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> Marra and Santella make some attempt to appeal to cat lovers by suggesting that cats be kept indoors and allowed to work off their excess energy on feline ver
by wila 10y ago
> Marra and Santella make some attempt to appeal to cat lovers by suggesting that cats be kept indoors and allowed to work off their excess energy on feline versions of hamster wheels.
Huh? A cat isn't a hamster, no way they will run in a hamster wheel. If you want your cat to run, you'll have to play with it.
> “they can get a leash and walk their cats as tens of millions walk their dogs”
Well.. cats can walk on a leash. I happen to do so on a daily bases, but it certainly is not comparable to walking a dog. The cat walks and sniffs around. It is the cat who determines where we go. Not the human.
It is more often standing still as it is walking. Spending half an hour on walking 200 meters is not uncommon.
For the rest I'm not sure what the title on the article has to do with the content of it but OK. :)
- rmvt 10y agoare you sure cats won't run in a wheel? https://onefastcat.com/ https://onefastcat.com/
- bitwize 10y ago"Cats in cubes"? Any sensible cat will demand a full office.
- DonHopkins 10y agoSome people even let their cats go furniture shopping at Ikea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQU6OXTkM0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQU6OXTkM0
- slavik81 10y agoTheir price tag is interesting. They initially display $250 to get you start thinking about its value, then about a second later animate its drop to $199. When I first saw it, within a split second I judged it was probably worth $250. The drop to $199 left me feeling like I just saved $50. Somehow it was more effective than the "but wait, there's more" bit you always see in infomercials, perhaps because it was unexpected.
- Animats 10y agoIf that thing has a BOM cost over $20, someone is doing it wrong.
- bitJericho 10y agoHaha I was just thinking 20 bucks in wood and carpeting and you could build a really cool wheel.
- taneq 10y agoAnchoring. It's a standard tactic in negotiation, and it's used everywhere from supermarkets (SALE! Frozen peas are normally $1.50 but they're now 99c!) to car yards ($35,599 drive away, but we can give it to you, you special customer you, for only $29,999 which is our actual target price!)
- wila 10y agoLOL, thanks for sharing that. Amazing, never seen that before. I'll just let him run free in the house though. Getting him to exercise enough does mean having to play with him, like rolling a ball over the floor which he can then hunt down. He is a bit spoiled that way.
- Lockyy 10y agoI actually got that wheel two weeks ago. I was very skeptical of whether I could train either of my cats to use it. Took pretty much exactly a week to train one of them to use it and now he uses it all the time. He still runs around the house and plays when excited but running on the wheel has become his baseline activity when he wants to do something but I'm working and the other cat is uninterested in playing with him. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to keep their cat indoors and exercised. It'd be good if they could do something to improve the aesthetics though, the exterior of the circle is just bare injected plastic. http://onefastcat.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/u/cu-wheel-02@2x.jpg http://onefastcat.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9d...
- joshschreuder 10y agoHow did you train them to use it?
- frikk 10y agoFound this video from the company: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=563&v=02FL092Qk_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=563&v=02FL092Qk_...
- taneq 10y ago> A cat isn't a hamster, no way they will run in a hamster wheel. If you want your cat to run, you'll have to play with it. There's precisely one condition under which a cat will run in a hamster wheel type thing, and that's if you really really don't want it to and try to stop it at every opportunity.
- AndrewNCarr 10y agoYou basically just described Cat Programming 101.
- elcapitan 10y agoOr if you insert the hamster, too.
- exabrial 10y agoI have a cat that plays fetch and walks on a leash. Or more like he's willing to lead me while he's on a leash.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoWe tried walking our cats on leashes. It would have been fine, but our timing was terrible. It coincided with an airshow at the local airport. A B-52 buzzed our apartment complex right as we got outside. We eventually pried the little guys out of the bushes, and they haven't willingly gone outside since.
- groby_b 10y ago> Huh? A cat isn't a hamster, no way they will run in a hamster wheel The cats at the shelter I volunteer at love their giant hamster wheel. So there's that. > It is the cat who determines where we go. You can train your cat to walk with you. Even without a leash. (Downside? Obedience rate will never exceed ~95%. The rest of the time, happy cat chasing ;)
- wapz 10y agoDon't you have to train your cat almost everyday? And a 2 week break and the cat "forgets" almost everything? I have a cat and dog and I've trained them both. Getting the cat to come to us has been far more difficult than teaching our dog 10+ tricks (and he remembers if we don't do the trick in over a month). After about a week after we stopped giving snacks to our cat when we called her over she decided she doesn't want to come sometimes (and sometimes she came). Anyways, I gave up training the cat because I don't have the time.
- bitJericho 10y agoCats are bastards, you may always have to give a good reward. Not necessarily food, but something. The key to long term training, for cats or humans, is to repeat often, and then gradually lengthen. Don't teach daily for a month and then wait 3 months. Train daily, then weekly, then monthly, etc.
- morganvachon 10y agoI think it's highly dependent on the cat's personality. We have two, a brother and sister pair. The male cat (Curry) will follow my snapped and pointed finger every time, and responds immediately to voice requests (I use "requests" instead of "commands" intentionally, as any cat owner can attest). If I say "jump down" he'll quickly leave whatever roost he's warming with his bum. His sister Sage, on the other hand, will offer a sassy mew if you snap your fingers at her, and otherwise ignore any requests. She is no less intelligent than her brother, she simply doesn't share his desire to cooperate with her human pets. Curry will also, if he's starved for attention (or out of food, or just bored) come up to me at my computer desk and gently tap-tap-tap on my elbow until I stop what I'm doing and attend to his needs. Some other interesting activities they've displayed: At night we confine them to their own bedroom in the house, so they aren't constantly scratching at our bedroom door for attention or running up and down the hallway waking us up at 3am. They know when bedtime is, and while Curry is perfectly content to go to bed on his own or with minimal prompting, Sage will find a place to hide before we even realize what time it is. She absolutely refuses to go to bed of her own accord, and we must resort to trickery to get her to go in their room. We can only use the same trick once though; like a Jurassic Park velociraptor, she remembers. The gourmet food trick worked for a few days but then she would lay her ears back and squint at us as if to say "I see what you're doing there", and run the other way. Next came the catnip-stuffed mouse toy, which she fell for exactly once and never again. Ditto the laser toy; chasing it into the bedroom only to have the door close behind her worked the first time but no more. It seems the only way she will come of her own accord anymore is if we start lavishing her brother with attention; she will come to see what the fuss is about and we'll shut the door behind her. Jealousy in a cat? Perhaps, or just feline curiosity and nothing more.
- joshschreuder 10y agoI also take my cat out on a leash fairly frequently. The standing around part is hilariously true. I often have to give it up because I get too bored :)