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Between work and having a social life (well, mostly work), I'm often gone from my apartment for long stretches of the day and night. I have a cat who is pretty sociable and loves to play. I feel bad for him because many times when I come home, the instant I walk in the door he's meowing and running all over me. I can tell he's mostly just been bored all day.
Are there any automated toys that you can leave turned on and they will activate at random times throughout the day?
This is about the closest I can find. It will run automatically for 15 minutes, then shut off. If it had an option to turn itself back on for 15 minutes every hour or so, that'd be great.
He has a couple of toys like this but he doesn't really pay attention to them. If it's not powered and moving by itself, he doesn't seem to care.
An automatic toy like you describe would most likely need some sort of motion activated function, otherwise it's battery capacity wouldn't be enough to allow it to operate for any length of time. I'm no expert on automated cat toys, and have never bought one. All the ones I've seen/heard about over the years were very cheaply made, and if they worked at all, didn't do so for very long. The toy you are looking for would require some engineering and quality control that is usually lacking in toy manufacturing. I'm not saying there isn't one out there some where... there may be. But those mechanical/electrical toys that have come along so far leave a lot to be desired. If you do find something decent, please post it here. But remember...'buyer beware'.
The best I can think of would be to get him a playmate. Two kitties can have more fun than you can imagine. If you can afford it and have the room, please consider adopting him a roommate and then get you a bag of catnip. They'll never even notice you're gone!!!
I've found that regularly rotating toys can help keep things "fresh" and like new. Do you have a cat tree? What about a window perch? Do you have a way to hang a small bird feeder near a window to keep him entertained?
I have the Bolt toy you linked to. One of my cats gets bored with it after about five minutes because the laser isn't responsive to his movements. (It also doesn't move as randomly as the pictures suggest. It moves in an oval occasionally stopping or moving backward and then forward again. It doesn't stop long enough for my cats to pounce on it though.) Theoretically, if you had a motorized toy with a wall plug you could plug it into a timer that would turn it on and off automatically. But I can't recall seeing any motorized cat toys that weren't battery powered. I think you'll have the most luck looking for something motion activated as catdad said.
Also a part of the limitations of electronic toys is the same issue with baby toys with some fancy electronic function: They only do one thing...and they break. There are good reasons why toddlers often get more mileage out of a good set of blocks, than a battery operated whatsit.
On that note, we have a thing that hangs from a doorknob, that when you turn it on, it spins a string...you'd think a cat would be excited about a spinny wiggly string, but it's only interesting for a moment or two. The thing with the mat, and the "hidden mouse" wand deal...WHEN IT WORKED...which wasn't long...it didn't keep the cat's interest for that long, either. Nimbus cat's favorite toys to play with when I'm not around are balls with rattles or jingles in them, he can smack 'em and chase 'em across the floor, throw them down the stairs and chase them down, etc. And a feather tail rattle ball thing he carries around all over and tosses into the air for himself. He also likes to push some of his smaller toys under the closet door and then fish them out, although he often pushes them too far in and can't get them without help.
So just like with little kids, sometimes the "basics" are more amusing than the gadgets.
Also a part of the limitations of electronic toys is the same issue with baby toys with some fancy electronic function: They only do one thing...and they break. There are good reasons why toddlers often get more mileage out of a good set of blocks, than a battery operated whatsit.
On that note, we have a thing that hangs from a doorknob, that when you turn it on, it spins a string...you'd think a cat would be excited about a spinny wiggly string, but it's only interesting for a moment or two. The thing with the mat, and the "hidden mouse" wand deal...WHEN IT WORKED...which wasn't long...it didn't keep the cat's interest for that long, either. Nimbus cat's favorite toys to play with when I'm not around are balls with rattles or jingles in them, he can smack 'em and chase 'em across the floor, throw them down the stairs and chase them down, etc. And a feather tail rattle ball thing he carries around all over and tosses into the air for himself. He also likes to push some of his smaller toys under the closet door and then fish them out, although he often pushes them too far in and can't get them without help.
So just like with little kids, sometimes the "basics" are more amusing than the gadgets.
Also of course, windows, birds...all good stuff!
From past experience I've come to believe that the best/most popular toys are the ones that involve interaction that most resemble their natural prey activity. Whenever one of my cats catches a mouse, they do the exact same things with it that they do with jingle ball/bottle cap/wadded up paper ball/etc. Those feather teaser on a wand toys are usually a big hit because the resemble bird like action and stimulates the hunting instinct. I think humans have a bad habit of 'over-thinking' it when designing a new cat toy, and losing sight of what's important/stimulating to a cat. Either that or they design the toy more for human appeal than for the animal.
Probably most people who have lived with cats very long will agree with me, that when it comes to cat toys...sometimes you're better off to just keep it simple.
My cats favorite toy with or without me is a palm frond. Living in FL it's easy to provide them, I just go out and cut one when they wear the current ones out. If you live in an area where you can't obtain them and have an address you don't mind sharing I'll be happy to mail you some to try. It takes quite a while for them to dry out and they don't make a mess when they do.
My cats cracked me up the first time I cut one for them, they literally cried they were so excited! There was a palm next to the balcony and they must have been trying to figure out how to grab those wonderful moving things and here I was getting one! LOL They played with me and when I tired they grabbed them and ran off to play alone. They're 10 and 12 years old now and have the same reaction.
If you can plug in a webcam, you might try making a time lapse video and find out what he does all day?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Febtober
Between work and having a social life (well, mostly work), I'm often gone from my apartment for long stretches of the day and night. I have a cat who is pretty sociable and loves to play. I feel bad for him because many times when I come home, the instant I walk in the door he's meowing and running all over me. I can tell he's mostly just been bored all day.
If you can plug in a webcam, you might try making a time lapse video and find out what he does all day?
I used a Pentax digital camera to take a frame once per minute; for the majority of the day the cats only moved to relocate to a sunny patch or for snacking. More lazy than bored.
Lazy cats are bored cats. If they weren't bored they wouldn't be lazy. My cats are very active during the day, I know, because the evidence is every where when I come home. And then they get interactive play time with me in the evening (and before I leave for work in the morning too)
The more attention and interactive play time cats get with the humans, the more active the cats will be on their own.
Cats are social animals and long hours alone are very unhealthy for the cat. Very lonely.
Please (OP) hire a pet sitter to spend time with your cat every day, or at the very least get another cat, taking time to do the integrations properly. However the cats will still need human interaction very day. Cats need living contact, mental stimulation and affection, every day just like any intelligent species.
And Febtober, your cat is not only bored, he is very lonely. That is a very sad life for a cat, that you have described.
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If you can plug in a webcam, you might try making a time lapse video and find out what he does all day?
