Healthy Amount of Play?

Question(s) for the long time kittie owners please.

What amount of play time do you consider healthy for a 9mo male kitten?  

5:30am -  play about 15mi or so, chasing toys or noisy balls around the house right after his breakfast;

10:30am - play about 20min or so, playing chase through the house, fishing toys, other toys in general

2m - play about 15-30min, again with chasing through the house, and other toys in general

7:30pm - he's generally too wrapped up watching birds, squirrels, etc. outside the windows at dusk/sunset to get him to play with toys much.

9-10pm - another 15-20min play session with his toys in general.

Short of adopting another kitten for him to play with down the road, do you think he's getting enough play time?   We let him initiate the play at least 90% of the time, because as a kitten its hard to resist luring him into a game of chase

No kitten ever seems to get enough play time.  My "kittens" are a year and a half old and they play 3-4 hours a day.  

Mogli is about 10 months old, and when I'm home on weekends he plays around 60-90 minutes in the morning, another 60 in the late afternoon, and then a good 2 - 3 hours in the evening. Weekdays he misses the morning session, but tosses his toys around on his own. There have been days when he's played for about 4 hours straight in the morning, and others when he's not too interested in one of his play sessions.

Jamie was more active than that at that age.

Lots and often - you're doing it right!  

It depends on the type of cat, but if you have one of the super-active ones, they have no problems letting you know!  And no problems letting you know they aren't getting enough, or enough of a particular type of play.  Look for a 'flop' on the floor as an indicator that this session is/almost at satisfaction point...when Kato was a kitten, we had to do 3 flops each session, at the intensity that he was panting with his tongue handing out!! 

At 2.5years old, Kato still gets an absolute minimum of 2hrs a day - an hour walk, an hour play.  If it's that little, he usually feels there is a 'play-debt' and will desperately demand more the next day from the person who skimped!  We more realistically do 3-4hrs (and he could take more, but there's a human limit!) a day.  You'll know if you need to do more - either your cat will tell you nicely (instigating a game, bringing you toys, or being super funny by grabbing and holding onto your leg -without claws- and meowing desperately into your eyes), or your cat will tell you in a not so nice way by behaviour you don't really want (ankle grabs, bites, getting into way too much mischief, not allowing you to get on with work).

This won't be an issue while still in kittenhood, but sometimes the hardest thing with a super active, AND super intelligent cat, is coming up with enough variety to help them get the intensity needed to burn off their energy.  Lots of people rotate toys by putting them away for a time, and then getting it out again so it is all fresh and 'new'.  Doesn't work with a really intelligent cat with a super memory.  Instead, we have to come up with new toys and new games.  Slight variations are usually sufficient; a different room, a different 'terrain' (eg: enhanced with pillows, bags, rugs, re-arranging furniture, new position of his piece of carpet, draping the carpet over his tunnel, changing the bends and height of his tunnels (use velcro), turning the light off, going outside).  The toy variations call for imagination - luckily the cat has his own ideas too.  We use all sorts of things and attach them to the end of 'Da-bird' eg - a slightly crunchy leaf from outside, some cat-friendly weeds from outside, natural feathers from outside, milk rings, shopping dockets, hair elastics...you get the idea!