Hi everyone. I apologize if this is long or all over the place, not very good at explaining things haha.
I've had my Bengal, Nani, since she was old enough to leave her breeder. She just turned two in March. As a kitten she loved to play, to the point where she'd wear herself out chasing toys all around the house. Kitten energy! About 7 months ago (maybe longer?) she stopped wanting to get active during play time. She'll run behind a piece of furniture and jump out to pounce on toys, but she won't chase them around or really get active at all like she used to. At first I figured she was getting bored of her toy, so I went out and got her some new ones, but she does the same thing with them all - trots around from the sofa.. to the table.. to the cat tree and waits to pounce when I jiggle it nearby. As soon as she catches it, she lets go and walks off to another spot to pounce from. No real physical activity at all. After a few weeks of her doing this I thought this was just her preferred method of playing, so I set up a blanket over her cat tree for her to hide behind and jump out from. She loves this! But she's still not getting much exercise doing so.
I think it's worth mentioning that around the same time this started happening I also introduced a kitten, Dumpy, into the family. There were no problems at all between them, and they still get along very well. I noticed that Dumpy's way of playing is very aggressive. He jumps around and chases all the toys, and when the two are engaged in play time together he always jumps in front of her and pounces on toys before she gets a chance to. When they first started playing together, they would often end up colliding with each other because one would be chasing the toy and the other would try to jump in. I think this might be what started her strange behavior towards playing. After seeing her get frustrated being unable to actually catch anything with Dumpy around, I started playing with them in separate rooms and it seems to help, but even while Dumpy is not around she still seems disinterested in play time. I even got a toy that only Nani gets to play with, just in case Dumpy's scent was making her feel iffy about playing.
I take her for a good 30-45 minute walk every day as long as the weather is nice, and at night Nani and Dumpy will run around the house playing with each other, but that's the only activity she gets outside of a few sessions of half-heartedly pouncing on toys.
I was just wondering if this type of behavior is normal? Is there a good method of playing with toys that will help stimulate her into chasing something or running around a little more? I'm perfectly fine continuing to let her hunt and pounce on her toys, I'm just worried she's not getting enough daily exercise, especially for a Bengal.
I've taken her to the vet twice since this all started and she's perfectly healthy, so I don't think she's in pain or has an illness.
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