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My kitties stopped playing together - what do I do?

CognisseurCognisseur Registered User regular
edited July 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
So, I have a 2-year-old kitty named Toby, and a 1-year-old kitty named Loki. Here's the obligatory kitty pictures:
tobyshoulder.jpg
This is Toby. He sits on my girlfriend's shoulders... not sure why.

5042_818634802219_8830240_46882891_.jpg
This is Loki. He likes to eat human food so his first reaction upon being put in a hotdog bun was that he could eat aforementioned hotdog bun. (It's kind of an old picture, he's about 3/4 of Toby's size now)

So the two kitties have played together tons until very recently. They usually wrestle and chase one another around our apartment 2-3 times per day. Back when Loki was tiny, Toby really seemed to enjoy getting to kick his ass and always win. Unfortunately, now Loki is close to Toby's size and has learned to fight against an unfairly larger opponent, so he's quite good.

Toby recently started making unhappy noises and often running away when Loki would start initiating play because he'd start losing and get upset about it. And within the last week or so, I really haven't seen them play at all.

I want them to keep playing because it's good exercise and I don't want fat kitties. I try to play with them but they prefer stalking games with me, which don't tire them out nearly as well.

What can I do to get Toby to stop being a baby and have my kitties go back to playing with one another?

Cognisseur on

Posts

  • FallingmanFallingman Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Hmmm, I'm not sure you can really force it. They should play together, but I imagine it'll get less frequent as they get older naturally. Ours still rumble, but the tide has turned on who wins... Mind you, we let them out, so I never considered their playing as "exercise".

    Fallingman on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • saltinesssaltiness Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I think once cats reach a certain age they just stop doing kitten things like playing together. At least that's my experience with the several cats I had while I was growing up.

    saltiness on
    XBL: heavenkils
  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2010
    If it's only been a week, I wouldn't worry about it. He'll get over being a sore loser when he misses having fun.

    And yeah, as Loki gets older, they're going to naturally play less anyway.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Buy them something small they can bat around, preferably with feathers on it.

    MuddBudd on
    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • dispatch.odispatch.o Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    You want to wear them out?

    Laser pointer.

    The playing together thing stopped for my cats too, they just don't do it much after a certain age. They'll still flop around on the floor once in a great while for a few minutes, but it's not like it used to be.

    dispatch.o on
  • AurinAurin Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Feather toys, cat nip, laser pointer. Any of those should help with some activity.

    And I wouldn't say too much about cats getting older and stopping playing... I've got one that's six, and another that's nine, and they still wrestle around. It's not every day, mind you, but they still get their crazy on in the wee-hours of the morning, and sometimes that means wrestling.

    What kind of food do your kitties eat? If you feed them better food (less filler-y crap x_X) they'll be more active as well, I've noticed.

    Aurin on
  • Chases Street DemonsChases Street Demons Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    dispatch.o wrote: »
    You want to wear them out?

    Laser pointer.

    The playing together thing stopped for my cats too, they just don't do it much after a certain age. They'll still flop around on the floor once in a great while for a few minutes, but it's not like it used to be.

    This is accurate. Wifey and I have 6 cats in the house. The only ones who still "play" a lot are the two youngest, 2 1/2 years and 10 months old. The others have all graduated to full blown "where's the sunbeam at, yo?" sleepiness.

    It's just a cat's life. :)

    Chases Street Demons on
    "Sometimes things aren't complicated," I said. "You just have to be willing to accept the absolute corruption of everybody involved."

  • FiggyFiggy Fighter of the night man Champion of the sunRegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    My cat is 6 and still plays and runs around all day long. She'll chase laser points, paper balls, beer bottle caps, etc.

    Figgy on
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