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Cats go “crazy” chasing the light of the laser pointer
cats need exercise
The desire to catch the point of light of a laser pointer that runs on the floor, will increase your desire to make it move in order to hit it. hunt.
Negative points of playing with a laser pointer with your cat
1. Physical security
- Retinal damage: he laser pointer It can cause damage to your cat’s retina. This is why it is important to never aim at your pet’s eyes. However, even if you don’t mean to, this can happen by accident. Especially if there are children at home.
- Exhaustion: generally cats will not stop chasing the laser pointer until we stop moving it. It doesn’t matter, if your cat is exhausted, he won’t stop if you don’t stop.
2. Emotional security
- Frustration: Chasing the laser pointer is a prey-chasing exercise for your cat. However, it will never be able to catch the light. This could lead to great frustration for your cat, as his efforts to chase will never bear fruit.
- Assault: some cats may have problems managing stress produced by the exhaustion of chasing the laser and not catching it. This inability to handle these negative emotionscan lead to exteriorization of aggressive behaviors by your cat.
What games can you play with your cat?
The games that are suitable for the well-being of your cat are, for example:
- Play with laser but add a doll: The laser pointer has the advantage of being a toy that generates high motivation in any type of cat. But also, it is easy to move it at full speed and stimulate your cat to move and keep fit. However, if we want to prevent stress and emotions related to frustration from appearing, we can add a stuffed animal, or something that can be caught between its paws.
- rod sets: they consist of a doll or feather attached to a stick by string, just like a fishing rod. To stimulate your cat’s hunting instinct and have fun, you simply have to move the rod a lot and give “life” to the “bait”.
What to do to entertain a cat?
If you live with a cat, it is possible that you have observed that in addition to toys, there are endless objects of daily use with which they are greatly entertained. An investigation carried out by the University of Sussex and based on surveys of more than a thousand people who live with cats, affirms that the objects that cats catch the most, in addition to their toys, are:
- hair bands
- hygienic swabs
- Forks
- Office supplies such as clips, rubber bands, pens
- socks, gloves
- flanges
- bottle stoppers
- Paper balls
Cats also play fetch the ball
Surveys of cat owners about the tastes of their pets when it comes to playing also suggest that the game of fetching the ball, which seemed exclusive to dogs, also appears in cats.
Specifically 95% of those surveyed affirm that their cat brings back an object that has been thrown at it. Of course, previously it is the cats who have chosen the object in question.
In addition to cats and dogsthe Wolves they also possess the ability to play socially with a person and bring the ball back. This implies that the cognitive ability to understand human signals and play fetch the ball so that it can be thrown again could be independent of the domestication process.
References:
- Wheat, CH et al. 2020. Intrinsic ball retrieving in wolf puppies suggests standing ancestral variation for human-directed play behavior. Science, 23(2), 100811.
