Newly adopted cat not even curious about toys

[idril]

I adopted a cat 4 days ago. He is about 2 years old and has been a stray for at least 4 months.

He is real sweetie and although he is still a little nervous of his new environment, he is very reassured by us (2 adults, 2 children) and has sat on our laps many times over the past few days which is lovely.

After a couple of days, we tempted him with some toys. Nothing too manic (we have da bird toy from our last cat but I figured it would be too much for him just now) - a mouse on pole with leather tails, a shoelace disappearing under a blanket etc. and he doesn't even bat an eyelid! I've never seen this with a cat before. He doesn't look scared - just completely and utterly not interested. He didn't even watch it.

I know it's early days and this could change but it was such a shock for him to completely ignore all our attempts.

What do you think? Too early and he might change? Only interested in real hunting after being a stray? Or could it be that he just doesn't know how to play? Do all cats know how to play? I thought it was a natural instinct.

[meriad]

Hi there and welcome to CatChat Congratulations on your new family addition

I'd probably hazard a guess at a combination of too early and him not being sure of what to do with toys. If he's not had any experience of them then that would make sense.

Hopefully though as he settles the 'inner kitten" in him will come out and he'll start playing. Will be interesting to hear how he gets on with that

[Ruth B]

Most cats are taught to 'play' by their mothers to teach them hunting skills. If you ever have a chance to see a mother cat and her kittens you will see that at first the main toy is the mother's own tail. The mother will then start to bring live prey back for the kittens to practice on. A cat living in a house never really needs to grow up and therefore often still exhibits kittenish behaviour.

As well as it being early days, two thoughts spring to mind. He has spent over 4 months as a stray, and during this time he probably wasn't sure where and when the next meal was coming from in which case he would have learn that you don't waste energy chasing something that isn't edible. Once he has realised that he is getting regular meals and has energy to spare he will probably start to enjoy chasing things again, just for the fun of it.

My second thought comes from before he was a stray. You probably will never know, but it is possible that he was in a situation where he was told off for chasing things, particularly if he played a bit rough. So it could be he remembers that and doesn't want to get into trouble.

Either way, with time and encouragement from you I am sure he will start to play again, a cats instinct to chase things is always strong and even in an old cat (which yours won't be for many years), it is beneficially to keep playing with them.

[Stellastarr]

Our last cat Bob was completely and utterly disinterested in just about all interactive toys. I remember being beside myself with excitement when I brought home a 'kitten mitten' (the name alone did it for me!) when he was still under a year old and then the crushing disappointment of him looking at me in disgust before stalking out the room when I waggled it in front of him.
He did however have one scabby old mouse toy that we used to find in random places every so often before he would spirit it off again, so he clearly did play when we weren't around. And he used to look sooooooo guilty if we walked in on him playing with anything containing catnip Bumble bees and leaves in the garden were his favourite things to play with-and he never did learn that the bumble bees didn't necessarily want to play with him.
It might just be a case of finding the right 'type' of toy and like others have said, just a wee bit more time to settle in. It's wonderful that he is coming up for cuddles already so I'm sure once he has realised he is in his new forever home, he will totally come out his shell and you will find out lots more about his personality, Hope you have lots of fun times ahead!

[idril]

Thanks everyone for your very interesting thoughts.

The thing about not wasting energy makes a lot of sense. He definitely has that desperation to eat thing going on when I give him his food.

He responds to catnip so today I put a shoelace in the catnip. The only interest he showed was when the lace was moving underneath his paw so I guess he does have the instinct to stop moving things that are in his grasp!

I will keep experimenting and in the meantime enjoy his cuddles.

[meriad]

and in the meantime enjoy his cuddles.

that's probably more than I get from some of my cats Enjoy them

[idril]

SUCCESS!

This morning he played with a mouse on a pole. He was doing his usual not taking any notice but then suddenly pawed it!

He played tentitively for about 5 minutes. I think it's definitely nervousness that was/is stopping him as he's been much braver generally in the past day or so.

Now I just need to get him to be brave enough to play outside of his "safe room" because it has a wooden floor and he slips all over and then gets scared.

[Stellastarr]

Hooray! So glad to hear that you are all starting to have fun together; it's such a wonderful feeling isn't it?