Is your cat ready for the Olympics?
At our house, the Kitty Olympics take place every day. No matter how busy my schedule is, I make time to play with Allegra and Ruby at least a couple of times a day.
Regular, structured playtime not only keeps your cats happy and entertained, it also helps correct behavior problems, or avoid them in the first place. If you’ve been watching My Cat From Hell, you’ve seen that “play therapy” is almost always the first thing Jackson Galaxy recommends to start fixing the problems shown on the show.
While I may not be awarding medals to Allegra and Ruby, I can definitely identify favorite disciplines for each of them. Allegra is a world champion Da Bird chaser. She’s “killed” several attachments already – thankfully, it comes with replacements.
She also likes to go for the gold chasing her Spring Toys. You can watch her retrieve two of them from underneath the stove in the video above.
Ruby has become quite fond of her Moderncat Stacks toy, and excels at chasing it up and down the stairs.
Another one of Allegra and Ruby’s favorite disciplines is Tickle Pickle wrestling. After dominating the Tickle Pickle in yet another round, Ruby is ready for a nap.
When it comes to track and field, the Bergan Turbo Track Scratcher is a favorite at our house. Allegra and Ruby have the version pictured above on both of their birthday wish lists.
We also love this Undercover Mouse electronic toy – I can’t wait to find out whether Allegra or Ruby will be the winner in this particular discipline.
I’ve made sure my credit cards are locked up safely ever since Allegra and Ruby have discovered the toy section of the Spirit Essences store (click on the image to view the entire page). They keep telling me that since Jackson Galaxy recommends all these toys, we should have at least one of each at our house!
Toys like these will keep your little feline athlete in top shape, both physically and mentally.
If your cats were to enter the kitty Olympics, what disciplines would they medal in?
Thank you so much for these new toy suggestions! I will certainly make my human look at the Spirit Essences toy page for replacement “Da Bird” feathers (we “killed” all of ours!) and lots more!
I’m a traditionalist when it comes to my toys myself. Mouseys are still my all time favorite! I like to eat the tail then skin the mousey and bring the skin to my human as a present! She loves it! I think toy mousey attacking should be an Olympic sport.
Marble, tell your human to use code CONSCIOUSCAT in the Spirit Essences store. She’ll save 10% on her entire order.That way, she can buy even more toys for you!
Wonderful Olympic cats!
My rescue Ajax (lives up to his Olympian name!)plays fetch with his spring coil toy for at least a half-hour a day. As my daughter says, he’s much better at it than our dogs. Drops it at my feet every time!
Thanks for all your fabulous kit tie articles!
Nancy
Retriever kitty – I love it, Nancy!
Rikki’s toy is chasing Lucy all over the apt.
Lucy likes this scratchy box I got from petsmrt . It has the scratchy board on top with little cut outs around the box. There is an annoying bell ball inside that drives her crazy. She loves putting her paw inside the cutouts to try to get the ball.
I have to find that box for Allegra and Ruby, Diana – they would love something like that.
Lucy gets flat out violent with that box..LOL. Rikki just looks at it.
Your girls would love it.
Ingrid, question. I looked up those spring toys online. I’m sure L&R would get a kick out of them. I saw a reviewer say their cat had tried to eat them and had a problem with them. Have your cats tried to do that? or do they just beat them around? are they so small they would swallow them or so flimsy the plastic might break off?
Allegra and Ruby have never tried to eat the springs, and they’re pretty sturdy – it would take a lot of chewing to break off a piece. That being said, when I first got them, I would only allow them to play with the springs while I supervised. Now that I’ve had them for almost a year, I’m pretty comfortable that they won’t chew them, and I leave a few out all the time. Periodically, I go on “spring recovery missions” – the amount of springs that end up underneath furniture is absolutely amazing, and it provides great entertainment for the girls to watch me retrieve them…
Thanks I may try them.
Oh yea, Lucy has this little dollar toy with paper on the ends..size of a writing pen that she just loves pawing under the frig. They think I’m nuts when I go scavenging for them.
LOL…My cats will beat anyone at the 100 meter hallway dash as long as the race takes place at 3 AM
Thanks for all the purrrrfect kitty toy ideas!
I bet there are a lot of kitties who are especially good at their respective disciplines at 3am, Jessica!
I am lucky that four of them–sometimes five when their mom joins in–play very well together, and possibly their favorite play activity is drag racing from the corner of the basement up to the second floor, then back down, and truly, Feline Olympic Drag Racing should be considered a serious sport–medals only awarded to the feline who can run through a cluster of breakable items and across my desk without so much as touching them with a hair.
Stairway Ball has been a favorite for decades here and should also be a qualifier, where I stand at the bottom of the steps and toss anything that is lightweight and will bounce back down for kitties to chase–requiring quite a bit of feline skill to run down the steps and chase a bouncing bit of prey. Disqualified if you catch it when it’s reached the bottom and is rolling around on the carpet.
Running through the house–me–with two Da Birds is another favorite, medals awarded for the kitty who can catch one while I’m running!
Of course, there is always stalking and catching the real mousies in the basement…
Never a dull moment at your house, huh, Bernadette?
Just so no one is looking in the windows.
Oh we’re Da Bird FInalists 4 sure – and we loooves the Necko flier, especially the Kragonfly! (well, okay, MOM likes it because we don’t completely destroy it within days like we usually do the Necko mousie thing. It’s just sooo darn realistic that we chase and chase it and nom on it if Mommy doesn’t grab it away fast!)
Allegra and Ruby are big fans of the Neko Flies, too!
I volunteer at our local SPCA and we are lucky enough to have a feline behavior specialist on staff. She has taught me how vital play is for a cat in a home and a shelter enviroment.
As for Olympians-my Bengal Lennon would be an expert at track & field. Bessie my 11 month old excels at gymnastics–she’s part monkey I think (and she adores the springs–I fished out 6 from under the couch last weekend)! We added a new cat recently and she FLIPPED when she saw Da Bird! We too have gone through several replacement heads–I’ll have to check out some of the other toys you recommend.
I looooove playing fetch with my puff balls. I also enjoy doing yoga!
Picture here: http://ilovethesuk.blogspot.com/2012/08/cool-surfaces-for-hot-cats.html
-Suki (Siamese Cat)
ilovethesuk,blogspot.com
Since your kitties love the Undercover Mouse toy can you tell me what is so great about it? we have it in the store I work in and it just DOES NOT sell – even 40% markdown.
I think my kitties will be getting Da Bird very soon
I’m sure Tiger would love those springs too.
We have several favorites here. Tiger likes mylar crinkle balls, Treeno’s in love with a Nylabone green fleece mouse, Sebastian has an alpaca fleece stuffed bear I originally bought for my daughter – she gave up and gave it to him because he kept stealing it no matter how well she hid it away. Flame loves that Bergan track you have pictured. Shadow likes a light up ball and the laser pointers. Midnight likes straight up catnip poured on the flour to roll around in. Thunderbolt just wants a box most of the time, but he’ll chase a cat charmer now and then. Fireball likes your average catnip mouse. Lucky – he’s old and new to the household, I haven’t figured a toy that will get him going yet.
Thank you for sharing their toys with us. They love DA BIRD-i just bought them replacements on Monday and they are already chewed apart. It is one of their favourites.