How can we add novelty and adventure to Marvin's life?

marf · Feb 3, 2014

Hello everyone - I am hoping for suggestions! Our Marvin is two years old, strong and full of energy. Thirteen pounds of muscle. As a kitten he was allowed out to the back yard, where he promptly climbed trees up to 30 feet in the air. Once he figured out how to scale the fence, my husband got worried and made him an indoor cat. We are concerned that he might disappear or lose his way home if allowed outside. He loves interacting with other cats (we have three more in the house and several that come to visit in the garage).

But I can see that it is wearing on him, to have so much energy and not be able to exercise it somehow. I think he is getting a little depressed about it. He needs a way to expend energy, and some novelty and new things in his life. Any ideas? Supervised visits to the garage? Complex jungle gyms? A heck of a big cage to be placed on the grass in the back yard? Chasing his little sister is no longer interesting to him.

How can I help my sweetheart?

Thank you!

betsygee · Feb 3, 2014

An outdoor enclosure would be great if you can manage that. There are lots of ideas online for creating catios.

Tall indoor climbing trees are great. Ping pong balls to chase in the house if that's feasible.

armina · Feb 3, 2014

betsygee said:
An outdoor enclosure would be great if you can manage that. There are lots of ideas online for creating catios.

Tall indoor climbing trees are great. Ping pong balls to chase in the house if that's feasible.

I have a cat sun room for Emilia (I call it the sauna

). It's basically full of all of her favorite cat trees, catnip toys, and a small TV. I also bought a used small kids' bunkbed with the bed at the top, a small stair-step ladder, and a tent-like play area at the bottom. It certainly keeps her running when I am gone.

betsygee · Feb 3, 2014

Armina said:
I have a cat sun room for Emilia (I call it the sauna

). It's basically full of all of her favorite cat trees, catnip toys, and a small TV. I also bought a used small kids' bunkbed with the bed at the top, a small stair-step ladder, and a tent-like play area at the bottom. It certainly keeps her running when I am gone.

@Armina Your kids' bunkbed sounds like the one I got for my cat room! It had the option of the tent area at the bottom but I didn't get that part--I got the slide and covered it in artificial turf so it wouldn't be slippery for the cats to get up and down: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/270528/...u-have-and-how-big-is-your-house#post_3470918

armina · Feb 3, 2014

Wow- I looked at the pics and your cat room looks like every cat’s paradise.

I covered each step in the stairstep ladder with a cut piece of carpet square because it’s Emilia’s favorite texture- you were clever to pad the slide with artificial turf! Sometimes she will even snuggle herself under the covers and just snooze for hours.

oneandahalfcats · Feb 4, 2014

Given that your cat has experienced climbing tall trees, I would think that building a tall cat tree or structure (if your home can accommodate this) would be one of the best things you could do. Cats love to be up high as this gives them a good vantage point and sense of security.

Our cat Max (pictured) used to love to climb the huge White Pine trees in front of our home. One day in particular he chased a chipmunk almost all the way up the tree. We were watching this and at one point saw something fall from one side of the tree - it was the chipmunk! It was hilarious to see Max still up there looking around furiously for this chipmunk, only it had since left.

Jumped off to get away from Max.

I recall reading somewhere about a husband and wife who built a serious of catwalks in their home, complete with holes in the wall to get from one catwalk to the other. I think it was in a magazine somewhere. I have been wanting to do something like this for my cats as some of our rooms have high ceilings. It is an alternative to cat trees, but requires some knowledge of construction and walls. I found a link to a site of a guy who has done the same thing. Here it is : http://www.brushyland.com/cats/catwalk.htm.

betsygee · Feb 4, 2014

oneandahalfcats said:
Given that your cat has experienced climbing tall trees, I would think that building a tall cat tree or structure (if your home can accommodate this) would be one of the best things you could do. Cats love to be up high as this gives them a good vantage point and sense of security.

Our cat Max (pictured) used to love to climb the huge White Pine trees in front of our home. One day in particular he chased a chipmunk almost all the way up the tree. We were watching this and at one point saw something fall from one side of the tree - it was the chipmunk! It was hilarious to see Max still up there looking around furiously for this chipmunk, only it had since left.

Jumped off to get away from Max.

I recall reading somewhere about a husband and wife who built a serious of catwalks in their home, complete with holes in the wall to get from one catwalk to the other. I think it was in a magazine somewhere. I have been wanting to do something like this for my cats as some of our rooms have high ceilings. It is an alternative to cat trees, but requires some knowledge of construction and walls. I found a link to a site of a guy who has done the same thing. Here it is : http://www.brushyland.com/cats/catwalk.htm.

@oneandahalfcats You mean this place? http://www.thecatshouse.com They're my heroes! I even bought their book. @Marf : That might be a bit too much

but some ramps and tunnels would be cool for Marvin if you have room for it.

oneandahalfcats · Feb 4, 2014

betsygee said:
@oneandahalfcats You mean this place? http://www.thecatshouse.com They're my heroes! I even bought their book. @Marf : That might be a bit too much

but some ramps and tunnels would be cool for Marvin if you have room for it.

