Toys and Enrichment for a blind cat?
April 11, 2018 11:31 AM Subscribe
I want to create lots more play and activity for my blind cat, has anyone any suggestions of cat toys and adventures that work well for an adult cat with nearly zero sight?
My gorgeous blind cat is getting overweight and I'm worried about him being bored. I've had him for 2 years, he gets around the house just fine, but finding things to play with him is quite a challenge.
He's not interested in things with bells in them, only rustly noises seem to get his attention. Screwed up balls of tinfoil rolled on hard floor or carpet don't attract his attention. Most toys don't, other than one I have that makes a crinkly noise; another I have that also makes a crinkly noise, does not attract his attention.
With his one toy, his play seems to be limited to grabbing, mauling and kicking. No other toys have gotten him interested - I've tried balls with and without bells in them, tinkly mice things, toys on elastic with bells on them,and toys that dispense treats if he plays around with them.
He has a couple of boxes he likes to hide in and attack a pen or something similar if I drag it along the box, other than this I'm kind of stuck! Has anyone any good ideas for my lad?
My gorgeous blind cat is getting overweight and I'm worried about him being bored. I've had him for 2 years, he gets around the house just fine, but finding things to play with him is quite a challenge.
He's not interested in things with bells in them, only rustly noises seem to get his attention. Screwed up balls of tinfoil rolled on hard floor or carpet don't attract his attention. Most toys don't, other than one I have that makes a crinkly noise; another I have that also makes a crinkly noise, does not attract his attention.
With his one toy, his play seems to be limited to grabbing, mauling and kicking. No other toys have gotten him interested - I've tried balls with and without bells in them, tinkly mice things, toys on elastic with bells on them,and toys that dispense treats if he plays around with them.
He has a couple of boxes he likes to hide in and attack a pen or something similar if I drag it along the box, other than this I'm kind of stuck! Has anyone any good ideas for my lad?
Best answer: I had an obese blind cat. He loved his crinkly mouse and crinkly balls. I love the idea above about a crinkly tube. For interactive play, we had a kitten mitten - a glove with long fingers and pom poms on the ends that worked well.
posted by OrangeVelour at 11:50 AM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by OrangeVelour at 11:50 AM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
What about toys that have catnip in them? Is he motivated by that?
PS: You forgot to pay the cat tax.
posted by hydra77 at 12:00 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
PS: You forgot to pay the cat tax.
posted by hydra77 at 12:00 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Long, crinkly, ribbon-like things (e.g., few feet of 3/8 inch wide giftwrap ribbon, taped to a chopstick) worked like a charm for my blind cat. Unlike a round toy, it's a lot easier to catch a long string if you can't see it. At least that's my model for why she liked it. A liberal sprinkling of catnip and shredded valerian root helped.
posted by eotvos at 12:09 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 12:09 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yeah, maybe one of those filled-with-catnip kick toys? TBH, my cats mostly ignore this, but they have an embarrassing number of things to choose from. Once in a while one of them will lie down with their head on it. One of them definitely bites it sometimes. The toymaker claims all kinds of joy.
posted by clone boulevard at 12:09 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by clone boulevard at 12:09 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
My dear departed Melanie, blind from birth, loved all the same toys as her sighted peers. She also especially liked the crinkly-noise ones others have mentioned. She kept Uncle CrinkleMoth (butterfly-shaped) most of her life. She was also partial to a big, soft blush brush.
Sometimes she liked to take a toy inside a cardboard box or a big plastic washtub with her. I don't know if that was a blind thing to keep from losing it, or a hunting thing to keep her prey in her lair. (She was a better hunter than the sighted cats in the house, that's for sure.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:34 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Sometimes she liked to take a toy inside a cardboard box or a big plastic washtub with her. I don't know if that was a blind thing to keep from losing it, or a hunting thing to keep her prey in her lair. (She was a better hunter than the sighted cats in the house, that's for sure.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:34 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
As far as enrichment goes, when I first got her at four weeks, the vet said to pick her up and handle her as much as possible, to stimulate her little nervous system.
