Toyz for kittehz

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chevalier

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Mrawr. The feline forces are coming. Anyway. I have this little Abyssinian (actually, he has 150% of the normal weight for that race without being fat but anyway) that always wants to play and it doesn’t really work out with the other furball (Syberian/Thai mix). They can get some combat practice but it tends to get too personal to be funny for either of them.

So, I’ve been thinking about getting or making some toys for the more active cat. I live on the 11th floor but we’ve put a net on the balcony, so the cats can have free reign of it. There are two shelves they can lie down after jumping there, sort of like wild cats at the zoo but I wonder what else could be done. I’m sure some of you guys have had a playful, active adult cat that simply needed more entertainment than others (this cat wants you to play with him, not stroke him, regenerates strength rather fast and cries when there’s nobody to play with other than the other cat but the other apparently doesn’t count).

Hamsters are easier, you put up some towers and tunnels and wheels, but I’m kinda out of my creativity when it comes to devising something for a cat. Halp?
 
A piece of string is a traditional toy, but it requires your interaction (sort of like playing fetch with your dog)

Get a piece of string about two feet long (I use unwaxed dental floss). Grasp one end of the string in your hand. Pull the string across the floor, or across the bed, or wherever Kitty is located. Watch Kitty go wild attempting to “hunt” the string. 🙂

As variations, pull the string across the bed and underneath a pillow. Your cat will likely dive under the pillow in search. Or gently wave the string through the air, low enough that Kitty has to jump a little to get ti.

Dangling the string above Kitty while s/he is laying on his or her back can be casual fun, as your cat playfully swats at it.

Its not a toy which you can build and forget about, though. It needs to be moving for your cat to enjoy it. Plus, never let a cat swallow a piece of string. It can sever the intestines and likely kill the poor thing.
 
chevalier said:
#1)Hamsters are easier, you put up some towers and tunnels and wheels, but I’m kinda out of my creativity when it comes to devising#2) something for a cat. Halp?
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i think the solution for #2 is #1
 
We have a single kitten. A few things he particularly enjoys:
  • Cardboard boxes. Scatter them around, maybe glue a few together so the cat can climb on them. Easy, cheap.
  • Paper products. Paper bags are a favorite around here. A roll of paper towels is also enjoyed, although it tends to get shredded.
  • Stuffed cat toys with elastic strings. Hang somewhere so the cat can bat at them. Also good if you hold the string in one hand and just twitch the toy slightly - requires minimal energy from the human.
Other than that, try bringing home a variety of cheap cat toys and seeing what the kitteh likes. Ours is pretty random in what he plays with, so we let him pick and then buy more of what he likes.
 
My cats love to play “toss” with a little wad of paper as the “ball”. I just toss the wad to them, let them hit it back and play back and forth until they want to make up their own game by hiding the wad under rugs and chairs, etc. and fetching them out again. Also, any toy you cover in catnip will usually send them crazy, rolling all around with the toy. And you can make a hazard course for them to follow, overturned boxes, tubes big enough for them to crawl through, and that sort of thing. Lead them through the course with a feather tied onto the end of a string and they’ll soon tire out, but they’ll love it.
 
A laser pointer can get a cat going. Just don’t shine it in their eyes.
 
I second the paper bag idea. Our cats always loved finding a paper grocery bag they could hide in. Also, wadded up balls of paper seem to keep our cats interested. And you might find a scratching post that has a flexible stick on top with a feathered ball that bobs and spins when kitty bats at it.
 
Papper bages and boxes (from small to mideum size) are always good, also yarn and fethers, I’ve known one kittlen that had a ‘thing’ about hair ties. The little stinker would sneank up behind me when seated and take the hair tie and run off and play with it and then walk around with the hair tie hanging out of her mouth as if to say ‘look what I’ve stalked and killed’. :D:cool::p:eek: One little thing: You may turnout to be the biggest kittlen toy in the home! :eek::eek:😃
 
I third the paper bags. My 9 year old cat Rocky loves them, and if there’s one laying on its side, he’ll be in it. He also likes the toys with catnip in them, he goes nuts over them. He also likes pens, particularly the fuzzy ones with feathers on the end, he’ll grab at them and carry them away so he can chew and slobber all over them in peace. It’s weird. 🙂
 
DaveBj said:
Two words:

Live mousies.
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I have heard of people buying feeder mice for that purpose. I remember making a robotic mouse once, and that may (also) be a solution to the problem (especially if the first doesn’t work). I never tested it with a cat, though. I suppose you could load new routines/paths for the robot mouse if the cat gets bored of the current one.
 
