I have one of those giant hamster wheels for our cat. If you use the laser pointer and get her to chase it on the cat-wheel, when she tries to stop when at full speed, she goes all the way around and the wheel spits her out. Funny as hell. Then she goes back for more. Cat loves the wheel.

The cat is moving in a circle, so it has a centripetal acceleration and a centripetal force. At the apex of the loop, that force is the sum of gravity, and resistance from the track. The track force is greater than or equal to zero, so acceleration due to gravity is less than or equal to the total centripetal acceleration.

g ≤ v²/r
So,
r ≤ v²/g

Taking top speed of a cat as 8.278m/s (from Wolfram Alpha), and g on earth as 9.81m/s², this gives us r ≤ 6.99m. So long as the cat can maintain its top speed all around the loop, it can successfully do a loop of up to 14 meters diameter. This is a lot bigger than I expected, to the extent that I suspect some flaw in my reasoning.

I dunno. Build one and try it with your cat and let us know the results.

If the loop is carpeted, she sure could.

Cat expert here. Yes a cat could.

Cat kinda lookin like Pikachu

I mean a hedgehog could do it walking slowly, I don’t see why I cat couldn’t do it running. Context

At least 3 of my cats could do that, even at low speeds.

If the cat was chasing Tony Hawk instead of a mouse, yes.

Build it, record it, post it, and win all of the internet points!

My cat does that even without the walkway.

Depends on how fast you toss it in there. LOL.

If the track is made of wood, yes.

If I’m dangling her Bug-Onna-Leash and my adolescent cat comes running, and I lift up the bug, she’ll sometimes do a loopdeloop leap without any track at all, either swatting the bug or grabbing him in her teeth and running off with him. This would be a cakewalk for her.

There are cats who can’t jump or run fast or climb, we love them anyway. But to test your theory you need to get the cat to WANT to do it. “What’s in it for me?” is their guiding principle.

So it’s all going to depend on motivation; the mouse needs to be just bite sized, catnippy, and have a little bell or rattle sewn inside it. You should pull it in an enticingly twitchy way. Treats may also be needed.

“You were so preoccupied with whether or not the cat could, that you didn’t stop to think if he would.”