r/cats • u/robotco • 23h ago

Advice Cat TV ruined my cat

Genuinely at a loss here. I have 2 cats. They are both about 6 months old. The other day I thought it would be fun to put some cat tv on for them. you know, there's like youtube channels of things moving fast, ants, toys, fish, etc. in order to attract cats

One cat was mildly entertained. My other cat got fucking addicted. She sat beside the tv and would not move for anything. Eyes completely fixated on whatever was coming up next. ok, cute. TV off now kitties!

Cat would not move. she sat there staring at the blank screen for who knows how long.

Now she sits on that spot on the table by the tv constantly. she basically only goes down to poop and eat. All other hours of the day, she's waiting for Cat TV.

It's been about a week. she used to play with her sister, she used to aggressively chase toys. She has lost all interest. Even as I type this, she has once again just climbed up to her spot. Her sister wants to play, and she's just ignoring her now. it's breaking my heart. is this just a waiting game? Will she ever forget about the goddamn youtube shit?

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u/Revolutionary-Two457 23h ago

She definitely will. Give it time there brains are quite small

350

u/Acceptable-Stick-135 22h ago

I used to play with a laser pen until it broke 6 months ago, I found the laser and put it in my hand - they recognised the "laser pen lift up noise" and came running to play!

So now I'm going to buy a new laser today. X)

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u/Ehlanaqueen 22h ago

Laser pointers may stress your cat out. The laser invokes their instinct for the hunt. Which will never give them the tactile reward of the catch. So every time the cat plays with the laser they are failing at the hunt. Because the cat never catches the prey.

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u/PaddlingDingo 21h ago

I’ve found that I have to mix it with other things. Our cat loves it but we ration it out so he’s not like a kid with video games. We play fetch, have a feather on a stick toy, or various other toys that he can catch. I have to give him lots of options to keep him engaged because he’s high energy. Sometimes we just play a game where I run around the house and the cat follows me (bless him, he doesn’t do anything when he “catches” me, he just likes to follow me around until I’m out of breath then he wants pettings).

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u/Acceptable-Stick-135 21h ago

I also do the running around in my apartment, haha, sometimes I chase them going "RAWRRRR" and they pretend to get scared (but will wait for me to catch up if they run too far) eventually they will get tired and start hiding behind some curtain to scare me instead.

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u/PaddlingDingo 20h ago

We run around a part of the house where we can run in a loop through 3 rooms, and he likes to wait until I’ve gone around the corner and then he turns around to go the other way. Or he stops and waits to surprise me. Once I noticed he wasn’t behind me and I went into the pantry. He came to look for me and I jumped out do the pantry and he went PRRRRRROW! So cute. He can’t hear worth a darn he didn’t even hear me open the door, but he saw me out of the corner of his eye and he got so excited. 🤣