tabycat said:
Papper bages and boxes (from small to mideum size) are always good, also yarn and fethers, I’ve known one kittlen that had a ‘thing’ about hair ties. The little stinker would sneank up behind me when seated and take the hair tie and run off and play with it and then walk around with the hair tie hanging out of her mouth as if to say ‘look what I’ve stalked and killed’. :D:cool::p:eek: One little thing: **You may turnout to be the biggest kittlen toy in the home! ** :eek::eek:😃
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No kidding! No matter what toys he has, our cat would much rather go after my fingers if I’m typing.
 
Byrnwiga said:
I remember making a robotic mouse once, and that may (also) be a solution to the problem (especially if the first doesn’t work). I never tested it with a cat, though.
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I dunno… getting live mice might make it easier to achieve…erm… realism.

I bought a Zsu Zsu Pet, which is sort of a robotic hamster, and all my cat did was give a perplexed look, and a bored swipe with a paw before abandoning it. :o
 
OP: Please do not allow your kitty to play with string, or elastics.
My little snowshoe kitty ate the string and ball of yarn that he played with and by the time I realized the vet he was seeing didn’t have good diagnostic skills and actually couldn’t take a good X-ray to save his soul it was too late.
The second opinion vet tried to remove the string wrapped around his intestines but there was too much damage by the time she examined him. His intestines were nearly sliced through from the string wrapped around them.

Please, no string (unsupervised or left lying around where he has acess to it) no yarn balls, and definately no elastic string or pieces.
 
A fish tank!

That would be a little cheaper and lower maintenance than a hamster cage/trail.

My cats can be mesmerized by the fish.
 
EvelynEVF said:
A fish tank!

That would be a little cheaper and lower maintenance than a hamster cage/trail.

My cats can be mesmerized by the fish.
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Mine often sit and watch the fish, but if they can’t catch any, they quickly get bored. We lost two bettas because of a small opening near the pump. We had to put aluminum screening there to keep them from getting their paws into the tank.

About the string–I agree. One of mind got string caught down his throat and came to me with a panicked look in his eyes. Fortunately, the string had only gotten down his throat but not into his stomach, so I was able to pull it out.

Another cat liked to watch me crosstitch. The little stinker grabbed a bit of floss and tried to make off with it, but I’d been watching out of the corner of my eye while I stitched, so I got it back from him before he could get away–the little imp.
 
A box
A huge cat tree
Several boxes together next to the huge cat tree
 
Here are some of my kitties’ favorites:

Da Bird – stiff feathers on a string attached to a pole, looks and sounds like a bird in flight
amazon.com/Da-Bird-Cat-Toy-Store/dp/B000F9JJJE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353014920&sr=8-1&keywords=da-bird

Yeowwwww! Catnip Banana – has some sort of extra-strong, organic catnip inside. Our cats’ favorite catnip toy.
amazon.com/Yeowww-Catnip-Toy-Yellow-Banana/dp/B000AUJFHE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1353014969&sr=1-1&keywords=catnip+banana

Those foam, nerf rings that you can fire out of a toy space gun (kid’s toy). Shoot the rings or throw them, and our cats go nuts.

Crinkly balls – we flick them across the floor and the cats play soccer with them
amazon.com/Ethical-2-Inch-Mylar-Balls-4-Pack/dp/B0002DJ34Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1353015195&sr=1-1&keywords=crinkle+balls

Modular cat cubes – they like to play hide and seek in these
amazon.com/Pop-Open-Kitty-Play-Cube/dp/B001FTGLCQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1353015237&sr=1-1&keywords=cat+cube

One of our cats adores chasing laser pointer dots – this is a big hit.

Finally, I know this sounds dumb, but our cats ADORE this catsitter DVD. It has video of various small animals running around and both my cats just love it. Good if you don’t a lot of critters outside the window for your cats to watch.
amazon.com/Go-Cat-Sitter-DVD/dp/B000F6UOXC/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1353015390&sr=1-1&keywords=catsitter+video
 
An idea we found:

Take a laundry basket, one of the ones with the lattice sides. Turn upside-down and put a toy hanging inside. The cat loves to bat at the toy, and the lattice makes it more difficult.

Also used by placing the cat inside the laundry basket and the toy outside, to keep entertained while humans are doing things that they don’t want little kitties involved in.
 
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