I put on YouTube videos for our cat (like http://youtu.be/b-bEtoNzGHY) and she is kept really engaged. After a few minutes of trying to look behind the monitor for the birds, she settles in to watch.

this is the weirdest thing I have ever seen on AT.

That being said, maybe this would help my dad's cat stop meowing at him ALL day (my theory is that he is bored)

I pet sit for a cat who had one of these. When the dude first got it I noticed Zac would watch about 2 or 3 minutes when I was there and then ignore it. As time went on the more he ignored it. The owner doesn't have me play it anymore.

I have heard really great things about the bird videos. Couldn't hurt to try! Here is a great book with other ideas for how to keep your feline friend entertained and happy. http://www.amazon.com/250-Things-Make-Your-Adore/dp/0684836483

Some cats don't notice videos. My cat is LOVES to watch birds on TV. I discovered this when watching a program about hummingbirds on PBS. She got so excited! I bought the video of that show and I show it to her a few times a year, when she seems terribly bored, usually in the winter. She does seem to lose interest if I show it to her too much. She also loves to watch my yoga videos. :-)

I have two cats. One can see through windows and see his reflection in mirrors. The other cannot.

I suspect there are "two kinds" of cats -- one can see images on the screen and one cannot.

I bought the DVD for Cats from the Big Cat Rescue online and my cat LOVES it. It combines clips of a bunch of different animals with a variety of sounds overlaid on top of it to get their attention. There are some animals more than others that interest my kitty, but for the most part, it grabs her attention!

My problem is my cat will paw at the t.v., and he does have claws!

Perhaps I'm a crazy hippy, but I think the answer is simply to play with your cat more. Get a feather on a string and a laser pointer. The cat will thank you for spending 20 mins or so a day playing with it and will probably show less desire to go out and chase the birds.

There is an iPhone/iPad app for cats. It's Game for Cats on iPad and Game for Kittens on iPhone (because the smaller screen - so cute!). It has two options for play, laser or mouse. My cat occasionally paws at the laser pointer version, I think she has some trouble with the contrast of the mouse on the background.

She wants nothing to do with my TV and computer, although the timer beeps on Top Chef would always grab her attention.

I've thought about these as well for my cats. We moved from an apartment that faced a busy street to one that faces an interior courtyard, and there's just not as much for them to watch. But I do fear them clawing at the TV!

I can attest to the fact that they both LOVE the Animal Planet show, Too Cute. They settle in on the couch and gawk at it.

We also play with our cats every day with Da Bird, laser pointer, etc.

When my young nephew was visiting he was watching a lot of TV and the family discovered that our Maine Coon loves TV! The cat never took interest until childrens programs were on. Even then the cat, Jiggs, only wants to watch certain programs like Teletubbies and Dora the Explorer. Jiggs does not like Spongebob Squarepants :) Months later my mother would occassionally turn on cartoons for the cat and he would come running to watch his favorite programs.

Now the cats live with me. I don't have a TV but Jiggs is entertained for hours by the neighbors bird feeder, especially in the winter when the birds gather in larger numbers and are easily seen against the snow.

I agree that sometimes the cats get bored and whiny. I think the meow a lot when they are lonely or bored so I pull out the toy basket and play with them. I'm not buying anymore fancy toys though because of all the toys I have the favorites are little cloth covered mice with rattles inside and crumpled up balls of paper.

I was watching Texas Parks and Wildlife on PBS one day, and one of our cats RAN to the TV when they rolled footage of birds chirping and bathing. Then the cat jumped on the TV (old big box sort) and started trying to figure out how to get at the birds. Funny stuff.

We have never done cat DVDs, but my husband plays video games and our little tortie loves to sit on his lap and watch the computer screen or tv when he is playing. She even tries to "help" by hitting the space bar or controller!

I started my indoor cat out on the DVDs. He has PICA and the vet recommended keeping his mind busy so he doesn't chew on our stuff. Now he watches us play video games (he loves Minecraft, Scribblenauts for the WiiU and the Xbox Live Avatars) and he and I have YouTube time. Whereas our other cat could careless about watching tv. I think it all has to do with the cat.

@Doug in DC - You're right about that. There's nothing cats love more then playing with their humans.

Just last week my boyfriend brought over his projector and we watched YouTube videos for your cat in large scale on the wall. The cats were mesmerized and frequently chirped at the wall of birds and squirrels that had suddenly appeared in their living room. Occasionally they would leap up at the wall and try to get a bird, which made me happy that it was the wall and not a screen that they were attacking since their claws were definitely out. I tried out turning it on while they were in the midst of their kitty crazy time and the image on the wall immediately halted their play time. For my girls, it's a winner. No need to buy DVDs the computer has all we need!

My mother had a cat who would sit and watch "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" endlessly.

Have we reached an age in which we think even cats need to be digitally entertained? It's kind of funny, yes, but also sad.

My cats sometimes get really into what we are watching on TV. Mostly things that are in the realm of sci-fi. My girl kitty will get up on the desk and look like she's hunting the screen during the credits sequence for "Doctor Who". Mine also both react to the sounds of other cats when I'm watching funny cat videos on youtube. Neither of my cats takes an interest in PBS nature specials. I should mention that, like mdorothy mentioned, so cats seem to be able to see the tv/mirrors well, and mine aren't that type (specifically they are totally uninterested in mirrors).

If you're worried about entertaining the cat while you're gone during the day, a bird feeder or a suet cake for squirrils would probably be a safer choice for entertaining indoor kitties. Set the feeder up so that it can be easily seen from a window where there is room for cats to sit or perch.

