4 Simple Tips to Help Your Cats Play By Themselves

Cats need stimulation, and despite how much we want to give our cats that stimulation, we butlers might have our own things going on which require immediate attention. As a result, this requires some knowledge about keeping our cats busy, engaged, and out of trouble – in a way that doesn’t require our direct input.

I’m always an advocate of having meaningful interactive playtime with our cats, but there will be times when life calls, and we have to manage our time more efficiently.

So how can you help your cats play (or motivate them to play) by themselves & occupy them throughout the day longer?

1. Know which toys your cats prefer and rotate/recycle them in an interesting way.
2. Use play environment toys to initiate your cat’s hunter drive.
3. Utilize large puzzle feeders for snacks & mealtimes.
4. Add another companion cat to enhance all of the above!

Know Your Cat’s Preferences & Toy Rotation

Benefits:

• Usually extends independent playtime by 5-10 minutes because it keeps the existing toys interesting
• Can be both passive (cat independently play) or active (can play together with their owners)
• Reuse and recycles old toys
• Better owner awareness of our cat’s preferences
• Very cheap and/or can be made very easily

Cats are not all the same. They have their own comfort zones, food preferences, and of course, playstyles. If you’re a new cat owner, I would recommend getting a basket of various toys and textures and seeing what they respond to the most. Take note of the length of time that your cats stay interested in the toy, in addition to its texture and size.

After the observation period, take 3-5 of the top toys that the cat responded to the most and then see the similarities. After a while, owners can get a sense of what their cat likes to play with. For example, my Bengal cat loves rubbery/furry textures and balls about the size of a ping pong ball. So whenever I buy toys for him to play with independently, it’s usually rubbery bouncy balls about the same size or felt balls that he can really sink his teeth into. He loves playing fetch with those balls!

In comparison, my Russian Blue cat loves small toys that rattle around as he bats them on the floor, so I have a few variations of those types of toys too.

After you learn about your cat’s preferences, the next step is to cycle those toys in a way that presents them a little differently each time. Many cat studies have shown that novelty matters and even though a cat might be shown two identical toys, they will usually show more of a response to the newer toy rather than the toy they’ve already played with.

Novelty can mean many things, but it can be a differentiation in color, sound, or smells. What’s the easiest to control out of those categories? Smell. When a toy isn’t being used, put it in a zip lock bag full of catnip or another pleasant smell that the cat isn’t used to and put the used toy back into the zip lock bag so that it can “refresh” itself.

Attaching something to an already existing toy can be a source of novelty too. For example, attaching a string or ribbon to a small mouse toy can bring a lot of enjoyment from a simple modification.

It not only increases your cat’s engagement but also reuses the toys that you already have, so owners don’t have to keep buying toys for their cats. Efficient and saves the wallet!

Use Play Environment Toys/DIY Alternatives

Benefits:

• Cats come back play in these toys many times throughout the day, thus accumulating a lot of independent playtime throughout the day
• Very passive (plop it down and forget)
• Reduces stress and promotes play (science-backed)
• Reusable, durable, and foldable when you need to clean up
• Also easily made or cheaply purchased

I talk about this category of toys because it’s very passive and can create many fun situations for our cats to interact with, both playing alone with their toys or with their cat companion friends. I’m sure you’ve noticed that your cats love to get into small spaces, boxes, and places that are hard to get to.

Providing these types of areas so that they can explore and get into creates a fun and engaging space for them, but studies also show that cats that have these types of small spaces provide stress-reducing effects, which allow cats to adapt better to their environment.

If I leave somewhere for a longer period of time, I always take out either the cat tunnel or the ripple mat. The moment I take them out, the cats follow me, and they’re almost always immediately playing with these toys.

These toys don’t have to be bought either. People can easily create these types of environments for their cats to burrow, hide, and play. It’s why cats love large paper bags! If you go grocery shopping a lot and have access to paper bags, it’s as easy as throwing these down on the floor and letting the cats go wild. The only problem is that it doesn’t take long for cats to rip it, and it has to be thrown away.

Utilize Puzzle Feeders More Effectively

Benefits:

• Slow down eating and mealtime to be more deliberate and meaningful
• Cats can revisit the puzzle multiple times per day and have to figure out how to get the food/snacks if they want to eat
• Mental and instinctual satisfaction
• Great for lazy cats because it starts to get the ball rolling on creating an active lifestyle
• Great weight loss/weight management tool for owners with obese cats

Another item that I use religiously to occupy my cats is the puzzle feeder but not those smaller ones for snacks. I use large puzzle feeders exclusively for my cat’s scheduled mealtimes.

Mealtimes for many cats last about 2-3 minutes as owners plop down the food on a plate and the cats scarf it all down. While it’s pretty great for the cat as they don’t really have to think about obtaining their food, it doesn’t benefit them in the long run in terms of health and mental engagement.

It’s one of the reasons many indoor cats become obese and lethargic. They get used to the fact that everything is literally served on the silver platter. In my experience, even playing with my cats every day could not offset the fact that my cats were eating too fast and too much sometimes (reducing a lot of vomiting due to overeating, too!). Allowing them to slow down with puzzle feeders has really helped with managing their weight.

Cats in the wild are supposed to obtain and hunt for their food, and that’s what I’m trying to simulate each mealtime. They’ll paw and scratch at stuff to catch what they need to eat – it’s a dynamic and ever-changing puzzle for them to obtain their food. It’ll be hard to recreate that perfectly, but puzzle feeders help the cats take a more methodical approach as they eat.

Some people might say that cats don’t respond to puzzle feeders, but if they’re hungry enough (and you’re not free-feeding your cats), they’ll have no choice but to interact with the puzzle feeder.

For more tips and hacks on better use puzzle feeders, please read about Tips and Notes for Cat Puzzles.

What’s Better Than One Cat Playing By Themselves? Two Cats Playing With Each Other!

Benefits:

• Learning social and behavioral cues from each other
• Initiate play and provide each other comfort/companionship
• Frequent interactions throughout the day is sure to keep them both busy and out of trouble

Last but not least is adding another companion cat, and I think most owners know the benefits of adding another cat. However, it can be difficult due to the resident cat’s personality, family, living situation, or fear of introducing cats. So I always advise, if it’s possible, to adopt 2 already bonded cats at once to save yourself the trouble of introducing them.

However, I’ve developed a fairly easy and quick way to introduce cats in a small space that might help alleviate some anxiety during the introduction process.

Because truly, seeing your two feline babies running and playing around with each other is quite a joy to see.