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Cat Training and Behavior (Domestic and Feral)/Playful cat won't play unless he's the main attraction!?

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Expert: Dear Tabbi - 3/5/2009


Question
Hi, Dear Tabby!  I hope you can help me.  I have four cats; 2 parents and 2 babies, 3 boys and a girl. All of them except for 1, (one of the babies who is the only vocal one in the family and seems to be the most sensitive one), plays normally, taking turns pouncing and batting on stuff and they don't seem to mind that at all.  But the problem baby, as soon as he sees or hears (maybe even when he feels) someone else coming to play, stops playing and walk away, looking all sad.  I know he wants to play because he is a very playful cat.  He wants to play all the time or he meows all day and night.  I can see him when he wants to pounce on a feather, but he doesn't because there's someone else there wanting to pounce on it, too.

It's impossible to play only with him.  He already gets more attention than anyone else because of his meows.  I feel jealousy in the air when I pick him up every time he gives us the loud, sad meow.

What should I do? Sometimes the babies start biting each other because one of them gets to play and the other doesn't.

Answer
Midori,

Like people, some cats are more sensitive than others and get their feelings hurt easy. I have one too that is the same way. If she is playing with something and another cat comes up, or tries to get her toy, she will stop playing and walk away. She is that way with her food also.

About the only way to handle that is to put the other cats in another room and play with the one, or wait until the others are asleep.

The cat may have a different personality because it may have had a different father with a different attitude. A mother cat can have kittens by each tomcat that bred her during her heat cycle.

The cat may meow because he has pain that you may not see, or he may have some Siamese in his background. Mine has both. She is part Siamese and walks around 'talking' and she also has herpes of the eye which is painful.

Each cat has a different personality and temperment. They are not going to act or behave the same. That is normal.

Tabbi  

Cat Training and Behavior (Domestic and Feral)

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Expertise

My expertise is in helping people understand their cat (or cats) and their behavior. Questions are welcome even if you don't have a cat....just a question about them. Hopefully my experience, suggestions, and comments will be of help to you...and your cat (or cats). Looking through my past responses to questions will give you additional information and/or answers too. Domestic Cats = cats (no matter what breed) who are tame or not wild, or abandoned cats who were pets that became wild, but can be tamed again. Ferals = cats who are born with one or more parents who were wild stray cats. They usually have had no interactions with people. They have an inbred distrust of humans and are difficult to socialize. They are skittish, hide, and are afraid of people. They take a lot of time and patience to work with them. A lot of kittens from shelters had a feral parent.

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Since I was a child, over 45 years, I have been owned by a LOT of cats and kittens of almost every temperament, behavior, and personality. I have had experience with neurotic, disabled (including blind), stray, and 'problem child' cats and kittens. (A few normal cats too!) Plus all the things a lifetime of owning cats and research has taught me. I also have experience in feral cat behavior (which is different from domestic cats), and some experience with feral colonies that includes colony feeding and feral cat TNR (trap/neuter/release).

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