Category: Animal House
Hi all. Here's a question for any cat owners/lovers out there. I recently adopted a new cat, who is much more playful than the cats I've owned in the past. I need to get her some new toys. So, got any good/fun recommendations?
If you drink milk from plastic containers, kitties love to play with the little ring that is around the top just underneath the lid. I did just hear that they can be dangerous if the kitty chews them up, though.
Those little felt mice can be a big hit with some kitties.
Also, they have plastic wands with feathers attached on the end, or shiny metallic plastic fronds that make just about any cat go wild when you shake them (the wands, that is, not the cat!).
Alicia,
I often find my cats enjoy the unintended toys left for them - that being plastic candy
wrappers, ppens, or anything else that may fall off the coffee table in the middle of the
night and that they realize will make a sufficient racket to disturb everyone.
Seriously, though, our cats have this toy that is a hollow plastic ring, with a track in the
top where two raised balls glide around the top of this ring. I am not sure where we got it
but I will try to get the name of it for you, and perhaps it is something sold in the States.
I'm pretty sure it was bought at Wal-Mart here in Canada so hopefully they will carry it
down there. Our cats spend hours moving tthose balls around and chasing them... the
ring is large enough that the cat sits in the middle moving these balls around. I mention it
because it seems to keep them entertained for a really long time. I'll post the name of this
toy if I can find it.
Catnip in a small container with a few small holes :D
What about the good old fashioned paper grocery sack? I remember as a kid the cats would love those.
Post 3 is spot on.
My cat will play with the most random things. Crumple up a receipt for him, or a napkin, and he plays with it for hours. He even brings it back, playing fetch, if you have the time for it.
And, yes, anything catnip is great. Just be careful that whatever catnip toy you buy can't actually be destroyed by the cat, unless you enjoy cleaning up copious amounts of catnip from all over the floor, lol. I remember when I was a kid, we had cats who would play with these catnip bags we would buy. But by the second day, they would tear through the cloth, or whatever material they were made from, and the catnip would be strewn all over the house.
My cat loves anything that involves me. In other words, I can leave all sorts of little balls and toy mice lying around, and he rarely pays attention to them. But if I get one of those wand toys with some sort of toy dangling from a string at the end and wave the wand around for him to chase, he loves it. I also have a little mouse-shaped toy with a button on top that you press to make a little red laser light shine. Surprisingly, even though I can't see, I seem to be good at shining it on the floor in a way that makes him want to chase it. I flick it on and off at different speeds, and it drives him crazy.
Leo brought up paper bags. I wish I could remember where I bought this, but it's a paper bag sewn inside a cloth bag. So this way the cat can't tear it up, but whenever he lies on it it makes that satisfying sound of a paper sack. When I aim the laser light at it, he loves to attack the bag both because he loves chasing the dot and because he loves the sound of the bag. And this bag is easy to run through the washer and dryer.
Amazon.com has mice with a little chip inside them that makes them squeak and sound amazingly like a real mouse whenever the cat plays with it. In fact, just do a search on amazon for cat toys, and you'll see all sorts of cute toy ideas.
Thanks for the suggestions, all, especially for the inexpensive ones. Yes, cats make toys out of the most random things, I just want to make sure they're safe things. Becky, I know cats love laser pointers. I just also know you can injure a cat if you hit its eyes with one, so I've been afraid to play with a cat with one of them.
there are great suggestions given here and yes any toy with catnip in it will make your cat go crazy but it is quite entertaining hearing them run round the room with the toy or chase after it and then pounce on the toy its playing with, smiles.
Some like to play with the bottle tops that are off a milk bottle and empty toilet paper rolls and plastic bags.
You can get some toys for your cat from the supermarket and they enjoy balls, the stick that has bird like feathers on the end of it, mouse that have catnip in them or with out catnip, I once found this toy and it had a kind of little pillow that was connected to the toy and my cat use to lay his head on it which looked real cute, smiles.
I've been through almost every cat toy on the market in the UK finding stuff for my guys. There are many which they like, but only a few which they love.
Flying Frenzy: This is available in the UK, not sure about the US. Da Bird is the alternative. It's a wand with a clip on the end so you can change the attachments. My breed aren't terribly energetic, but even they go completely loony when this comes out. Really great for giving them a good work out and burning off energy, and you only need to buy new attachments to have many many different toys in one, so really economical.
Ball tragks: You should be able to get the Burgen tracks really well over there. You can get one called a Cyclone that allows you to put catnip in the middle, so every time they whack the ball, they get a waft of catnip. You can also get ones with a cardboard scratch pat in the middle, and others that are just a ring that they sit in the middle of. It's worth buying the flashing balls for these as it keeps their interest for so much longer.
Play cubes: Over here' they're by Kitty City. Not sure if they're available over there, but they're very light weight canvas pop up cubes with 3 entry holes and a couple of dangly toys. They can roll around in these wonderfully.
Ping pong balls: They go down so well here, and are so very cheap. The bigger balls that go into kids play areas are also brilliant.
Obviously they like all of the other toys, but these are usually big hits.
wow they sound cool, smiles.