Do Cats Like Rolling Ball Sculptures?
Updated: 5 days ago
I've had cats for about as long as I've been building rolling ball sculptures, so I've had plenty of opportunities to find out whether cats like them. And I get asked this question a lot.
They definitely do.
Although I should probably clarify that I don't think the cats are particularly impressed with the sculptures themselves. They don't care about the stainless steel, the welding, the lift, or any of the mechanical elements I've made. What they like are the marbles. Colorful, rolling glass marbles zooming past their nose.
Put a little glass ball in front of a cat and roll it across the floor and you already know what's probably going to happen. It's going to get swatted around until it ends up under the fridge haha. A rolling ball sculpture just takes that idea and makes it considerably more inviting by providing a steady supply of moving marbles going in every direction.
I've watched most of the cats I've owned react to them at one time or another. Tigger, Hobbes, Ben, Lulu, Midnight, Snarf, Sage, Cranberry, Kathy, Bill and Monty have all watched the marbles, and some have decided watching wasn't enough.
Watching the Marbles
Usually, a sculpture doesn't actually attract a cat from across the room. I've never turned one on and had the motor sound bring the cats running. They tend to wander over, happen to notice a marble rolling down the tracks, and suddenly stop what they're doing. The movement of the rolling marbles grabs their attention and then it's all they can focus on. Their eyes go wide with the impulse to hunt something.
They'll pick a marble that's relatively close and follow it with their eyes and head as it rolls across the sculpture. If it stays visible, they'll keep watching it. If it disappears behind something, they may stare at the spot where they last saw it or quickly run after it, but their loyalty to that particular marble is pretty limited. As soon as another one comes rolling by closer to them, they've got a new favorite.
That's especially entertaining on a sculpture with several marbles running at once. Their head starts going back and forth as different balls cross their field of view, and you can almost see the problem they're having deciding which one deserves to be attacked as they seem to come from every direction.
I've never noticed any particular rolling ball element getting more attention than another. A loop-d-loop doesn't impress a cat any more than a straight piece of track does. In fact, straight tracks may actually work better because the marble stays in view and travels in the same direction longer. Speed doesn't seem terribly important either. If a marble goes by too quickly and they lose it, they just wait until another one comes along.
They also couldn't care less about the lift. Apparently watching a marble travel slowly upward is not nearly as exciting as watching one roll past your face.
And Then the Paw Comes Out
I've seen my cats watch a marble coming toward them, follow it very intently and then suddenly reach out with one of those ridiculously fast cat paws and tap it or grab it. Sometimes they just give it a little hit and it keeps going. Sometimes they trap it and stop it completely. Other times they knock it right off the track.
I've even had them climb onto the sculpture and stand over the tracks watching all the marbles moving underneath them.
From the cat's perspective, this is probably great fun. From the perspective of the guy who built the machine, it's somewhat less helpful.
A rolling ball sculpture depends on the marbles arriving at different elements with roughly the speed I intended. If a cat stops one, other marbles can back up behind it. If they slow one down enough, it might not have the speed to make it through the next element. And if they knock it completely off the sculpture, they watch it fall and then turn their attention back to the ones rolling on the rails.
Several times I've been testing a sculpture, noticed that something wasn't working correctly and gone over to see why marbles were coming off, only to discover that the problem had four legs, twitching whiskers and wide, intent eyes.
Apparently This Is Just What Cats Do
There is actually some science behind all of this, although I don't think my cats have read any of it.
Cats are extremely responsive to small moving objects because that kind of movement taps into their natural hunting behavior. Watching, tracking, chasing, swatting and pouncing are all normal parts of feline play.
That also explains something I've noticed over the years. My cats don't have any interest in a rolling ball sculpture that's turned off. They don't sit there admiring the frame. They don't inspect my welds. The moment the marbles start moving, though, there's suddenly something worth watching.
I don't think they're following the complete journey of a particular marble. I've never seen anything that makes me think one of my kitties understands that the sculpture is a continuous cycle and that the marble disappearing at the bottom will eventually come back through the lift and reappear at the top. They'll sometimes learn that marbles tend to appear in a particular place and watch that spot, but that's about as far as I'd take it.
Usually, the question of where the last marble went becomes irrelevant anyway because another one has just rolled by and caught their attention.
Some Cats Care More Than Others
Not every cat I've owned has been equally interested. Kathy and Bill were two young cats I had at the same time, and Kathy was much more likely to play with the marbles on the tracks. She was also more likely to get onto my welding table, so she probably had more opportunities.
Kathy is an old-timer now and still comes out and hangs around with me while I'm building. And nowadays, she's completely unimpressed with a rolling ball.
They also get used to the sculptures. A new one sitting on the floor at cat level can be pretty interesting at first, but after they've seen it run a few times, the novelty wears off. They'll still occasionally stop and watch or take a swipe at a marble, but I've never had a cat spend hours obsessing over one.
And dogs? Nothing.
I've had dogs around rolling ball sculptures, and they barely give them a glance unless they make some kind of loud noise. Apparently, this particular form of kinetic art has a very specific audience.
Are Rolling Ball Sculptures Safe Around Cats?
I've never had one of my cats hurt by a rolling ball sculpture, but I also wouldn't call an RBS a cat toy. The biggest practical concern would probably be a cat knocking over a smaller tabletop sculpture, especially if it decided to climb onto it. I also wouldn't intentionally encourage a cat to stick its paws around a moving chain lift or other mechanical parts.
My cats are also unusually accustomed to rolling ball sculptures. They've been around them their entire lives, so another sculpture showing up isn't exactly a major event. Someone bringing one into a house with a cat that's never seen a bunch of little glass balls rolling around might get a much more enthusiastic inspection.
So, Do Cats Like Rolling Ball Sculptures?
Yes. After more than 20 years of having cats around while I've been building them, I feel pretty comfortable answering that one.
But I don't think they like rolling ball sculptures. They like rolling balls.
Cats being cats, they see a small object moving across their field of vision and immediately start watching it. Their eyes lock onto it, their head follows it down the track and, if it gets close enough, out comes the paw. I've watched them stop marbles, knock them onto the floor, bat at them furiously as they race by, watch as they try and keep track of three at once, and climb on top of the sculpture if they're especially intent on catching a ball. Fortunately, they usually don't keep it up for very long. Eventually they lose interest and wander off.
Which is good, because I spend an awful lot of time trying to keep the marbles on the sculpture.
