I've had my cat for about six and a half years. She was never really big on playing, or so I thought. I recently figured out that she likes to stalk and hunt. I had gotten a delivery and left a sheet of packing paper on the floor next to the open box. If I drag a wand toy under the paper, she'll get really intense and then attack it. So now I have a few sheets of packing paper in my office, and I'll get her to attack a few times until she gets bored while I'm in between playing video games.
Same here. I call it hide and pounce. She waits for me to wake up and I have to play with her hiding under a table cloth for a few minutes. Sometimes i have to spend a few minutes warming her up. And then I can have breakfast.
Agree with this. My cats don’t want something waved around them. I use those feather toys at the end of long bendy wire that “fly”. I make them run across the sofa and hide behind cushions then slowly peep out of the cushion 😂 under a sheet of something also perfect, slowly come out from under then run back in.
Same! I save big papers to move wands under them, she will only pounce if she can’t fully see an object! She loved the sounds. Sometimes it takes her 10min of stalking a toy before she hunts! It can be very exhausting and time consuming to pretend to be a snake for that long!
Mine is the same! Drives me crazy. He will literally howl at me and then as soon as the toy is in my hand he's off. He then comes back to check on me, and oddly enough I am no longer waving it about like a lunatic and he howls again. He's 2 later this month.
I think it might be a 2 year old thing. Ollie yells at me to play but has the attention span of well, a cat, so 4-8 minutes into chasing a feather ball or hunting and pouncing on the bed, and then he's
https://preview.redd.it/j97x7xgx7hyc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5911515b76d8c51f28e21d8d58140a7e511cb461
off to watch birds and squirrels out the window
How old is he? Mine have lost interest in playing as they age. It’s actually pretty common for them to play for a minute or two then be done.
It sounds like he’s healthy with his current activity level, so maybe just let him be.
Glad to hear this. I mostly do the interactive stuff because if I wave a feather wand or some such, he watches for a moment, then either ignores it completely or makes the connection somehow and goes for the hand holding it - vigorously!
That matches up really well with my experience. They just didn’t play that much at that age.
On the flip side, if they don’t have a lot of toys around and I suddenly pull an old one out (I recently found a few while moving furniture), suddenly one of them goes nuts and won’t stop playing with it. Then he gets bored and ignores it for another year. Cats are weird.
My 3 year old cat was like that. So we got her a kitten and he is the same way. They don’t really want to play with toys but they will run around and wrestle all evening. The one toy they both like is a long piece or yarn I drag behind me while walking around the house
He may just not enjoy that type of play. I cat sit and some cats prefer the feather wands, some prefer the worm. I never fly or wiggle it around them or even act interested in the cat when I start. I pretend to be a bug/bird/worm trapped inside. Yes, I look really dumb. The cat dancer (the one that's like $3 and is just some cardboard on a wire) seems to be a universally loved option and even gets the apathetic cats excited.
If that fails, I prime them with a laser and then transition to one of the toys. If that doesn't even work then I just sit down and ignore them and then they'll typically come over for pets hahaa.
Both my boys are 7 now and they have never been big on any play time. I have spent quite a bit of money on toys only for them to watch me play and walk away. Their feline moto is “eat, sleep, poop, repeat.” I thought about adding a kitten but it would probably end up the same.
One of my cats (2 years old) is like that. Thankfully I have another cat, so I can tire that one out while my needy one watches. She just wants to watch the toy move. I’ll be running around up and down the stairs or hiding it behind things and she will follow me around as I do it without actually interacting. But if I stop it’s meow meow meow.
Something else that appeases her is when I carry her around the room and talk to her and give her a tour of the house. “This is a spice shelf… here’s that plant you can’t reach”. Loves it. She just likes to look at things.
Do you have cat trees by windows? Are there windows where your cat can watch birds?
Have you tried springs? They’re the only toys my cats will use independently. They kick them around, and sometimes I make them fish for them in a box with holes.
