So I have these two cats. They're both about 8 years old, and I'm not sure of their breed, I just kind of label them as "general housecat lineage." They're indoor cats, especially now in the winter, and for the most part they're about what you'd expect in a cat.. sleeps all the time and generally disrespects you if you don't have anything it wants.
The problem is, whenever I get them something new, I can expect them to use it, nay, frickin' love it for about a week and then they start completely ignoring its existence. I recently bought them this big cat house with a bunch of bells and fun play-things on it that's 8' tall, thinking they might enjoy spending their time on that instead of on the floor, and sure enough, they were all over it for about a week and now they won't spend any time on it even if I plunk them down right inside it.. they'll just hop right out. Thinking they may have, um, funked it up, I cleaned it thoroughly myself and then, when that didn't work, had it professionally cleaned, and they still don't care about it. It's getting a little silly, as I generally just get give the article away once they're 'done' with it, but oddly enough I'm having a little trouble finding someone who's willing to take this monstrous tower of catness from me, so I guess I'll have to donate it away (in the past, whenever I've given something away the new owner's cats have no problems using the item in question for the entirety of the life of that item). I mean, I love my cats and I'm fine with them living their lives the way they want, but that thing was kind of expensive, I was hoping they might take a shine to it.
So, anybody got any advice on how to make finicky cats actually use things you get for them, or do I just spoil them too much?
Cover the cathouse with catnip or stick treats in it? Or give them treats when they go near it or get on it? Make them WANT to get in it. Some cats are just weird about stuff. Be lucky yours'll use stuff AT ALL. I got my cat a catbed. What did she decide to do with it? Sleep in it maybe? Nope, she peed all over it and proceeded to ignore it completely.
Don't get them expensive things. I spoil my cat as well, although the most expensive thing I bought for her was a cat scratcher that she never used.
Get them cheap things. You'd be surprised how much mileage you'll get from, say, a paper bag. Do your groceries, empty the bags, give bags to cats, watch it amuse them. Cardboard boxes also work. Plastic bags, too, although that can be hazardous and besides plastic isn't as fun to claw through as paper or cardboard. Rearranging the furniture also keeps them occupied, although that takes too much work.
As for that cat tower you already bought... try keeping it out of sight for a while (like a few months or so). If your cats are the type that likes liying in the sun, move it under the sun.
Paper bags are good. If it's crinkly and annoying they love it. My old cat passed away two years ago but loved boxes. IT'S A BOX! I don't fit in it because it's half my size and it's empty. I don't care...IT'S A BOX! Is that a box? There could be anything in it! Even another box!
She also used to have to know what was in any cabinet drawer or cupboard I opened. Always. I used to open one kitchen drawer, make her walk all the way over to it, close it. Than I'd go over to the other side of the kitchen and open a cupboard over the stove. Let her jump up to get to it...close it. Go open a drawer by the fridge. Repeat until I got bored. Never got old.
I de-arroganted all the cats I've ever owned myself. Open a can of tuna and you can get them to follow you around the house for hours. Very fun to make them degrade themselves.
Pretend you don't care about the cat jungle gym and they'll start using it again when you aren't paying attention. Cats are weird critters that way. They have these interests that come and go at the drop of a dime.
He grateful they get bored with it. If they didn't, it would be an indication of extreme stupidity. Why would a "cat house" be remotely interesting to a cat once they've explored it thoroughly?
Cats are like that. No way you'll ever know that they'll take a shine, esp at that age. I would second the catnip trick, and I would say DON'T get it professionally cleaned. The more that they have their scent on it, the more they are likely to like it. I have a large cat tree and three cats. One LOVES it and climbs to the top tier. Another doesn't even notice it's there. The third only started climbing on it since we moved it closer to the window so he can look out. Now he climbs on it more often because he's not as intimidated by it and he has a REASON to climb on it.
Good points all. I'll try the catnip bribery and hopefully update if it works (or fails miserably).
@mondu: They do love a paper bag, although they've pretty much figured out the most efficient way to shred the things, so it's only like a minute of entertainment for them before I have to sweep up the tattered remnants.
@dcartist: To be fair, I got the thing for the compartments. Yeah, there's bells and whistles which, frankly, I'm grateful they ignore, but it's either the carpetted tower or the hardwood floor and it seems weird that they choose the floor.
A string or soft belt is the only play material you need, both cats I've had played with it often.
