Are there any cats that, after enough exposures to a laser pointer, eventually figure out that they’ll never catch it and then ignore them for that point forward or are all cats fascinated by laser pointers no matter how much they are exposed to them?
No, but I have had a cat who simply did not give a hoot about that little red dot.
My cats are thoroughly non-impressed. But they aren’t big players. They like the odd fly. And once they got after a big ol’ ugly centipede in the house. That was a treat.
some of my cats love the thing and some of them couldn’t give a care
actually, some vets and animal behaviorist think the laser pointers are a bad thing because a cat can’t ever “catch” them and they get frustrated with them and it might mess up their hunting instincts
Most of my cats have figured out pretty quickly that I was controlling the dot. I wonder if they could hear the device.
oh they know we control the dot… they don’t care…
I’ve heard this, so I try to include a combination of toys with the laser doodlebug.
Same here. My guys have plenty of toys, and if they won’t play with them on their own, I’ll encourage them to play with a ball, or their “fishing pole,” or a catnip mouse. I’m usually, but not always, successful. But the laser pointer comes out once every few weeks, so it’s a novelty, not a regular thing.
I’ve failed my cat in that I’ve treated him mostly like a dog. I never liked using a laser pointer dot with Daisy-dog when I had her because it triggered her prey-drive something fierce and she just got neurotic. But my cat just seemed so un-cat like I figured a little prey-drive triggering is just what the little fella needed. He was fascinated for about ten seconds and then couldn’t care less about it.
I can still get him to pay attention to it if I flash it on the ceiling but I have to lead him to it. I first have to shine it close to him so he’ll notice it and then lead it away from him up the wall and on the ceiling at which point he’ll start chattering and freaking, but when I bring the dot back down – ADHD all over again … I think he just get’s concerned that the dot is so high. When it gets back down to him he’s satisfied with it.
I’ve had some cats who didn’t seem to be able to see a red laser pointer but reacted strongly to a green one. I wonder if the red wavelength might be close to the edge of detectability for cats.
I think it’s a bit mean to never let them catch it, so I usually immediately follow up with a string on a stick or something similar that they can actually get their paws into.
I’ve had several cats over the years. Some were interested, some weren’t. The last cat I had was a strictly indoor cat. She knew what it was and where it was kept, and would freak out as soon as she realized I was holding it or of she saw me get it. I had to moderate usage because she would chase that thing into panting exhaustion. The laser pointer was her crack cocaine.
My current cat is an ex feral. He hunts for fun, and spring and summer are spent disposing of mice heads from the garden.
I tried the laser pointer, he was interested for a minute or so, then he started staring at my hand, walked away.
The children subsequently tried, he briefly looks at it, walks off.
He does love a cardboard box, eventually ripping it to bits.
I think that because he has unlimited hunting opportunities, he doesn’t enjoy supervised play. He seems to get angry with the feather on a stick, tries to rip it away from you. He will also storm about with a piece of paper or any little something he found by himself.
He’s a funny one, loves pets, but has a great sense of self.
He seems to think that “playing” with a human actively involved, is beneath a fellow of his age and experience.
Not cats, but my mom’s dog loved it, for about five minutes, until he figured it out and promptly lost interest. A friend’s dog, meanwhile, figured it out similarly fast, but doesn’t care and loves playing with it anyway. And I’ve also seen human children who react just like cats do.
Our cat “figured it out” but still plays. She perks up right away when I pick up the pointer, ready to go. I can’t get her to run from one end of the room to the other anymore but I can still sometimes get her to spin in a circle a bunch of times.
She will even come up to me in the chair and very gently tap my arm to let me know it’s play time.
Huh. Mine acts like she doesn’t see the dot, though she loves a good game of “Kill The Wiggly String” so maybe it is a visual thing. I’ll look out for other color lasers!
My current cat can hear the button clicking and figured out I was controlling the dot. He started attacking my hand instead of the dot.
Doc, this made me laugh a little
May I just remark that “Dr. Girlfriend” is a lovely user name?
One of my cats, the now long-departed Midnight, looked at the spot, then back up at my hand. I got the very clear impression that he though “Oh – YOU’RE doing that.” And never chased the spot.
Most of our other cats loved chasing it. One of them would get excited when she heard the “clink” of the hain hitting its sides as I picked it up, and would get in position to chase it – but that could simply have been a Pavlovian association of the sound with the dot, bot necessarily “figuring out” what the pointer was.
Our current cats clearly know that we’re responsible for the dot, and are directing it, but they don’t care – they’ll chase it anyway.
None of my previous cats had any interest in the laser pointer, but my current cat LOVES it. She knows I’m in control of the device. She comes running when she hears the sound of it jangle on the tabletop. She knew I was keeping it on the tabletop and would toss it to the floor in order to get me to play with it. Then she figured out I started keeping it in a small box on the tabletop and starting pushing that onto the floor. Now I hide it where she can’t find it, so she goes to the tabletop where it used to be and starts methodically pushing everything off it until I pay attention and get it out.
Then, when we play laser pointer, she will only play ON the living room rug. She refuses to stop onto the floor. She will only run back and forth along the rug, no matter how hard I try to trick her into running off the edge.