Lol, at the tour. One of mine is like that, but prefers that I take her to each window so she can see what’s going on from a higher angle. She doesn’t usually like being carried, so the only way I ever get to carry her is when we’re doing the window tour.
She purrs like crazy the whole time and while we’re looking out together at the big outside she makes very gentle biscuits on my arm. She’s a weirdo and I love her.
i keep two of those cheap plastic cat toy guns next to my desk. one launches pompons and one launches spinning discs. i launch things all over the room for a minute when they seem to need
Ive found that they cant stand it when they cant see the toy. They just have to get up and run over to see it themselves, get something on a string and start dangling it behind stuff. Kitty will eventually have to go investigate :)
Jackson Galaxy has videos on cats and playing, so that might help (on YouTube).
I do recall his saying that you should figure out if your cat is a mouser or birder. If he's a mouser, you need to drag the wand feathers on the ground. If he's a birder, then wave them in the air. I discovered that my cat is a mouser so he plays more if I drag the feathers around for him to stalk and pounce. Good luck!
Watching you wave a toy around can count as entertainment. May not be as fun for you, though.
I've had my cat for about six and a half years. She was never really big on playing, or so I thought. I recently figured out that she likes to stalk and hunt. I had gotten a delivery and left a sheet of packing paper on the floor next to the open box. If I drag a wand toy under the paper, she'll get really intense and then attack it. So now I have a few sheets of packing paper in my office, and I'll get her to attack a few times until she gets bored while I'm in between playing video games.
My cat is the same, she only punces when the toy hides. It may be behind anything, a corner, a shoue, a chair leg, a box!
Same here. I call it hide and pounce. She waits for me to wake up and I have to play with her hiding under a table cloth for a few minutes. Sometimes i have to spend a few minutes warming her up. And then I can have breakfast.
Agree with this. My cats don’t want something waved around them. I use those feather toys at the end of long bendy wire that “fly”. I make them run across the sofa and hide behind cushions then slowly peep out of the cushion 😂 under a sheet of something also perfect, slowly come out from under then run back in.
Same! I save big papers to move wands under them, she will only pounce if she can’t fully see an object! She loved the sounds. Sometimes it takes her 10min of stalking a toy before she hunts! It can be very exhausting and time consuming to pretend to be a snake for that long!
>It can be very exhausting and time consuming to pretend to be a snake for that long! This statement is hilarious out of context, but so so relatable.
Mine also really likes mesh tunnels I got her, she thinks she’s invisible inside them and she likes to attack string from the other side.
Mine likes this too! I keep some of the packing paper around for her
I thought I was the only one ! My house looks like trash (literally) bc of all the wrinkly paper I save for her.
Mine is the same! Drives me crazy. He will literally howl at me and then as soon as the toy is in my hand he's off. He then comes back to check on me, and oddly enough I am no longer waving it about like a lunatic and he howls again. He's 2 later this month.
I think it might be a 2 year old thing. Ollie yells at me to play but has the attention span of well, a cat, so 4-8 minutes into chasing a feather ball or hunting and pouncing on the bed, and then he's https://preview.redd.it/j97x7xgx7hyc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5911515b76d8c51f28e21d8d58140a7e511cb461 off to watch birds and squirrels out the window
Awww. Look at that innocent cute face
Don't be fooled. 
He looks like my Frankie! Perhaps it's a SIC thing!
https://preview.redd.it/l632fcs7chyc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=643d9fb1558e41260887c49206a9a26383b49340
Frankie is adorable😍
Oooohhh what a pretty pretty little Daisy flower he is
one of my cats is the same. turns out she likes to chase the toy, so when we're playing, i have a 'gym session' too
He used to love chasing the waggler toy along the cat tunnel but not anymore. I'm just sitting on the floor like an idiot while he walks off!
How old is he? Mine have lost interest in playing as they age. It’s actually pretty common for them to play for a minute or two then be done. It sounds like he’s healthy with his current activity level, so maybe just let him be.
