It’s the big question for console-loving cat parents everywhere. How do you keep your cat happy while your gaming?
The good news is that your gaming hobby doesn’t have to come at the expense of your cat’s happiness. In fact, a lot of cats seem perfectly content to spend an evening lounging nearby while their humans save kingdoms, build cities, or get eliminated five minutes into a battle royale.
The problem isn’t gaming itself. It’s when long sessions leave your cat with nothing interesting to do. Over time, boredom can lead to stress, unwanted behaviors, and a cat who suddenly decides that walking across your keyboard is an urgent priority.
Thankfully, it only takes a few small changes to your setup to keep them happy. Let’s get into it, starting with our favorite gear for automating cat care.
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Best Litter Box for Gamers
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Best Wet Cat Food Feeder
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Best Wireless Water Fountain
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Meet the next generation of smart litter boxes. The Litter-Robot 5 features a sleek LCD display, redesigned waste drawer for fewer empties, customizable lights, and better odor control than ever. Multi-cat ready and app-connected, it’s the perfect balance of convenience, performance, and modern design for any cat household. ⭐ BEST PRICE ON THE WEB⭐ SAVE UP TO $150! |
Designed to keep wet or fresh food chilled until scheduled mealtimes, the PetSafe® FreshFeed Refrigerated Pet Feeder uses patented semiconductor technology to help maintain a 40°F* temperature, supporting lasting freshness between meals. With a rotating six-meal tray and app-based scheduling, this refrigerated pet feeder helps make consistent feeding routines easier to manage, even when you’re away from home. GUARANTEED BEST PRICE USE COUPON CODE TECHNO30 AT CHECKOUT TO GET $30 OFF |
Homerunpet Cordless Pet Water Fountain makes hydration a little more interesting. The faucet-style stainless steel tray encourages pets to drink, while the cordless 4000mAh battery runs up to 30 days without plugging in. Use continuous flow when plugged in or switch to motion-activated mode to conserve power. With triple filtration, a 2.5L capacity, whisper-quiet operation, and dishwasher-safe parts, it’s built for easy, low-maintenance everyday use. |
Meet the next generation of smart litter boxes. The Litter-Robot 5 features a sleek LCD display, redesigned waste drawer for fewer empties, customizable lights, and better odor control than ever. Multi-cat ready and app-connected, it’s the perfect balance of convenience, performance, and modern design for any cat household.
⭐ BEST PRICE ON THE WEB⭐
SAVE UP TO $150!
Designed to keep wet or fresh food chilled until scheduled mealtimes, the PetSafe® FreshFeed Refrigerated Pet Feeder uses patented semiconductor technology to help maintain a 40°F* temperature, supporting lasting freshness between meals. With a rotating six-meal tray and app-based scheduling, this refrigerated pet feeder helps make consistent feeding routines easier to manage, even when you’re away from home.
GUARANTEED BEST PRICE
USE COUPON CODE TECHNO30 AT CHECKOUT TO GET $30 OFF
Homerunpet Cordless Pet Water Fountain makes hydration a little more interesting. The faucet-style stainless steel tray encourages pets to drink, while the cordless 4000mAh battery runs up to 30 days without plugging in. Use continuous flow when plugged in or switch to motion-activated mode to conserve power. With triple filtration, a 2.5L capacity, whisper-quiet operation, and dishwasher-safe parts, it’s built for easy, low-maintenance everyday use.
How to Keep Your Cat Happy During a Long Gaming Session
Cats love to observe, and from your kitty’s POV, your gaming desk is basically the perfect observatory. Warm PCs, glowing monitors, moving hands, clicking keyboards, and dangling cords = sensory heaven.
But even if your cat enjoys hanging out near your setup, they still have all the same needs they’d have any other time of day. Before diving into a marathon gaming session, make sure the basics are covered. Fresh water, food, cozy places to nap, and a clean litter box all help keep your cat comfortable and content. After all, if the litter box isn’t up to their standards, they have a way of making that your problem too.
Automate the Essentials
It’s important that your cat has access to everything they need during long sessions. Food, water, and litter box access are non-negotiable! Thankfully, you can pretty much automate everything from feeding to scooping the box these days.
Automatic litter boxes like the Litter Robot 5 are one of the best ways to keep your gaming area smelling fresh if you need to keep your cat’s box in the same room as your setup. Even if kitty has a separate litter box room, it’s still a brilliant way to go. Less scooping means more time for gaming. Or better yet, use the time you’d spend cleaning the box to play with you cat for a bit instead.
We love the Litter-Robot 5 for gamers because it’s incredibly hands-off. Aside from emptying the waste tray, adding fresh litter, and occasionally giving the inside a good clean, you don’t really have to do a single thing to keep up with it.
Meet the next generation of smart litter boxes. The Litter-Robot 5 features a sleek LCD display, redesigned waste drawer for fewer empties, customizable lights, and better odor control than ever. Multi-cat ready and app-connected, it’s the perfect balance of convenience, performance, and modern design for any cat household.
⭐ BEST PRICE ON THE WEB⭐
SAVE UP TO $150!
Automatic feeders and fountains can also really help to keep your cat on schedule when you’re busy and keep you in the loop about their activities – without stopping the game!
For feeders, look for something with programmable settings. You can check out our list of the best automatic feeders for dry cat food for some of our favorites. If you’re feeding wet food, though, PetSafe just launched a brand-new product – called FreshFeed– that our editor is currently reviewing (so far, she loves it).
