Dear Critter Corner: I recently adopted cat from my local shelter and they mentioned that she has quite a bit of energy but can also get overstimulated at times. Over the past week I have noticed that she is not too interested in the toys that I leave out for her to play with but has been pouncing on the back of my legs quite a bit instead. Do you have any advice on how to get her to play with her toys instead of trying to engage with the back of our legs?
We tend to see overstimulation in cats due to sensory overloading that can be caused by over petting or when multiple things are happening in their environment concurrently. Many cats have similar tell-tale signs that we can look for to identify when they are beginning to become overstimulated. Since cats are not able to speak to us and let us know how they are feeling, we can use their body language as another way to understand how they are feeling. The most common places we can begin to look are their eyes, tail, ears, posture, and their vocalizations.
It is very important to give multiple outlets for our cats to engage in normal cat behaviors, which could be as simple as increasing the amount of play time to adding more enrichment to their everyday routine! Cats are natural born hunters, so to help engage them in play we can do our best to mimic how their prey would move in the wild. Some cats enjoy leaping into the air to try to catch airborne prey, while others might find pouncing on a toy wiggling under a blanket exciting. No two cats are the same, and it is up to us as owners to find our furry friend’s favorite style of play!
Another tip to remember is that a cat’s body language isn’t the same as a dog’s. When you see them flicking their tails briskly it might not be them signaling that they are having fun but rather a precursor to pouncing on your legs!