According to science, chocolate contains potent neurotransmitters that can elevate one’s mood. But shape it like an Easter egg, wrap it in foil, and introduce it to a pair of kittens, and it can drive them crazy without their even eating it.
Behold, the Power of Chocolate
August 16, 2010 By
At this age, they go crazy over anything!
I was wondering how anyone could watch this w/out cackling like an idiot like I was. Some one finally giggled at :23, I was guffawing before that!!!
And to pre-empt the nuffers – I am quite sure their humans know better than to let them actually eat the chocolate egg. They’re just playing with it.
Those kits are learning valuable lessons. Circling the prey, pouncing, defending one’s kill…
What do you mean “Domesticated”? That’s ridiculous!
What wonderous sproinging leaps, they should be ready for the London Olympics.
Peeps, don’t let the kitties eat the chocolate, please, it’s dangerously toxic. See:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=0+1783&aid=242
That said:
OMG flashback to having kittens in the house, and finding 300 little foil-wrapped eggs under the couch!!!
Wow, those kittens are spring loaded! I love the full frontal pounce at about the 38 second mark.
The sproinging!! The sproinging!! I love how they give it 150% effort each and every time!! And yet, they miss the egg completely!! Theresa, no worries about toxic chocolate with these kids. You’ll notice that the egg is never in real danger of capture. It is a wily egg — or so we will tell wee kittehs with very bad aim.
“Take that, evildoer!” “And that!!” “And that!!”
Letting kittens play with chocolate is like letting your toddler play with a bottle of antifreeze… I don’t care if it looks cute, its just neglectful.
Which came first, the kitten or the egg?
how is it “neglectful” if a person is obviously WATCHING the kitties with a video cam?
Ok. That leap at 0:38 is awesomesauce.
Part of me wishes they’d stay like this their entire lives, even as adults. Part of me is really glad they don’t.
Yikes — chocolate is poisonous to cats and dogs. Foil isn’t much help if they eat it . . . .
This is dangerous.
Ah, love the backing up in anticipation of the megasproing at about 0:37!
I always say, who needs television when you have pets? Seriously, there are few television shows as entertaining as a couple of kittens playing. Amirite? lol
Omg, 0:38… Best!
That baby can pounce!! Now I know what to do with all those nasty little chocolate easter eggs, that no one in my family likes.
I half expected that kid from the Bugs Bunny cartoon to come tromping through muttering: “I want an easter egg, I want an easter egg, I want an easter egg….”
“Letting kittens play with chocolate is like letting your toddler play with a bottle of antifreeze.” Not quite.
Theobromide is the culprit in chocolate, and the darker the chocolate, the worse it is for your critters. White chocolate is almost harmless unless ingested in enormous amounts (it would take about 45 ounces per pound of body weight to produce mild toxicity); conversely, baking chocolate is the worst, and only .1 ounce per pound of body weight can produce mild toxicity. Milk chocolate can cause mild toxicity at .7 ounces per pound of body weight. Given the size of the egg, the size of the kitties, and the fact that the egg is foil-wrapped and they are supervised, there probably isn’t any immediate danger.
Antifreeze, though, is some nasty stuff. Only one ounce total will seriously harm a child.
The More You Know!
Ack! TheobromiNe.
THANKS ALLOT -CO!! Now how the he** am I supposed to get any work done? All I want to do is watch that vid overandoverandoverandoverandoverandover!
Awww the hek with work – them thare r some cute puddytats!! Me wuv dem!
How can anyone not love kittens? Isn’t it constitutionally impossible to look at them playing like this and not feel all happy inside? **daisys and rainbows twirling in my eyes**
And when they’re done with the chocolate egg, I’m not proud. Color me grabbing it and chowing down. Me loves chocolate.
Agree with most of the other folks: the back-back-back-LEAP! at :38 makes me giggle insanely at my desk. The video makes me equal parts thankful and sad that my kitties are now past this hyper-adrenaline kitten state.
At about 8 seconds in, the kitten licks his forepaw. Does anyone know what this behavior means?? My kitty is almost 8 yrs old and does the same thing when he plays hard chasing after a laser pointer or toy. I thought maybe his leg hurts or is it a calming behavior?
Woo-hoo, the power of the 0:38 Bounce-Pounce! High-sterical. Kittens R Fun, no 2 ways about it, unless you have 2 Kittens….