I guess you can try getting them to like the cathouse, but in the end if that kind of thing doesn't work I'd just say don't worry about it and use cheap stuff.
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This is just how cats work. My cats do the same thing to new things I bring home, regardless whether it's intended for them or not.
I would try using cardboard boxes. Whenever I get a box in the mail, or whatever, I let the cats fight over it for a couple of days. By the time they get bored of it there is usually a new box to fight over. I have one cat who really loves pizza boxes, and Ill let her have it if its clean enough. Although it is sort of embarrassing to have a pizza box around for a couple weeks or so.
I de-arroganted all the cats I've ever owned myself. Open a can of tuna and you can get them to follow you around the house for hours. Very fun to make them degrade themselves.
Ha, I do this too, especially when my cat refuses to come when called.
So, she doesn't want to come when I call her, eh? I shake her catfood box, she comes running at the sound, I put catfood box back in cupboard.
"Meow? Meow? Meow?"
"Haha, I trolled you!"
Good times.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I've found that cats are just as easily amused by junk around the house as they are by toys I've buy. Frequent "cat toys" used around my place are: straws, the plastic rings from milk cartons, anything cardboard, string, small stuffed animals, toes underneath a blanket, or any combination of the previous items. This way when they get bored with a toy it doesn't matter because I didn't pay anything for it in the first place!
As for the disinterest in the cat tower, I've heard that some cats prefer to be on the ground and others like to be up high. Maybe you have ground-dwelling cats? Putting the tower by a window may help, because every indoor cat I've known loves to stare out the window. If you want to make it even more attractive for them, put a bird feeder outside the window. Cats love to watch birds!
If you have the tools and supplies at your disposal to do the following, you can actually build a cat tower that is immune to "the problem of disinterested kittehs":
Back in college my roommate and I got kittens and we bought them a... I don't know what to call it actually. It was a carpeted 1.5 foot square with a carpeted tube and two carpeted "trees"/scratching posts on it. The kittens loved it, but got bored fairly quickly.
I showed my dad the whatever-it's-called when he came up to see me, and for christmas that year he built me an add-on: a 1.5 ft x 3 ft (these numbers are actually estimates, it may be 2 ft x 4 ft) carpeted box with a hole on the front, a hole in the top, and a place to set the tube-plus-trees-thing up top. The kittens again loved it, and again lost some interest after awhile (although they now had a place to hide, so they never really completely ignored it).
I kept saying how cool it would be to have another level below that, and the guy I was dating at the time told me to draw up a diagram of what I wanted and he'd build it. The result wound up working out much much better than I ever expected! See, I wanted a 3 x 3 ft room with a wall down the middle to make two "rooms", holes to get out through each "room", a hole in the wall to get between the two rooms, and two holes in the top (on opposite corners of the "roof"). Then you put the existing 1.5 x 3 ft room on top of that and the kittens could drop into the lower level from inside it, or climb up from the bottom floor. That's probably hard to envision just from reading text actually.
But the coolest thing about it, which I never even intended, is that the thing can be reconfigured in a ton of different ways! When the cats get bored with it, just change how it's put together and they have a brand new cat tower to explore every couple weeks! You can stand the huge base up on its end, use its "roof" as a front wall, put the middle level on top of it, and the tube-plus-trees on top of that for a narrower but taller tower. Cats bored with that? Put it in a corner, put the two chambers on the ground and use the walls of the house in the corner to create another chamber. Bored with that? Reconfigure it again! I've probably come up with a dozen or more different ways to arrange the thing, often incorporating different parts of the house/apartment/furniture as well, and the cats always spend days exploring it and playing in it to figure it out. And it seems to keep them interested longer even after they understand the new layout. It's so funny to watch the cats when I disassemble the thing and start reconfiguring it! They're all over the thing wanting to know what's going on!
So, anyways, if you have the resources, build a "modular" cat tower of sorts and the cats won't get bored. (If you know anyone putting new carpet in their house, ask for any leftover pieces they wind up with for the tower. That's where mine came from.)
EDIT:
(Neither of those is the intended configuration either.)
Laser pointer placed on some sort of item that moves the point around automatically in various directions all over the room if they like to chance things.
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Don't get rid of it just yet. The same thing happened at my house. Xmas of 2010, we got them a brand new cat-condo to hang out in. For the first week or so, they were all over it. Couldn't get them off it. Now our one cat (the Siamese) hardly ever goes to it when I'm there, but she does go and hang out there occasionally. The other cat has her daily stop there where she looks out the window at the birdfeeder (which got put there so they could sit on the cat-condo and watch the birds).