Oh yes! I think that is it BestyGee. Thanks for posting the link. Very cool.

betsygee · Feb 4, 2014

I was watching our cat Rico play this morning and thought I'd post--this idea is a bit less pricey and complicated than enclosures and beds with slides LOL. We have this cat tree in the living room--getting a bit ratty now but the kitties love it. See the green thing hanging off the left side? It's just a wand toy with a centipede looking thing hanging on it. Best thing I ever thought of was to attach it to the tree so it hangs out in the air. Simplest thing ever and the cats LOVE it--they will run, slide on the wood floor, end up at the base of the tree and bat that thing around like crazy. Rico is the most active of our cats and when he can't go outside he spends tons of time playing with this on his own.

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betsygee
Feb 4, 2014

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armina · Feb 4, 2014

betsygee said:
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betsygee

Feb 4, 2014

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betsygee

Feb 4, 2014

Rico looks like he's having fun trying to kill the centipede-clever idea! I'm going to try hanging some of the feather/catnip toys from the cat tree and see if it works. Emilia definitely loves to push toys around, pretend like they're running from her, and chase them- only to see that they've stopped "running"

Cats have such strange ways to self-entertain.

allenkm · Feb 4, 2014

Some cats really enjoy walking a leash, maybe that's an option.E

marf · Feb 6, 2014

A big THANK YOU to all of you!!!! @betsygee, @Armina, @oneandahalfcats, and @allenkm - thank you for taking the time to help us, and for posting your pictures. I am going to get The Marv one of those fabulous huge cat trees you showed. All my baseball memorabilia is going on eBay tonight for this!!!

We tried the leash when he was a kitten and he objected. Maybe he'll work with it now. It's worth a try.

You are good people. Thank you.

dianamc · Feb 9, 2014

betsygee said:
I was watching our cat Rico play this morning and thought I'd post--this idea is a bit less pricey and complicated than enclosures and beds with slides LOL. We have this cat tree in the living room--getting a bit ratty now but the kitties love it. See the green thing hanging off the left side? It's just a wand toy with a centipede looking thing hanging on it. Best thing I ever thought of was to attach it to the tree so it hangs out in the air. Simplest thing ever and the cats LOVE it--they will run, slide on the wood floor, end up at the base of the tree and bat that thing around like crazy. Rico is the most active of our cats and when he can't go outside he spends tons of time playing with this on his own.

Thank you so much for this idea. I had never even noticed the loop on the cat tree platform, but I hung one of the Neko flies from it and Dandy has been having a great time with it today. She never liked it too much otherwise. I can change them around too! I had repotted the hanging succulent that she used to play with and she had jumped about 3 feet in the air and I think she was just trying to get back to her "toy."

betsygee · Feb 9, 2014

DianaMc said:
Thank you so much for this idea. I had never even noticed the loop on the cat tree platform, but I hung one of the Neko flies from it and Dandy has been having a great time with it today. She never liked it too much otherwise. I can change them around too! I had repotted the hanging succulent that she used to play with and she had jumped about 3 feet in the air and I think she was just trying to get back to her "toy."

Oh that's great! Glad to hear it worked. It's amazing how one little thing can work out so well.

dianamc · Feb 10, 2014

Okay. I'm not positive how betsygee has things set up, but I have to post a warning about what I did. It's entirely my fault.

I knew this needed supervision and I took it down last night but hung up another toy this morning. We were in the adjoining room and heard squalling from the living room and here she had managed to wrap the cord around her tail very tightly! I'm not sure how she managed it, but this is going to be supervised play from now on.

I held scratching, biting kitty while my husband unhooked the cord and managed to untangle it from her tail. About 10 minutes and a cookie later, she was tackling me. We are lucky it ended so happily.

betsygee · Feb 10, 2014

DianaMc said:
Okay. I'm not positive how betsygee has things set up, but I have to post a warning about what I did. It's entirely my fault.

I knew this needed supervision and I took it down last night but hung up another toy this morning. We were in the adjoining room and heard squalling from the living room and here she had managed to wrap the cord around her tail very tightly! I'm not sure how she managed it, but this is going to be supervised play from now on.

I held scratching, biting kitty while my husband unhooked the cord and managed to untangle it from her tail. About 10 minutes and a cookie later, she was tackling me. We are lucky it ended so happily.

Oh poor kitty. :-( Glad to hear kitty was okay!

We don't have any loops or anything to hang things from. I've just duct-taped the wand part to the tree so it can't come loose and the centipede thing hangs down along the side.

dianamc · Feb 10, 2014

The string is just hanging straight down on ours too. I honestly can't imagine how she got it so thoroughly wrapped around herself, but she's quite active.

How can we add novelty and adventure to Marvin's life?

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Just what part of meow don't you understand.

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