Keisa, maybe that’s the kitteh equivalent of spitting on your hands?
love them
While chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats, it is not toxic to rats. For older rats with lung issues, a small dose of dark chocolate is actually recommended as a bronchiodialator.
Thus I have an excuse for having a bag of dark chocolate chips in my fridge, even thought I can’t bake worth a darn !
NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NO CHOCOLATE TO CATS!!!! PUT THEM IN THE STREET TO PLAY ,,,JUST AS BAD
It’s not just chocolate that elevates the mood–cute kitties leaping will do the trick too.
@Gingerbean, I’m with you. My babies are WAY funnier than TV.
This video totally made my day.
Maybe this is just a plastic egg, you know. “Easter egg” does not necessary implies that it is chocolate. Having kittehs at home is a source of constant joy and of constant worries: will they chew the electrical wires? the plants? will they get stuck somewhere? swallowed by the vacuum cleaner? These two make up for all the concerns with their playfull war! What court jesters!
Kittens are just crazy anyways. It doesn’t need to be chocolate or wrapped in foil. They’re just that way about anything – they react that way to their own shadows!
Sproingy little guy, ain’t he?
punainen’s reply is just proof that some people feel the need to be passively aggressive to others given even a hint of justification.
Too bad that correct information and education makes them look like the fool they are.
Cute Kittehs and nice video.
Nothin like a little game of Chocolate Soccer! World Cup? Bah!
Why are cats so awesome?
Their mama isn’t going to let them eat it. Have you ever seen a cat eat something big like that? You have ample warning because they play with it for ages then gnaw at the wrapping, of course by then it’s so covered in lint that they have to have a full bathing session before they can even consider eating, etc. They aren’t like dogs (gulp).
LOVE THE HOPPITY HOPPITY POUNCE ACTION!!
MAYBE THEY THINK THEY’RE BUNBUNS AND ARE JUST TRYING TO PICK UP THEIR EGGS?!?!?
omg the sproing! I can’t handle the sproing!
SPROING!
But if that is a Cadbury Cream Egg, then move over kittens, that egg is MINE
OMG, the trampolining… too much! My heart, eet shall burst! Oups, too late.
Super sproingy kitteh makes a fabulous leap at 0:38 AND sticks the landing!
Score: 10!
Every cat that I have ever had licks its paws when “hunting”. I always wondered why, in the pursuit of a toy, other kitten, cat etc, the cat would stop and lick its paw…always very quickly, one or two licks, almost frantically. Any one know why, or does anyone else’s kitty do this.
Bellasmom- maybe its just for good luck. A cat superstition. I’ve never noticed my cats do it, but they’re not really stalkers, more like run around and around and around at breakneck speed trying to knock each other down at Crazy O’Clock.
These kittens in the video are hilarious. :38 turned my smile into a laugh and I love how at the end the kitten gets distracted by something across the room for a little bit.
yes – chocolate is bad for kitties.. but obviously elasic is not!! *SPROING SPROING SPROING*
I laughed so much at these two little guys, my dog (lying on the couch next to me), got up, looked at the screen, then jumped down and walked away in disgust. I don’t thinkhe’s a fan of the “lurkensproingen”, even without the “lurken”!
SHINY!!!
DON’T LET YR KITTIES EAT CHOCOLATE!
‘Nuff said.
[Nor aspirin, nor raisin bagels, nor roll-on anti-perspirant, nor concertina wire, nor up-armored HMMWVs...
- Ed.]
Awww… it’s like a little kitty soccer match.
omgbabehkittehs!!!1
i want kittens
As I think about it, egg-shaped is perfect for a cat toy. The toy ball my cat has now just skitters away under the sofa or the TV cabinet. Egg shaped or conical shaped toys naturally turn in a circle.
Off to the pet store!
Oh, Teho. lol. I’m sure CIF could do a re-issue. :p
Those who have asked: Cats often do a superfast “licklicklick” when they’re embarrassed or nervous about something. It is a “displacement” nervous action, like a human tapping a pen or jiggling their leg.
Not so sure why they would do it when hunting (ahem, “hunting”) unless they’d done something they felt stupid about.
Oh, thanks for that info, Pounce! I had never noticed that paw licking action during hunting before. Until I read your explanation, I was thinking perhaps they do that to make their claws so clean and shiny that the reflection of the sun glares off of them into the eyeballs of the prey, which further hinders their opponent by blinding them, making the killing strike with the razor, sharp claws easier.