If you think it will work, you could hide cat treats on/in the cathouse (and there's no window/birdfeeder combination available). Edible treats ;). Not all the time, just occasionally. It gives them a little surprise.
Generally, I don't spend much on cat toys, because I can just go under the couch and find a toy that's been missing and it's like new to them.
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I liek Phelddagrifs.
Official Knitter of the Crafters.
Currently knitting: It's a surprise!
If you have the tools and supplies at your disposal to do the following, you can actually build a cat tower that is immune to "the problem of disinterested kittehs": <snip>
This is an amazing idea. Thank you. I'm already planning some changes! Since my unit isn't modular it might be a bit work intensive but hey, that'll be alright.
Laser pointer placed on some sort of item that moves the point around automatically in various directions all over the room if they like to chance things.
Actually, I already tried this one some time ago. I ended up getting rid of it because they got bored of it and, moreso, because it freaked me the hell out; kept thinking I was being targetted by snipers again. I used to have a hand-held one that worked a little better until they realized that they should eliminate the source of the threat, which was.. painful.
Just as a point of clarification, I don't spend all that much on cat toys. I realize that my OP made it seem that way, but really this new cat tower is about the only thing I've spent more than $20 on, a lot of this stuff I get for free from friends or at garage sales or somesuch.
Laser pointer placed on some sort of item that moves the point around automatically in various directions all over the room if they like to chance things.
Actually don't do this all the time. This can be bad for the cat if its the only thing you use to play with them, because you're taking away the act of actually catching something the cat can see, which messes with their head and psyche. Lasers are fine, but use them sparingly and in conjunction with other things to fetch with.
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The problem is, whenever I get them something new, I can expect them to use it, nay, frickin' love it for about a week and then they start completely ignoring its existence. I recently bought them this big cat house with a bunch of bells and fun play-things on it that's 8' tall, thinking they might enjoy spending their time on that instead of on the floor, and sure enough, they were all over it for about a week and now they won't spend any time on it even if I plunk them down right inside it.. they'll just hop right out. Thinking they may have, um, funked it up, I cleaned it thoroughly myself and then, when that didn't work, had it professionally cleaned, and they still don't care about it. It's getting a little silly, as I generally just get give the article away once they're 'done' with it, but oddly enough I'm having a little trouble finding someone who's willing to take this monstrous tower of catness from me, so I guess I'll have to donate it away (in the past, whenever I've given something away the new owner's cats have no problems using the item in question for the entirety of the life of that item). I mean, I love my cats and I'm fine with them living their lives the way they want, but that thing was kind of expensive, I was hoping they might take a shine to it.
So, anybody got any advice on how to make finicky cats actually use things you get for them, or do I just spoil them too much?
Get them cheap things. You'd be surprised how much mileage you'll get from, say, a paper bag. Do your groceries, empty the bags, give bags to cats, watch it amuse them. Cardboard boxes also work. Plastic bags, too, although that can be hazardous and besides plastic isn't as fun to claw through as paper or cardboard. Rearranging the furniture also keeps them occupied, although that takes too much work.
As for that cat tower you already bought... try keeping it out of sight for a while (like a few months or so). If your cats are the type that likes liying in the sun, move it under the sun.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
She also used to have to know what was in any cabinet drawer or cupboard I opened. Always. I used to open one kitchen drawer, make her walk all the way over to it, close it. Than I'd go over to the other side of the kitchen and open a cupboard over the stove. Let her jump up to get to it...close it. Go open a drawer by the fridge. Repeat until I got bored. Never got old.
I de-arroganted all the cats I've ever owned myself. Open a can of tuna and you can get them to follow you around the house for hours. Very fun to make them degrade themselves.
Pretend you don't care about the cat jungle gym and they'll start using it again when you aren't paying attention. Cats are weird critters that way. They have these interests that come and go at the drop of a dime.
@mondu: They do love a paper bag, although they've pretty much figured out the most efficient way to shred the things, so it's only like a minute of entertainment for them before I have to sweep up the tattered remnants.
@dcartist: To be fair, I got the thing for the compartments. Yeah, there's bells and whistles which, frankly, I'm grateful they ignore, but it's either the carpetted tower or the hardwood floor and it seems weird that they choose the floor.
I guess you can try getting them to like the cathouse, but in the end if that kind of thing doesn't work I'd just say don't worry about it and use cheap stuff.
