How to Teach Cats to Play Gently

Is your cat a little too rough during playtime? Cat Behavior Expert Samantha Bell shares helpful tips on how to teach your cat to play gently and avoid scratching or biting. Cats often get carried away during play, especially when their hunting instincts kick in. It’s important to guide them toward appropriate behaviors, such as using toys instead of your hands, to avoid injury. One key aspect of encouraging gentle play is choosing the right toy for your cat. Since cats have different preferences, it’s essential to learn which types of toys excite them—whether it's interactive toys, feather wands, or balls. By offering the right toys, you’ll keep them engaged and reduce the likelihood of rough play. Training your cat to play gently can take time and patience, but with the right approach, you’ll be able to encourage more controlled play that’s enjoyable for both you and your cat. Disclaimer alert: This information is just for educational purposes! Every pet is different, so always talk with your vet or trainer for specific advice on your pet's situation. We don’t accept any liability for any loss or injury that occurs as a result of watching videos on Kinship's channel. (Fyi: We also don’t accept any liability for extra treats given…but we doubt your cat will mind.) (C) Kinship Partners, Inc. All rights reserved.

TRANSCRIPT

trying to teach your cat how to play nice? you're in the right place. I'm Samantha and this is John and today we'll share ways that you can encourage your cat to play more gently with you. the most important thing here is to teach your cat that there's a difference between toys and humans and it's okay for them to be rough with toys but it's not okay for them to be rough with people. the rough behaviors that you see are just your cat's Natural Instinct and they can't help but want to engage in activities that let them be, well, cats.but there are some things you can do to help them satisfy these very feline impulses while literally saving your skin. it's so important to always keep in mind that cats are predators and biting is a natural instinctive behavior for them. so is stalking and chasing and pouncing on their prey. their instincts tell them they need to do those things, so indulge your cat just during playtime and give them the opportunity to be that hunter that Predator that they were born to be. but how can you do this? you want to play with them in an interactive way and make their toys move in ways that are interesting to them so cats want to chase things that are moving and when you toss a toy and it just sits there guess what the only thing moving in the room is you but with W toys you have continuous control over the toy and you can make it keep moving so it holds their interest if you just mindlessly whip it around it may not always be interesting to your cat cats want to feel like they're actually stalking and chasing something so you have to make the toy move in the way that something that they would Chase would move and keep in mind that every cat has their own play preferences the first preference has to do with what the toy looks like some cats like to chase toys that look like mice some like to chase toys that look like birds and some like to chase toys that remind them of bugs just experiment and find out which toys get your cat excited Johan loves all of them but he really does prefer ones that are Mouse shaped some cats like when the toy drags along the ground some like when it flies through the air and some like when it moves really slowly and some like when it zooms around and almost all cats like when it goes around a corner or under something and they can't see it anymore just please don't use your hands or arms or feet to ever play with cats it's cute when they're kittens but it's not so cute when it's an adult cat biting you so please don't encourage that behavior when they're young and make sure everyone in the house including visitors commits to this consistently for Success okay the very first thing to do is to make your hands stop moving now it's not fun for them anymore then you want to just silently and calmly leave get a toy a want toy is great for this because the toy they're biting is so far from your hands and when they do play with the w toy you praise them and reward them for attacking the toy instead of you now when they do bite your hand it's because their instincts are telling them to bite so please don't get upset with them for biting let them get the biting out of their system by biting something that's not your hand they'll figure it out eventually they'll figure out that the fun ends when they bite people but the fun keeps going when they bite the toy you know we're training our cats in every interaction we have with and the lesson we always want to be teaching our cats is simple you can play with toys but I am not one of them but just because this concept is simple doesn't mean it's easy it may take some time for this to click with your cat but stick with it and you'll enrich your cat's life while keeping yourself from getting scratched thanks so much for watching see you next time