cat videos

[JessK]

What are you experiences with cat videos? I was wondering about getting one because I feel sad leaving Neo by himself, but it worries me that the videos may ultimately confuse and frustrate a cat, since they have images that mimic prey but nothing the cat can ever touch or catch. What do you think?

I will say that he appeared to enjoy watching Finding Nemo for several minutes at a stretch, and also he sits and watches our washing machine. Hard to say whether he enjoys it per se though, or just becomes fixated on watching the motion...

[davet]

i think if you just have a window sill..that can entertain the cat for hours....if they have no external stimuli, they usually curl up and nap...i don't think they care about cat videos any more than they car about sit coms...

[Cleo]

My sister bought one for her cat because he'd sit and watch Animal Planet but he cared less about the video. I took it for my two girls who initially went crazy for it. The disclaimer that came with it advised you to remove all fragile things from on top or around the television because they will go hunting for that bird or squirrel that flew off the screen! It's only a half hour video and it's just enough. I purchased another one that was an hour long and complete stunk! The sounds were not realistic with what was on the television and was clearly a repeat recording. The same chirps and whatnot started every few minutes. Annoying as all heck.

Some say don't get any with music, some say do. Our particular tape had two small segments in the beginning with wild crazy cartoon music and the third, longer segment with the nature sounds.

What we have and like: VIDEO CATNIP - Entertainment for Cats purchased through PetSmart.com

What stunk and we don't recommend: Purrfect Video - Cat Entertainment (2002) purchased through Amazon.

Unless a video rental place like Blockbuster has these for rent (I don't know that they do) it's pretty much a hit and miss because open tapes cannot be returned.

Good luck!

[CorinneL]

One of my cats did like the video (out of my 3.) Then, I also caught him watching an animal show we were watching. I should have taped it, but didn't think of it. So.........you can get one for free if you find the right animal show! The others had no interest at all.

[JessK]

Thanks all for the advice. Because it does sound like it's pretty hit and miss, maybe I'll just tape some things from animal planet. I did watch an absolutely horrible movie on the weekend called Willard, about a guy who befriends hundreds of rats and trains them to do his bidding, and my little cat was extremely captivated by the rat scenes! He does have a pretty short attention span though, so maybe it's not even worth the bother...