can tell you, she is on a routine now and she looks forward to those specific times!

Cats have "energy spurts" or "sprints" the same as lions or tigers; they will jump and play like crazy until winded (depending on age of course LOL) and then they need a short rest, and then they are ready to go again.

I agree with Larke, the string on a stick with a knot, or just a string with a knot is the all time favorite toy of my cats too; and also Larke listed the best games. I don't know if fetch is in there, but that is another good one, depending on the cat. My kitties will actually drag those string toys on sticks around the house following us to play with them .

If you get tired and your cat still wants to tear up the house, I suggest the laser light

When we play it's usually me playing with a wand toy and sometimes chucking a ball, or a ball toy with feathers attached to it. Usually running across the apartment with a wand toy gets the cats (at least the younger one) going.

My younger kitty, Milo, loves ANYTHING with feathers coming out of it. I think I'll have to get him "da bird." I've had trouble looking for feather toys that don't lose their feathers really quickly.