Dog owners are accustomed to taunting their pawed pals with wrestle-like play. Cats, however, are different. There are a lot of fun games you can play with kitty, but wrestling isn’t one of them.
Play is like hunting for cats, and kitty would never choose to hunt prey that’s bigger than herself. So whether you use your hands or a big stuffed toy to get her riled up, she reacts because she’s feeling scared and threatened — not because it’s fun.
One way you can tell your cat is not having fun is that she starts kicking with her back legs. Back-leg kicks are reserved for killing very large prey and for serious fighting. A cat’s powerful thighs drive the force of their rear claws, and they’re used to tear open the abdomen of an adversary. Surely, that’s not a game.
Yes, cats sometimes wrestle with each another in play. But they ‘speak’ the same language. Plus, cats are all roughly the same size, while humans are much bigger.
I know it’s very tempting to tickle a cat’s tummy, especially when they’re kittens. But when you touch a cat’s tummy, she instinctively grabs on, kicks with her back legs and sometimes bites — all of which are survival instincts. If you think it’s cute behavior from your kitten, please remember that kitty is doing it because she feels threatened. Plus, when your kitten grows up, she’ll be able to do some real damage to your hands and arms that way.
Another problem with wrestling is that you teach your cat that it’s OK to grab, scratch and bite you. Even if she eventually comes to regard this as a game and not a threat, do you really want her thinking of your body parts as toys? How do you expect her to know when it’s OK to grab and bite you and when it’s not?
It’s great fun to engage your cat in some wild, hunt-like games. But stick to soft, mouse-size toys on the ends of sticks and strings — far from your body. You can watch wrestling on TV.