Are laser pointers cruel?

[Mrs Kane]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to ask everyone's opinion on laser pointers. My BF used to own cats that would not respond well to them and preferred physical objects in which to "hunt".

Now we have a cat that seems more interested in chasing the object rather than keeping the catch. She's very energetic and always wants to play, despite being 3 years old. Do you think a laser pointer would be a good idea?

Many thanks to all that reply.

[lilynmitz]

If the cat isn't enjoying chasibg it, it will simply stop. I can understand why "chase without hope of catching prey" might seem unkind, but some cats love the chase, others just need the kill. I've had cats that really aren't interested in lasers for more than a minute or two, and others that will happily chase for quite a while. They'll soon stop when they've had enough.

[MarkB]

I remember reading years ago that after playing chase games, you can give them a toy to kill. I usually do that - give them a Yeoww!! banana or something.

The two we have now aren't really interested in chasing laser lights, but Kylie is coming up to 16 and still loves to play. Her favourite game is hide & seek, which always involves me following her upstairs and her running into bedroom and hiding behind doors

[mr_frisky]

Mine love playing with laser pointers. I usually give them something physical to play with after, when we adjourn from the kitchen/bathroom area to the living room, where their tunnels and boxes and feather dusters are.

[claire_lee]

One of our cats chases the little dots you get when the sun reflects off watch faces onto the walls or floor - he is the only cat I've known that does this - our other two just aren't interested.
As sunshine can't be guaranteed in the UK we bought Mali a laser pointer which he love to chase - while the other two just watch him disdainfully wondering what the fuss is about. They love Da Bird though but to be honest Mali is safer chasing the laser pointer. He often will just take off after Da Bird without much thought about where he is landing and 6.5kg of fluffy but solid cat can be quite daunting when its flying towards you about 3 ft off the ground!

[Mrs Kane]

They love Da Bird though but to be honest Mali is safer chasing the laser pointer. He often will just take off after Da Bird without much thought about where he is landing and 6.5kg of fluffy but solid cat can be quite daunting when its flying towards you about 3 ft off the ground!

That's the main reason we're thinking of getting one for Sofi, she loves to play but she has proven she can jump about 4 feet in the air already and hasn't really learnt that claws speeding towards you at that height have a painful affect on her owners.