Cats on Board Are Bored and Need Exercise

[Weehappy]

Hi,
We are traveling/ living on a 27 ft sailboat with our two dear cats, and while they have adjusted very well to their new home, Iam worried that they are not getting enough exercise and that they are bored stiff. There is just not that much room for them to do much but sleep on the boat. Does anyone have thoughts about this?

Lita
Wee Happy
Wee Happy | Tales of two people and two cats aboard a wee sailboat

[GordMay]

Do you "play" with your cats?

[hummingway]

Sleep-R-Us

All my cat wanted to do was sleep. She was never happier then when on board. Nice and cozy, nothing sneaking up on you, close to your friends. She didn't like the sailing part but she still made every effort to sleep through it. She was an old cat though.

[sailorboy1]

Heck all my house cat does is sleep, then rest up to eat, and then sleep some more.

But on the boat...............there's always swiming.

[simonmd]

Ever thought of a cat sized hamster wheel? You could connect it up to a dynamo to help keep the batteries topped up as well....

[svHyLyte]

Ah,,, Well... There's always swimming. Good exercise and it certainly would give them some excitement.

[IdoraKeeper]

I recommend a miniature schnauser. No more laying around

[BLUEwaterchaser]

Originally Posted by simonmd

Ever thought of a cat sized hamster wheel? You could connect it up to a dynamo to help keep the batteries topped up as well....

haha that's rather cynical of you!
Great idea though!

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by simonmd

Ever thought of a cat sized hamster wheel? You could connect it up to a dynamo to help keep the batteries topped up as well....

The mind boggles at the challenge of convincing a cat to run on a wheel.

[sded]

Our cat runs back and forth from bow to stern chasing her toy mice and sometimes just imaginary creatures for exercise. Mostly inside, but occasionally jumps on the boom and dodger/bimini when we are watching her outside. Of course, she only does this in the middle of the night and sleeps during the day. She particularly likes to do this in the morning when feeding time is getting close.

[zopi]

Hang something from the boom...it swings and gets attacked....or..laser pointer.hysterical.

[senormechanico]

We hang feathers found on the beach on piece of string and tie that to a short stick.
Wave it in their faces and they go nutz! They'll play with that for hours.

[JulianGullsway]

My wife and I trained our cat from a kitten, she has a harness and a lead or some times she will just follow us when we go for a walk, when on a passage she just curls up on the leeward side of the boat, some times she gets bored and it results in me getting hurt, she loves night time whilst in a marina, but night time at anchor we are always very cautious as she has fallen in a phew times we always put the emergency ladder down at night!

[High Heels]

Lita - I am worried about the same thing if and when we ever sell our house and start cruising. I see on your blog that you all have a white, odd-eyed cat too! SloMo is beautiful! Our guy's name is 'Hawkeye'.

We have taken our cats since they were kittens to the boat and go out on w/e's w/ them. They have been sailing a few times and overall seem to love it. We do let them on deck when we are anchored and we can monitor them. I have not gotten comfortable with them running around on deck and playing hard like they do at home.

When they were smaller they would run the full length of the cabin down below while we were sleeping at 5 a.m. like it was a race track, and yes, we were considered part of the track and they would run right over us...but now, they are bigger and don't do that as much.

One thing we did for them the last time we were at the boat was hang a play moussie up from the handrails inside so they could sit on the settee and wack at it. They thought that was very fun.

I went to this upscale pet boutique a couple of w/e's ago and saw these fancy wooden toys for cats that are like play stations and not that big. I am thinking of possibly getting one for our boys to keep them busy and thinking on the boat. Phydeaux: For Cats Unfortunately the store has not put the toys I am talking about online yet, but thought you might like to look at their website.

Maybe some of those toys where you can hide the treat inside and they have to work to get it out might keep them busy.

Glad to know I am not the only one that worries about this for their cats ;0)

[Bash]

The majority of our cat's exercise comes from moving the first berth where the morning sun streams through a hatch to the second berth where the noon sun streams through a hatch to the dodger where it gets hot in the afternoon to the couch where there's a bit of late-afternoon sun. Those constant migrations, as well as periodic trips to the dinner bowl to see whether there's anything interesting, keep him quite engaged in life aboard. If he's ever been bored, he certainly hasn't mentioned it.