My cat seems bored... please help?

Hi all,

I have a kitty, she's just over a year old, she's very healthy, desexed, vaccinated etc etc, she's always kept well fed, has water available and is just generally a cat. She is an inside cat though, I have let her out before but she got into a scuff with a neighbour cat and came home at 2am covered in its shit for some reason. Soooo she stays inside.

Problem is that she seems bored. She meows at me when I come home and follows me around and gets all up in my face when I sit at my PC. She has lots of little things to play with and throw around, windows to look out of at traffic/birds/people etc... but no play mates. I try and give her USB cables to chase, which she loves, but I work full time and have a lot to do at the moment so it doesn't seem to be enough. She's also very smart and seems to get bored with things pretty quick if it isn't very stimulating. She doesn't fall for things like mirrors or pictures of other cats :3

Short of releasing a handful of mice for her to chase through the house, can you guys please suggest some ways for me to keep my cat entertained while I'm not home?

Thanks
Tim

Pic related: it's my cat and me

 

Get another cat (but ONLY if you want to make the commitment - see below). Hire someone to come and play with her (do you have any friends with kids who'd like to earn some pocketmoney?). Are you in a house or a flat? If a house, build a cat run, then she can go outside without being at risk of getting beaten up or run over.

The bottom line is that you have to give her attention. If your current situation is going to continue, you'd need to consider rehoming her. Some cats are couch potatoes and would be quite happy with your setup. Others are more active and need that interaction. She'll also need more while she's still a kitten (just like people, kids play, it's how they learn and grow). Ultimately, you need to decide whether you want a cat/cats or not. It is a commitment and they will impose their needs on you when it may not suit you.

 

1. hang a string from the light in the middle of the room
2. have it reach about 2 ft off the floor
3. attach laser pointer.
4. 
5. profit $$$$

cats want ur attention
no one elses..another cat might help..or might make it worse...

 

yeah cats just love attention from people.

My cat is the same and he's 12 years old.

 

It should help, if they play together and chase each other about, it'll get some of the pent-up energy out. It won't make him suddenly ignore you, you'll still need to interact with them both, but it'll give him another outlet for doing "stuff".

 

IF it likes other cats and is willing to share its space..which is rare...
cats are very territorial...more so than dogs
so dont take kindly to newcomers invading their space...
u might end up with 1 and a half cats instead of 2...

 

thanks for the advice

Yeah its really odd, for ages she's seemed as though she wants nothing to do with us humans, more interested in other cats/wildlife/inanimate objects... only recently this change has come about

I'll have a shot at creating some toys for her, maybe build her a big box fort or something and see if it keeps her entertained. Otherwise I'll see how compatible she is with a mate. I really don't want to have to send her away

 

I don't think it's rare, although you do have a point that another cat isn't going to help if they don't like each other. In his favour is that his cat is just a kitten, so it should adapt to whatever it is introduced to. At that age, they are quite adaptable.

EDIT: have you looked at those mechanical toys? There's one like a ferrety thing that rolls about on the floor.

 

I noticed this when I was a kid. We had 2 cats from the same litter, one died at about 18months old. We got another cat to keep the remaining cat company... they fought (well, the older one beat the shit out of the kitten) for a week or so and then they got along like a house on fire. Couldn't separate the 2 after that. We tried to separate them a little bit when they were fighting (first-time cat owners at the time, weren't sure how to interpret the behaviour since we never saw anything like it with our dogs), but they sorted themselves out.

 

I have one of those but when I get it out the cat just looks at me like "dude what are you trying to get me to do "

Like I said I'll see how she goes with some toys before I look at getting another cat. I personally wouldn't mind a second cat, but I doubt my current one will allow it, she's super hateful towards other cats. I had to leave her with a friend for a couple of nights, who has about 6 cats already and by the time I came to pick her up they had been forced to confine her to her crate as she was hellbent on the imminent and painful destruction of every other kitty/human in the house. Perhaps this was due to the unfamiliar environment/people/cats but I get the feeling she's just a typical female

 

Sorry I'm not much help here, but did you ever see the Monty Python sketch, Confuse a Cat? Thread title made me think of it instantly.



I have always had two cats, so they can keep each other company when I'm at work.

 

Of course she was freaked out being put in a multiple cat household like that... They are territorial so being taken from "her" house would be enough to freak her out, then add multiple cats and she'd be majorly upset. You do need to introduce another cat gradually. They organize things amongst themselves as to who is allowed to go where and who is in charge. She will "allow" it, it's just a crapshoot whether she'll get all close friends. I have three cats. One is sort of his own person, he doesn't snuggle or anything with the girls, but he'll still lie on my bed with them on there too. If they get too close, he'll clout them over the head and then run off, but they still interact in their own way. Don't assume that she can't share her place with somebody else from being put for a short time in a shared space (not even her own space).

 

Yeah, I understand that. I wouldn't do that normally but the house had to be mortein 'bombed' pretty thoroughly to get rid of a bad flea problem so i didn't really have any choice. At the time I had three other cats and they were all fine with it, which had me a little confused

I already do this, cuddles for a bit when I first get home from work and for a good 30 mins later at night with the foil ball/minijack cable or stalking each other like retards in the hallway... Seems to not be enough but will persevere.

Thanks for all the advice

EDIT: just had a brilliant idea, IMO. R/C car towing a mouse toy behind it on a string around the yard. She may love it, she may not. We'll see!

 

Some cats are absolute attention whores and love the shit out of routines, mine has the whole day planned out and when I break the routine he constantly hassles me.

It starts at 5am and goes until bedtime, seriously. I also think when I'm at work that's just solid naptime.

Oh and if I introduced another cat... he'd hate me.

 

Just like people, they're all different. I had a cat who would go anywhere you liked. I'd leave him at my mum's and he'd just move straight in, no freaking out at all, he'd go outside and know where to come back to. Not only that, but he went across the street, made friends with the cat there and brought him home for "play dates". The cat from over the road looked the same, and my mum was letting this other cat in the house thinking it was mine. He'd come to the door, yell out, and she'd let him in. Then she'd find 2 cats in there..... If you went for a walk, he'd also come too, running along behind. He'd just come back with you, he never got lost. Some cats are laid back, and some are nervous. Depends on their age, socialization, all sorts of things.

 

Make a lifesized, heated version of yourself and sit it on the couch. Cat will sit on you all day and feel loved. Install a stroking mechanism for extra cat win!

Spoiler

CAUTION: Stroking mechanism is only to be used for cat stroking...not other weird stroking (I KNOW YOU'RE THINKING IT).

 

lol

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1055015

 

We have 3 cats. Two are the polar extremes. One will want nothing to do with you unless she wants something from you (which isn't all that often), the other will be in your grill constantly. She will follow you around, wait outside a door if you go in a room and close the door behind you, and just constantly rub you any chance she gets (she loves to rub it seems). The third is in between these two. The social cat and the middle one always play. The anti-social one hates the middle one and tolerates the social one.