Playtime Help Please

Hello everyone, I am new here. I searched the forums but haven't found anything like my question, so here goes.

We recently adopted a new kitten. We now have 4 felines. The hierarchy is as follows: (Mojo has been with us 6 days)

Romeo - 6 years
Cosmo - 4 years
Koko - 1 year
Mojo - 7 months

Romeo and Cosmo are doing the usual grumbling and hissing, and Mojo just ignores them and goes about his business. Koko LOVES Mojo to pieces, and follows him everywhere and engages in play with him.

My question is this: I pulled out the feather on a stick toy, and was trying to play with both of them at once. This is Koko's favorite toy/game he loves to jump and do flips. Well the kitten was playing, and Koko wouldn't =( He did a few half-hearted tricks and went off, laid down, and watched from a distance. No matter what I did to get him to play, he wouldn't.

Why won't he play? This makes me very sad. I love my kitties to pieces and don't want any of them to feel left out or second string =(

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this situation for me, and advise.

Thank you for listening!

Lionesse

It is just going to take some time for everyone to get acclimated with each other, 6 days is not alot of time. A couple of months down the road you'll forget their ever was a problem.

Hi Lionesse,

I have five cats and find it can be an interesting experience to get all of them playing at the same time. Mine seem to take turns. Usually one will 'hog' whatever toy I have for a while and the others will watch, so I take turns with each of them and let their behaviour dictate when to play with each one. Occasionally, I will get two or three of them playing with one toy while the other watches, then give them something else to play with while I try to engage the one who was watching. See if you can get two of the same toy and play with both of them at the same time. I do that with my cat dancers or I have one cat dancer and one dangly rope or one cat dancer and the laser light, or one cat dancer and I throw foam rubber balls for the other. They tend to 'change' off. The more aggressive and active ones tend to take centre stage and 'hog' the action, which sounds like what is happpening with Koko and Mojo. I would give it a bit more time, give KoKo some extra loving and some play time on his own, then when you try to get them to play together have a toy for each of them so they can both play at the same time. That way they can 'trade' off and keep playing.

Good luck
Kathryn

Thanks Kathryn and Petnurse, I appreciate the responses. I guess I just need to give it more time. Koko is acting kind of subdued, almost depressed-like now. Maybe he is just pouting. My husband and I are lavishing extra affection on all of the three older cats, and hoping they all come around.

Thanks again,

Lionesse

They will, when Spirit was an only cat her world revolved around us, but then Trouble and Sturgis came and she was pissed. Spirit could live happily without the other cats, but is starting to realize that they are not so bad and I have even caught her trying to play with them.

I noticed this with my Shinobi when I got Dora. I did it to keep her company. I think something about having a younger kitty around makes the older one feel like they have to be the "grown up." She still plays and runs around, but she's definetly mellow and less kittenish than she used to be. (She also got fat from eatign Dora's kitten food.)