Hello, I'm Simon! Welcome to Simon's Cat Logic.
We'll be finding out from a cat expert why cats behave the way they do!
Today, we are going to look at Crazy Time!
So Crazy Time is based really on all four my cats, but in particular Jess,
who I always think of as being the craziest out of all four of them.
She's the oldest of my cats, a little tortoiseshell
and tortoiseshells are known for being a little bit crazy anyway.
Of course she gets this kind of pent-up of natural energy, as all animals do, and rather than going outside and
running around the trees and things she suddenly goes crazy and runs around up and down stairs,
climbing over furniture,
but that's Jess all over!
[ Why do cats do this? ] So many owners wonder why their cats do this?
Well if you think back to how cats are in the wild,
they spend, you know, maybe up to 40 hunting trips, so a lot of energy expended.
Whereas when we think about our cats, they often have a much more sedate lifestyle,
so that's why they still feel the need to burn off excess energy.
[ What can we do to help? ]
One of the things you can offer your cat is interactive fishing rod toy play.
So this is where you'd get a rod with a string and some feathers at the end
and move it around as if it were a prey species, so it depends on the style
of play that your cat likes, whether it's a bird type in the air like this
or whether they want a mousey type across the floor.
No self-respecting prey species ever goes up to the cat and says "Hi, here I am!"
So try to avoid waving a toy in the cat's face, have it moving away from them.
Cats also can't see that well under 25 centimeters which is another reason why
cats don't really seem interested in playing when it's so close to their face.
They are a bit more far-sighted so again move the toy away from them and that's when
you see the pupils dilate and they go into the crouch position
and do the bum wiggle and go after that toy.
It's important to let the cats catch and kill the toy because this
gives cats the sort of satisfaction of catching it
and by doing that, that helps them release endorphins or happy hormones,
so that they feel very good when they are playing.
Now once you finish playing do store the fishing rod safely out of the cat's reach.
[ Did you know? ]
Cats are crepuscular this is scientific way of
saying they are most active during dawn and dusk and that's because that's when
their prey is most active as well. So a lot of owners will find that their cats have
their crazy time at night, which can be very frustrating when you're trying to get to sleep.
The nice thing about Crazy Time is every cat owner recognises it.
So as soon as I did the film I knew that a lot of people will go "Ah, that's my cat, my cat does that!"
because it's such a cat thing to do!