(She became a bit spoiled in the process.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:37 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
(She became a bit spoiled in the process.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:37 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
A textured mat sprinkled with catnip was a hit with my blind boy.
posted by Stacey at 12:41 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 12:41 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: oh heck - I forgot the Cat Tax!
posted by sarahdal at 12:43 PM on April 11, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by sarahdal at 12:43 PM on April 11, 2018 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: Great ideas everyone, thank you so much! I wonder if the one crinkly toy he prefers over the other is because it has a stronger catnip smell? I've ordered a few thing tonight and I'll try out some of the others. I did spot Whitevine online for the first time - has anyone tried that?
posted by sarahdal at 12:45 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sarahdal at 12:45 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: With my mostly blind cat, I find that he needs a lot more time tracking. He's got three main activities (minus wrestling with the other cat, which is probably 80% his exercise)
1. This snake thing. It rattles and has cat nip, so he can track with two different senses. He'll still watch in amazement for a few minutes as I track it on the same path. Basically he's trying to learn it's pattern to feel comfortable to really go after it with full force. Once he catches it, he'll try to wrestle with it, or sometimes play tug of war.
2. largeish catnip toys. For some reason, the curve of the rainbow make it his favorite. Sometimes he'll spontaneously come across them in the wild and attack. But mostly he'll just be clearly needy. I'll sorta headbutt him with the toy to rile him up and then throw it at him when he starts to roll over and expose his belly for the attack. It takes timing to make sure your hand does not become collateral damage.
3. Qtips in the tub. You would think you want to throw past him and make him jump. But the most effective strategy is to have about 30-40 qtips and treat it like batting practice. Throw in the strike zone towards his face. They don't throw straight, and he can't see, so there's actually a whole lot of jumping trying to catch it in his mouth and scurrying after once it bounces off his face. It sounds dumb and potentially mean, but whenever I head towards the bathroom, he'll run past me and jump in the tub expectantly.
posted by politikitty at 12:53 PM on April 11, 2018 [11 favorites]
1. This snake thing. It rattles and has cat nip, so he can track with two different senses. He'll still watch in amazement for a few minutes as I track it on the same path. Basically he's trying to learn it's pattern to feel comfortable to really go after it with full force. Once he catches it, he'll try to wrestle with it, or sometimes play tug of war.
2. largeish catnip toys. For some reason, the curve of the rainbow make it his favorite. Sometimes he'll spontaneously come across them in the wild and attack. But mostly he'll just be clearly needy. I'll sorta headbutt him with the toy to rile him up and then throw it at him when he starts to roll over and expose his belly for the attack. It takes timing to make sure your hand does not become collateral damage.
3. Qtips in the tub. You would think you want to throw past him and make him jump. But the most effective strategy is to have about 30-40 qtips and treat it like batting practice. Throw in the strike zone towards his face. They don't throw straight, and he can't see, so there's actually a whole lot of jumping trying to catch it in his mouth and scurrying after once it bounces off his face. It sounds dumb and potentially mean, but whenever I head towards the bathroom, he'll run past me and jump in the tub expectantly.
posted by politikitty at 12:53 PM on April 11, 2018 [11 favorites]
Oh! When tracking the snake or other ribbon type toy, I find that the path needs to go past him. Either he's at the end of the arc where it hits ground, or he's at the middle, but it's too high so he has to commit to either jumping or running to one end. It mostly depends on where he is in relation to me sitting on the couch.
posted by politikitty at 1:00 PM on April 11, 2018
posted by politikitty at 1:00 PM on April 11, 2018
Cats are very smart, and can be successfully clicker trained, which people used to think was true only of dogs. With a blind cat, I might look up scent training / smell training for dogs and adapt it (easily) for cats. I think it's mainly hiding treats and scented toys under things and around the house and cueing the animal to go look for them, which sounds fun, but there's probably more to it than that.
posted by amtho at 1:23 PM on April 11, 2018
posted by amtho at 1:23 PM on April 11, 2018
Have you tried one of those new-ish roly-poly toys with treats inside? The one I have makes a rattling sound.
