Are Laser Cat Toys Harmful to Cats?

I have a question. My cat got one of those laser pointers for Christmas. It's a good toy, and she loves chasing it. But I am a bit worried. Can the laser pointer toy be bad for cats (or humans) in any way? Can it be harmful to their (or our) eyes? If anyone has any info or input on this subject, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!
Kat Kat

I do not think so.
The breeder Cleo came from told me to get her one.
He said he uses them for all the kittens.
My cats love it.

The laser is not harmful when used correctly. Do not shine the laser light directly into your cats or anyone elses eyes however. All my cats enjoy the game of laser tag.

Mine has a sticker on it saying not to shine in eyes, so I'm careful when I play with the cats to keep it out of their eyes.

Just be sure to keep it out of anyone's eyes and you should be fine. I tend to keep a treat on hand when I play with the laser toy, becuase they don't actually 'catch' anything, and I don't want them to feel they don't get any reward from chasing the little light (as opposed to the feather toys, where I let them think the feather is getting tired and then 'dead').

I've always wondered if maybe laser pointers might cause some psychological problem in some cats. Or maybe cause underlying conditions to come to the surface.

I say this only because I've noticed strange behavior from some cats after they've chased around the dot.

As a teenager when I still lived with my parents, they had a female cat which as I recall was a pretty typical indoor cat for the first half of its life. Then we got a laser pointer and at first the cat didn't seem to be exhibiting strange behavior, but then as the sessions became longer the cat seemed to act strange after the dot disappeared, and we'd put the laser pointer away. The cat would start to search through the house, in what I can only assume was the laser dot. Sometimes it would stalk, and then pounce unseen objects, or stare at a point on the ceiling or wall and meow at it. This all started after we originally started using the laser pointer.

I didn't come to this realization recently when I was playing with a laser pointer and my cat started chasing it around.

Aya-chan who is 10 w/o will chase hers around in circles till she's dizzy.

Midori my older cat likes it for a bit then she remembers she can't catch it and gets bored with it after about 10 minutes.

Originally Posted by Yarbo

The cat would start to search through the house, in what I can only assume was the laser dot

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I always switch to a feather teaser, which they can catch before we end our play session.

Originally Posted by AmberThe Bobcat

The laser is not harmful when used correctly. Do not shine the laser light directly into your cats or anyone elses eyes however. All my cats enjoy the game of laser tag.

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x2! my cats looove laser tag!!!

Ditto with shining it in the eyes or reflecting it off something that will bounce the light back towards the eyes.
Lucy will chase the light all day and night if she could. Rocky likes it too, but gives up after a few minutes. Moose couldn't care less about it.
Lucy will come running from wherever she is when she hears the click of it going on and off - I guess she's "clicker trained'?

Depends on how powerful the laser is and how you use it.

This is an excellent article on lasers and cats

http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-Cats-a...rs?&id=1815222

Fine for them to chase around. Just don't shine it on their eyes at all!!

I think the physical danger of a laser pointer is practically non-existent. The power is so low and the wavelength of the light so long. You'd probably have to shine it into the cat's eye for quite a while to cause any real damage, so even if kitty does somehow jump in front of the beam while playing I wouldn't panic. The psychological effects, on the other hand, sound like they might be keeping in mind. That article that walkover posted makes a good point that if you don't give the cat something to actually catch they may become frustrated.

Grogs said:

<snip> The psychological effects, on the other hand, sound like they might be keeping in mind. That article that walkover posted makes a good point that if you don't give the cat something to actually catch they may become frustrated.

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I used to worry about my cats growing frustrated with never catching the red dot.  Then a friend pointed out that in the wild most hunting sessions end without catching prey.  The notion being that cats are accustomed to some level of frustration.  Just to be safe, though, I end laser tag sessions by letting my cats kill the laser pointer.  I make a red dot on the floor and slowly lower the pointer to the floor and drop it.  Archie loves to pick it up and prance around with the pointer hanging by its chain.  He seems quite proud of himself - and content too.