Kitten playing a cat game on a tablet computer. Screenshot.

Cat games on tablet computers are both good and bad. They are good because they entertain cats. They are bad because the game cannot come to a natural conclusion which is the killing of prey. All cat games are based on hunting. The reward for hunting is to kill the prey animal. The best cat games allow that to happen. Cats become bored because they can’t kill a plastic toy but they will destroy a ball of paper. Therefore, the ball of paper, a home-made cat toy, is probably better than a commercially manufactured one made of plastic. There is also the environmental issue which is another topic i.e. what happens to the plastic when it is no longer wanted?

 
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

The video is nice because the kitten is particularly interested in the fish on the tablet computer. She is fascinated and totally engaged. The more adult cat looks on and also participates from time to time. But there’s one element missing to this game: they can’t catch the fish. Catching the fish is what motivates them. If they can’t catch them, they lose motivation; they become bored. My assessment is that these sorts of games which are very convenient to the cat’s owner, have a limited lifespan. Eventually the cat will realise they can’t catch the fish and I suspect they will bring that memory forward to the next time that they play on a tablet computer.

You can see the kitten becoming bored during the play session. She briefly rests having given up.

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