Also don’t play fight with a cat, especially a kitten using your hand. If you want to play fight use a stuffed animal or something. Teach them from an early age that human hands are not toys.
My cat would be really confused and probably a bit frightened at this point if I tried to roughhouse with her using my hand but if I get her “battle buddy” stuffed animal out it’s on.
OOOOH! Yes. That’s another good point that I never even thought about. I just naturally never used my hands, because I don’t like it anyways, but I always used a feather on a stick/string.
Another thing I never use is laserpens. I used to. I feel bad that I ever did. It’s fun, but then you learn that cats play is only stimulating their hunting drives. And since they can catch the feather on a string, they feel a sense of satisfaction for having caught it. Whereas they can’t catch a red dot. So never catching it apparently gives them PTSD. They feel depressed that they can’t be good hunters if they can’t catch the red dot.
If you were using both, it was probably okay. The cat quickly learns the red dot is a lie and either decides not to chase it, or decides it’s good for a bit of pouncing and then grabs a different toy to fight or a snack of kibble to bite.
Also don’t play fight with a cat, especially a kitten using your hand. If you want to play fight use a stuffed animal or something. Teach them from an early age that human hands are not toys.
My cat would be really confused and probably a bit frightened at this point if I tried to roughhouse with her using my hand but if I get her “battle buddy” stuffed animal out it’s on.
So, are hand puppets a middle ground?
OOOOH! Yes. That’s another good point that I never even thought about. I just naturally never used my hands, because I don’t like it anyways, but I always used a feather on a stick/string.
Another thing I never use is laserpens. I used to. I feel bad that I ever did. It’s fun, but then you learn that cats play is only stimulating their hunting drives. And since they can catch the feather on a string, they feel a sense of satisfaction for having caught it. Whereas they can’t catch a red dot. So never catching it apparently gives them PTSD. They feel depressed that they can’t be good hunters if they can’t catch the red dot.
If you were using both, it was probably okay. The cat quickly learns the red dot is a lie and either decides not to chase it, or decides it’s good for a bit of pouncing and then grabs a different toy to fight or a snack of kibble to bite.