Designed to keep wet or fresh food chilled until scheduled mealtimes, the PetSafe® FreshFeed Refrigerated Pet Feeder uses patented semiconductor technology to help maintain a 40°F* temperature, supporting lasting freshness between meals. With a rotating six-meal tray and app-based scheduling, this refrigerated pet feeder helps make consistent feeding routines easier to manage, even when you’re away from home.
GUARANTEED BEST PRICE
USE COUPON CODE TECHNO30 AT CHECKOUT TO GET $30 OFF
For fountains, I like this one by Homerunpet because you can set it up anywhere since it can run on a battery. You can also plug it in, but let’s be honest, most setups are already stretching the limits of what the circuits in your gaming room can handle. Plus, no one wants to put a water fountain right next to their expensive gear.
Homerunpet Cordless Pet Water Fountain makes hydration a little more interesting. The faucet-style stainless steel tray encourages pets to drink, while the cordless 4000mAh battery runs up to 30 days without plugging in. Use continuous flow when plugged in or switch to motion-activated mode to conserve power. With triple filtration, a 2.5L capacity, whisper-quiet operation, and dishwasher-safe parts, it’s built for easy, low-maintenance everyday use.
Cat-Proof Your Gaming Setup
Remember what I said above about how much cats love glowing monitors, clickity-clacking keyboards, and dangling cords?
Anything catch your eye there? Dangling cords perhaps? We all know the risks of cords and curious cats. Yes, they’re inevitable with gaming setups, but you can minimize the danger.
Even the most well-behaved cats can be tempted to climb or chew a particularly juicy-looking cord if they get bored enough. Our editor’s cat snipped her son’s LED lights that run around his room right in half. Thankfully they were designed to be cut and still function without causing electrical issues. Since that incident, though, he’s become extra cautious about protecting cords from kitty death blades.
To combat this danger, try:
- Cable sleeves
- Cord clips
- Covered power strips
- Keeping loose wires elevated or hidden
If you’d rather not spend money on sleeves and clips, garden tape also works really well. Sure, it doesn’t look as nice as those fancy little cord management sleeves, but chances are you’re just going to tuck it all up under your desk anyway. Just bundle up the cords, wrap the tape around them every few inches, then secure it all to your desk with binder clips (also super cheap in bulk).
On the other hand, if you DO prefer to go all matchy-matchy and fancy-schmancy, this kit includes pretty much everything you could possibly need.
Includes: 4pcs Cable Sleeves( 20 in L x 0.4 in w), 20pcs reusable wire ties,35Cable Clips 11 Cord Holders, 2 Self Adhesive Cable Tie Rolls（The length of each roll is 118 in), 20Pcs Cable Zip Tie Mounts(3.54L*1.1in W),100 Cable Fastening Ties (size of every : 7.87in L x0.12in W)
Keeping Your Cat Comfortable & Entertained
One of the easiest ways to reduce interruptions and keep your cat happy is by setting up a special hangout spot for them close to your gaming setup. It can be a place of relaxation or even house a game of their own!
Hangout ideas:
- Elevated bed (the same height as your desk)
- Blanket on a nearby shelf
- Cat trees
- Cat shelves
- Crinkle tunnels
- Exercise wheels
- Scratching posts
If you don’t have a ton of floor space (or if you just want something a little more upscale- pun intended- than a basic tree), these wall shelves are really cool.
The Coziwow Wall Mounted Shelf Set turns any blank wall into a five-piece vertical playground. With a cozy house, bridge, climbing tree, scratching board, and jumping platform, it keeps cats active while saving precious floor space. Plush fabric adds comfort, while sisal rope posts and a scratch board help manage claws the productive way. Adjustable spacing lets you customize the layout to fit your home and your cat’s personality. Bonus: it even includes a little catnip to spark curiosity.
You can also rotate fun toys in the area each week, such as:
- Puzzle toys
- Motion-activated toys
- Treat balls
- Kicker toys
- Wand toys
This helps your cat to feel included and entertained without having to give them your undivided attention 24/7.
Some cats also enjoy screens – so if you’ve got a spare one, you could even set them up a little session of their own with a fish video, a bird video, some cat TV, or a cursor-chasing game. In moderation, of course – and not recommended for cats likely to attack the screen!
Scheduling Breaks
Gaming breaks aren’t just for humans! Remember to involve your cat when you take a break to stretch your legs or grab a snack.
A quick 5-minute pet or play session can make a huge difference during a long night of gaming, helping them to feel more included and resetting their energy.
It can also reduce the likelihood of zoomies and interruptions!
Attention-Seeking Behaviors Aren’t a Nuisance, They’re a Sign
When your cat sits on your keyboard, bites your controller, knocks something over, or walks directly in front of your screen, it usually means they’re getting bored.
Don’t get mad at your cat for this, they’re simply telling you what they need – you! Instead, take it as a sign you need to take a break or set up a more stimulating environment for them while you play.
Night Owl Gaming
The occasional nighttime game isn’t going to disrupt your cat’s life, but regular overnight play can accidentally encourage some behaviors you may not want, such as nighttime zoomies and late-night food expectations.
It helps to maintain a predictable routine, with set feeding times and a wind-down bedtime routine if you can. Having a little play session with your cat before bed can also help to get rid of any extra energy they have left over from the day.
Final Thoughts
The goal isn’t to keep your cat entertained the entire time you play. Most cats are happy simply being near their human while they chill out or entertain themselves. The key is making sure they’ve got access to what they need, making game time a positive experience, and remembering to schedule breaks for a little TLC!
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