posted by bleep at 2:04 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 2:04 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Catnip, of course, smells great to cats. Also anything food related. Maybe a toilet paper tube with some oil from a can of tuna. Definitely a toy you can fill with kibble. I used to tie a plastic barrette to a door handle so my sighted cat could bat it. Try that with a catnip toy. I always sprayed the scratching post with catnip spray.
posted by theora55 at 4:44 PM on April 11, 2018
posted by theora55 at 4:44 PM on April 11, 2018
Best answer: Maybe this is specific to my sweet weird blind cat, but she loves it when I roll a large plastic spring past her on hardwood floor (like these). It makes a soft whirring sound she can follow and chase, and she seems to like following its erratic patterns. End game is picking it up with her paws and jamming it in her mouth to shake around.
posted by 1UP at 6:42 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by 1UP at 6:42 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Oddly enough, Howard Stern was just talking the other day on his show about how his blind cat (now passed away) loved to play with a feather-on-a-string toy!
posted by amro at 7:19 PM on April 11, 2018
posted by amro at 7:19 PM on April 11, 2018
Best answer: Seeing your black kitty reminded me how much my black kitty loves TubPong, which reminds me how much Melanie the Blind Kitty loved it.
Materials: Cat, Bathtub, Plastic ping-pong balls (at least two)
Procedure: When Cat is within earshot of Bathtub, throw in one Ball. Pick up and keep throwing in until Cat enters Bathtub to give chase. Introduce additional Balls as Cat's enthusiasm increases.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:44 AM on April 12, 2018 [3 favorites]
Materials: Cat, Bathtub, Plastic ping-pong balls (at least two)
Procedure: When Cat is within earshot of Bathtub, throw in one Ball. Pick up and keep throwing in until Cat enters Bathtub to give chase. Introduce additional Balls as Cat's enthusiasm increases.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:44 AM on April 12, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh! Very belatedly, but I just saw this in a Google search looking for toys for my sweet blind kitty. (He's not yet fat, but much of his exercise also comes from tackling other cats, usually while chirping wildly to himself. If you can swing a kitty buddy and he'd like one, I highly recommend it.)
We are a little luckier in that he likes bells as well as crinklies, but we've also had luck with both wand toys that had a hard tap-tap-tap noise against the tile and also furry wand attachments like these buffalo hair toys that can be hunted by smell. The trick is to drag it along the ground only, give him a little more time to find and track it, and ideally to make noise as you drag the toy around. Hard and clackly or adding little bells is probably your friend. (Even if bells aren't attractive on their own--sometimes they are better when they move unpredictably for hunting. Although Dent will happily bat at dangling bells, find them, and attempt to gnaw them off, so YMMV.) He also hunts toes under blankets extremely enthusiastically, much to our collective chagrin, and I have often wondered how he would handle the Ripple Rug.
Weirdly enough for a blind cat, he also very much like those ball-on-a-track toys if you get the balls moving for him--he can work out where they'll be and hear the balls rattling, and he'll get himself worked up trying to smack them in their track.
posted by sciatrix at 8:19 PM on September 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
We are a little luckier in that he likes bells as well as crinklies, but we've also had luck with both wand toys that had a hard tap-tap-tap noise against the tile and also furry wand attachments like these buffalo hair toys that can be hunted by smell. The trick is to drag it along the ground only, give him a little more time to find and track it, and ideally to make noise as you drag the toy around. Hard and clackly or adding little bells is probably your friend. (Even if bells aren't attractive on their own--sometimes they are better when they move unpredictably for hunting. Although Dent will happily bat at dangling bells, find them, and attempt to gnaw them off, so YMMV.) He also hunts toes under blankets extremely enthusiastically, much to our collective chagrin, and I have often wondered how he would handle the Ripple Rug.
Weirdly enough for a blind cat, he also very much like those ball-on-a-track toys if you get the balls moving for him--he can work out where they'll be and hear the balls rattling, and he'll get himself worked up trying to smack them in their track.
posted by sciatrix at 8:19 PM on September 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
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Also I’ve found mouse toys that make a convincing bird-like chirping noise, if that’s more appealing than bells.
One of my cats looooved laying on tissue paper or newspaper.
posted by ananci at 11:41 AM on April 11, 2018 [4 favorites]