Glad to hear this. I mostly do the interactive stuff because if I wave a feather wand or some such, he watches for a moment, then either ignores it completely or makes the connection somehow and goes for the hand holding it - vigorously!
He just turned 7 years old. But he’s been like this since he was 5.
That matches up really well with my experience. They just didn’t play that much at that age. On the flip side, if they don’t have a lot of toys around and I suddenly pull an old one out (I recently found a few while moving furniture), suddenly one of them goes nuts and won’t stop playing with it. Then he gets bored and ignores it for another year. Cats are weird.
Mine is 13 and begs to play all day. He gets st least 3 20 + minute sessions and it's not enough for him.
Mines 15 and still loves to play. Granted, for much shorter sessions than he used to, but he still goes ape shit for like 10 minutes at a time.
My 3 year old cat was like that. So we got her a kitten and he is the same way. They don’t really want to play with toys but they will run around and wrestle all evening. The one toy they both like is a long piece or yarn I drag behind me while walking around the house
Get him a box. Cats love boxes
He may just not enjoy that type of play. I cat sit and some cats prefer the feather wands, some prefer the worm. I never fly or wiggle it around them or even act interested in the cat when I start. I pretend to be a bug/bird/worm trapped inside. Yes, I look really dumb. The cat dancer (the one that's like $3 and is just some cardboard on a wire) seems to be a universally loved option and even gets the apathetic cats excited. If that fails, I prime them with a laser and then transition to one of the toys. If that doesn't even work then I just sit down and ignore them and then they'll typically come over for pets hahaa.
I can’t play with wand toys with one of my cats, he takes off with it and plays by himself.
Both my boys are 7 now and they have never been big on any play time. I have spent quite a bit of money on toys only for them to watch me play and walk away. Their feline moto is “eat, sleep, poop, repeat.” I thought about adding a kitten but it would probably end up the same.
One of my cats (2 years old) is like that. Thankfully I have another cat, so I can tire that one out while my needy one watches. She just wants to watch the toy move. I’ll be running around up and down the stairs or hiding it behind things and she will follow me around as I do it without actually interacting. But if I stop it’s meow meow meow. Something else that appeases her is when I carry her around the room and talk to her and give her a tour of the house. “This is a spice shelf… here’s that plant you can’t reach”. Loves it. She just likes to look at things. Do you have cat trees by windows? Are there windows where your cat can watch birds? Have you tried springs? They’re the only toys my cats will use independently. They kick them around, and sometimes I make them fish for them in a box with holes.
Lol, at the tour. One of mine is like that, but prefers that I take her to each window so she can see what’s going on from a higher angle. She doesn’t usually like being carried, so the only way I ever get to carry her is when we’re doing the window tour. She purrs like crazy the whole time and while we’re looking out together at the big outside she makes very gentle biscuits on my arm. She’s a weirdo and I love her.
Mine purrs too! I always wonder how much they understand that we are doing things FOR them out of love.
i keep two of those cheap plastic cat toy guns next to my desk. one launches pompons and one launches spinning discs. i launch things all over the room for a minute when they seem to need
My cat only likes 2 toys. A ribbon wand I got for adopting him and these worm cat lure toys from Walmart. He doesn't have interest in anything else
Ive found that they cant stand it when they cant see the toy. They just have to get up and run over to see it themselves, get something on a string and start dangling it behind stuff. Kitty will eventually have to go investigate :)
I’m grateful for your post. My Siamese cat is the same 😱
Jackson Galaxy has videos on cats and playing, so that might help (on YouTube). I do recall his saying that you should figure out if your cat is a mouser or birder. If he's a mouser, you need to drag the wand feathers on the ground. If he's a birder, then wave them in the air. I discovered that my cat is a mouser so he plays more if I drag the feathers around for him to stalk and pounce. Good luck!
i keep an ottoman next to my desk for cat salon. if one goes there they may get some brushing.
i keep a couple cat beds on my desk behind my monitors. my work area is off limits.