Only a cat could get that animated over an inanimate object……
To Bellasmom and other lick ponderers:
When cat’s lick their paws while hunting what they are doing is increasing their sensitivity in their pads. Raccoons are the same way in the wild. The moisture on their oh-so-delicate pawpads makes any slight movement, change in pressure, temperature variation, etc easier to sense. Something about improved blood flow below the skin’s surface, I suppose. Nothing quite like the gritty tongue of a kitty to boost circulation.
My “kids” (2 yr.old cats)LOVE Easter ! Especially when “mommy” takes a plastic Easter egg from the dollar store (no human kids ) & places two or three unpopped pop corn kernels inside & tapes it closed & throws it onto the floor or down the stairs. fun Fun FUN !!! ( Then mommy eats ALL the chocolate.) snerk!
Those kittens are hilarious! I love it
WANT!
hyper kittens at the age where gravity is tripled and strength quadrupled
and everything is prey
Yep, that’s pretty much my reaction to chocolate as well.
They are hysterical. Reminds me so much of when Stinky was a little fellow and played practically All. Day. Long. He would run so fast his back legs would overtake his front legs and he would knock himself over.
0:37!!!! ROFL! So cute.
Those little jumps remind me of my friend´s kittens whom I filmed a while ago.
um, has anybody ever noticed, that this website (the pictures AND the editors AND the commenters) is, like, pretty cool?????
Signed,
Just Felt Compelled to Restate the Obvious after
reading the comments under this video
Thanks goodness for nuffers, otherwise none of us would know anything about how to take care of our animals.
OMG – Love all the pouncing! Fun vid!
“It’s a bug! Attack! It’s a wolverine! Run away! It’s a spaceship! Wreeeooo-wreeeooo!”
Those kitties must be eggs-hausted.
@Katey – is Crazy O’Clock normally around 3AM?
@Hello Katie – the mental image of a human doing what those kittens just did is hysterical. Thank you for that!!
EHN – these kittehs are soooooooo tough! Seriously, peeps, I don’t think mommy (or daddy) is going to let them eat that egg. Do you know how long it would take them to accomplish that task, anyway?
Just enjoy teh qte!
@Pyrit: Eggsactly.
PS I think NTMTOM deserves EXTRA KUDOS for his correct usage and spelling of “their” in the last sentence of the posting. Well done, sir!
These kittens are just doing what comes natural it is part of there training to do hunting or just to have a good time what ever it fun to watch I loved it
I watched (over and over and OVER again) and have come to the conclusion that it’s only a kitty’s feet that are spring-loaded. From a resting position (front feet extended, belly on the floor), that kitty LAUNCHED him/herself into the air with no apparent contribution from his/her legs. Heck, *I* can barely get up from a squat using ALL my muscles. This vid was way too much fun … the comments, too!
It worked out fine here but please be aware that chocolate is severely toxic to cats and dogs.
loooooooooving pyrit’s wackadoo version of the story!!!
MWAH!!! (and also *snerk*)
Ohhh, O NO, it was a lot longer, and chick peas were involved.
MWAH! To you too!
Gads I got a good chuckle from not just these cuties(LOVE the sproinging)
but ALSO from the expected and (almost) WANTED nuffers comments…
I get a feeling that they are SKULKING behind the scenes just WAITING for an opportunity to say,
“on noes, that is so bad, oh noes, don’t you all know how terrible, etc, ad nauseum…”
i don’t get it. why is everyone so worried about the chocolate? it’s better than a real, live baby bird in there!
WHAT ABOUT THE BABY BIRDS?!! who will protect the kittens from a real, live baby bird?!
It’s beyond my mathematical powers, so…
How much easter-candy-grade milk chocolate would a kitten have to eat to get a toxic dose of Tehobromine? For a 40-50 lb dog it’s at least half a pound eaten in one 24-hour period (milk chocolate, not baker’s chocolate)…
Not that knowing the actual amount of milk chocolate a cat would need to lick from her paw after scratching the foil surface of an easter egg would, you know, shut anybody up– I’ve just become painfully curious as to how much it would take.
Please don’t read my comment like Vincent Price.
Where’s the part where they hide the thing, to be “discovered” at 3: a.m.?
Replay action.
I can’t be bought=yo
[looks at watch]
[paces]
I wanted to see MORE!
I’m with everyone else…the sproing at :38 busted me open and I can’t believe there wasn’t more laughing in the background of that video!