Why won't my cat play with toys when I'm gone?
Cats quickly lose interest in standard toys and grow bored and lonely when left alone for long hours while owners work. This leads to sulking or excessive meowing when humans return, forcing owners to hunt constantly for new stimulation like cat videos just to keep them engaged.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Brushing the cat regularly
- 2Petting and talking to the cat whenever passing by
- 3Rotating toys every few days to keep things fresh
- 4Playing specific YouTube videos featuring mice or lizards for cats to watch
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“But these past few weeks, my partner and I have been coming home late from work, and we’re often away on the weekends.”source ↗
“And lately, I get the feeling that she’s bored and lonely… she tends to sleep a little more, and as soon as she sees us, she meows quite a bit or ignores us as if she’s sulking”source ↗
“She has toys but isn’t very interested in them, and when I find her new ones, she doesn’t like them.”source ↗
“Mine too, YouTube has 'mice for cats to watch' and mine might have a slight addiction.”source ↗
Where this came up
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