My cat likes the Sunday news shows, the ones where there's a lot of gesturing and shouting:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/k2yhe/8370070265/in/photostream

Granted, playing games with your cat is always the best solution. But you can still give them animal company from a screen. One of my two late cats loved to try to catch the cursor on my laptop monitor. (I think she thought it was an insect. At any rate, she kept her claws in, so there were no scratches.) Eventually, "cursor play" would start to bore me (the cat was always fascinated), so after five minutes, I got down on the floor to play her favorite game (soccer with a ball of crumpled paper)--a win-win situation.

My other cat loved watching birds and Big Cats (e.g. tigers)--on t.v. At first, he looked behind the t.v. to see if there was a real animal there. And, if the birds flew upward and off the screen, he'd jump on top of the box t.v. and look for them on the ceiling, mewing like crazy. Later, after wising up, he would simply watch as though in a trance and put a paw on each animal onscreen.

I never bought a dvd, but why not try it? Your cat(s) may adore it. And if not, you can pass it on to another deserving kitty-owner. Or, if you get Animal Planet or National Geographic Channel, just turn to those channels from time to time.

My cats have never reacted to sounds or pictures on the TV or computer--not birds, or other cats or dogs barking. They'll sleep right through it, or walk away if I try to point their attention to the screen. They do love the birdfeeder on the porch, though, and we call that "live kitty TV."

My friend's cat, on the other hand, is obsessed with basketball games on the TV. We think she can see small humans (prey?) scampering around the court. She certainly acts as if she'd like to catch one of them.

One of my cats is intrigued by the Westminster Dog Show... he will sit on the edge of the ottoman and watch for up to a half hour at a time... the first year I thought it was a fluke but he has watched it every year for the past 4 years... no other show has ever held his interest.

Wii Aquarium game. Several of ours (we have 8) love watching the goldfish and their shadows in a plain sand based tank. We actually have one 'tank' set up just for them with their favourite fish.

This is probably a little mean, but when I want my cat to get in my lap and snuggle, I just play noises from an app I have on my phone called "cat sounds" (a variety of meows, purrs, and eating sounds). He runs over, immediately starts purring, and gets right in my lap.

Cousteau.

Actually, when I was younger the cats seemed pretty enamoured with ski jumping.

Had a cat that would watch Meerkat Manor religiously.

My cat loves to watch TV, especially the Planet Earth series (birds, fish, big cats)! Big Cat Diary, as well. I think he thinks he's just a tiny, displaced lion...

this just made me laugh out loud at work. so funny.

i agree, it is defiantly weird, but then it's like, wait -- could it work?

The shelter I adopted my cat from 2.5 years ago had these playing in about half of the kitty rooms. Try it out and if your cat isn't into it, donate it to a local shelter!

I seriously clicked into the comments expecting to see a bunch of people saying "are you crazy?" I've owned at least 10 cats over my life and I have never once seen any of them, or any of my friends' cats, pay the slightest bit of attention to a television. It might as well be a part of the wall for all they care. The fact that there are cats that DO see and pay attention to images on a television has BLOWN MY MIND. IS it only certain "types" of cats that can do this?

When I was a kid, our cat once went over to the TV set and pawed at the screen when Johnny Carson had a talking myna bird on The Tonight Show. I managed to get a photo of her doing it, but alas, the reflection obscured the bird's image, so it just looks as though the cat is pawing at a blank screen.

Every cat I've ever owned since then has shown zero to little interest in the TV. Of all the toys I buy for them, their favorite toys or exercise equipment seems to be (in order of preference):

--their various scratching posts

--empty boxes

--large paper or plastic bags

--each other

--flying insects

--small plush fabric mice

--cheap fabric-covered hard mouse-toys from multipak at drugstore (my girlcat plays so much with those, they eventually start to fall apart and I have to confiscate and discard them so she won't get into their innards)

--snaky things (fabric tape measures, etc.) that I drag along the floor or run through the condo, dragging after me

Beyond that, I've bought asst'd toys of various types and prices over the years, only to see the cats ignore them once they got past kittenhood.

I bought 2 of these DVDs for my cat for Christmas because I recently adopted a dog and wanted to give him something to do since the dog needs constant oversight and my cat was accustomed to being my sole focus. My cat was entranced watching them, but I noticed he got really agitated since the birds and other animals were out of reach "inside" the TV. He eventually got so agitated I had to stop showing him the videos.

mdorthy - I read you can judge the intelligence of a cat by how they react in front of a mirror. Some cats don't get that what they are seeing is behind them while others do.

There are ipad apps too that have mice, bugs etc. that run around the screen. It is fun to watch my cat try and figure out where the bugs go when they go off the screen.

My cat is very interested in the tv - he watches nature videos with me, and he will leave during "boring" commericals and return when the animals return to the screen. he also watches me play video games on the tv. So I bought a pair of cat videos for him. He enjoyed them a couple times, then got bored. I suppose it depends on the cat - their likes, attention span, memory, etc.

my cat likes the app "Cut the Rope"

I just tried the YouTube video on my kitten and though his ears twitched a bit, he unfortunately wasn't interested. I was hoping he would be, since when I leave for work during the day he just cries and cries, and when I come home and he hears me he starts meowing loudly again (I'm afraid it might annoy my neighbors). I play with him a ton when I get home, but I'm sure it's still hard for him when I leave. Maybe I'll try a few different programs...

I think the trick is to find a video that is one long single shot. My cat will not watch after one scene cuts to another but she will follow continuous action on the screen.

My cat's currently watching David Attenborough. Elephants fascinate her :-)