I would try using cardboard boxes. Whenever I get a box in the mail, or whatever, I let the cats fight over it for a couple of days. By the time they get bored of it there is usually a new box to fight over. I have one cat who really loves pizza boxes, and Ill let her have it if its clean enough. Although it is sort of embarrassing to have a pizza box around for a couple weeks or so.
Ha, I do this too, especially when my cat refuses to come when called.
So, she doesn't want to come when I call her, eh? I shake her catfood box, she comes running at the sound, I put catfood box back in cupboard.
"Meow? Meow? Meow?"
"Haha, I trolled you!"
Good times.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
As for the disinterest in the cat tower, I've heard that some cats prefer to be on the ground and others like to be up high. Maybe you have ground-dwelling cats? Putting the tower by a window may help, because every indoor cat I've known loves to stare out the window. If you want to make it even more attractive for them, put a bird feeder outside the window. Cats love to watch birds!
If you have the tools and supplies at your disposal to do the following, you can actually build a cat tower that is immune to "the problem of disinterested kittehs":
I showed my dad the whatever-it's-called when he came up to see me, and for christmas that year he built me an add-on: a 1.5 ft x 3 ft (these numbers are actually estimates, it may be 2 ft x 4 ft) carpeted box with a hole on the front, a hole in the top, and a place to set the tube-plus-trees-thing up top. The kittens again loved it, and again lost some interest after awhile (although they now had a place to hide, so they never really completely ignored it).
I kept saying how cool it would be to have another level below that, and the guy I was dating at the time told me to draw up a diagram of what I wanted and he'd build it. The result wound up working out much much better than I ever expected! See, I wanted a 3 x 3 ft room with a wall down the middle to make two "rooms", holes to get out through each "room", a hole in the wall to get between the two rooms, and two holes in the top (on opposite corners of the "roof"). Then you put the existing 1.5 x 3 ft room on top of that and the kittens could drop into the lower level from inside it, or climb up from the bottom floor. That's probably hard to envision just from reading text actually.
But the coolest thing about it, which I never even intended, is that the thing can be reconfigured in a ton of different ways! When the cats get bored with it, just change how it's put together and they have a brand new cat tower to explore every couple weeks! You can stand the huge base up on its end, use its "roof" as a front wall, put the middle level on top of it, and the tube-plus-trees on top of that for a narrower but taller tower. Cats bored with that? Put it in a corner, put the two chambers on the ground and use the walls of the house in the corner to create another chamber. Bored with that? Reconfigure it again! I've probably come up with a dozen or more different ways to arrange the thing, often incorporating different parts of the house/apartment/furniture as well, and the cats always spend days exploring it and playing in it to figure it out. And it seems to keep them interested longer even after they understand the new layout. It's so funny to watch the cats when I disassemble the thing and start reconfiguring it! They're all over the thing wanting to know what's going on!
So, anyways, if you have the resources, build a "modular" cat tower of sorts and the cats won't get bored. (If you know anyone putting new carpet in their house, ask for any leftover pieces they wind up with for the tower. That's where mine came from.)
EDIT:
(Neither of those is the intended configuration either.)
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
If you think it will work, you could hide cat treats on/in the cathouse (and there's no window/birdfeeder combination available). Edible treats ;). Not all the time, just occasionally. It gives them a little surprise.
Generally, I don't spend much on cat toys, because I can just go under the couch and find a toy that's been missing and it's like new to them.
Official Knitter of the Crafters.
Currently knitting: It's a surprise!
This is an amazing idea. Thank you. I'm already planning some changes! Since my unit isn't modular it might be a bit work intensive but hey, that'll be alright.
Actually, I already tried this one some time ago. I ended up getting rid of it because they got bored of it and, moreso, because it freaked me the hell out; kept thinking I was being targetted by snipers
again. I used to have a hand-held one that worked a little better until they realized that they should eliminate the source of the threat, which was.. painful.Just as a point of clarification, I don't spend all that much on cat toys. I realize that my OP made it seem that way, but really this new cat tower is about the only thing I've spent more than $20 on, a lot of this stuff I get for free from friends or at garage sales or somesuch.
Actually don't do this all the time. This can be bad for the cat if its the only thing you use to play with them, because you're taking away the act of actually catching something the cat can see, which messes with their head and psyche. Lasers are fine, but use them sparingly and in conjunction with other things to fetch with.