Advice needed - needy cat

With our jobs they get 10-15 minutes of play a day followed by treat feeders that keep them busy for another 20 or so.

That is like the absolute bare minimum for a cat to stay sane, let alone let out its energy. So yeah, your demon cat needs more play... a lot more. I'm not trying to be mean, I actually do the same when I get busy with work. Sometimes 20 min is all I can spare.

But in those cases, I pretty much expect my cats to act out. And they do. In general, cats mellow out when they age. But cats have different personalities, and some need more play. Most vets recommend 60 minutes of play/exercise a day, split up into 10 to 20 min sessions.

My cats show the same destructive tendencies as yours, and more play most definitely calms them down. My advice when you're short on time, is to make the play session as vigorous as possible. By the end, your cat should be panting and you should be sweating. Make her chase that wand toy all over the house until she's practically begging to stop and go to sleep. That serves as a stop gap, but in general, more play time will benefit the most.

/r/CatAdvice Thread