Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hello

I was wondering what sort of toys etc your cats like to play with. Our boys outdoor activities have decreased in recent months and he has gained a couple of pounds, I'm trying to provide things to keep him active whilst at the same time not overwhelming him. He does that typical cat thing of "if I'm supposed to play with it, I won't, but if I'm not allowed to play with it, its my favourite toy". I wonder if anyone can suggest things that seem particularly popular with your cats?

Bungles favourite thing by far is his tunnel. It's a really cheap one, was about 2 quid from morrisons, its made from that cheap plasticy nylon which makes that crinkling noise, and apart from it being a place to hide, he loves to dive through it and roll around in it.

He also has one of those little pyramid shaped toys with balls that roll round the edges, he does like to lay there batting the balls around, and he has a kong kickeroo and small fabric mice which he likes to kill.

We have tried a laser pen and he will chase it for a couple of minutes but gets bored easily.

I'm not necessarily looking for toys you have to buy, anything at all that will capture his interest and get him more active would be great, so if I could get some opinions and ideas that would be great, he appears to be becoming increasingly fat and lazy! He seems well enough in himself though.

A scrunched up tiny bit of paper from a letter, flier, anything.

Even the noise of scrumpling it up draws them; on a smooth floor it flies by itself at the tap of a paw - it's alive!

Some cats retrieve it and bring it back to you for more; I once had a Siamese who would pick it up and drop it into a waste-paper basket so that he could have the pleasure of fishing it out ...

scrunched up balls of paper are always a favourite, particularly if it is from an envelope with a window in, the plastic gives an extra crinklyness to it.

Balls of any type thrown up stairs for the cat to chase up after and then knock back down. One of my cats will actually carry a jingly ball up the stairs so she can knock it around on the landing and then knock it back down stairs, only to carry it up again and repeat.

As far as bought toys goes, one called a Flying Frenzy has been very popular. i got one with a long pole, about 5' and about a 6' string attached, you then buy the attachment separately, the simple feathers is one of the favourites and you can give the cat a really good run around with out wearing yourself out, or risking bites and scratches from over eager kitties.

Finally i have found a company that does catnip sardines (I think it was called Ywww) which I think must be stuffed full of catnip, even after two years they are still well liked and frequently sloppered over.

When mine were younger pingpong balls were a favourite - safe, too, as they squash if you step on them, rather than trip you up. Tilly likes any small object that slides or rolls (especially pens and pencils which she knocks down for the dogs to chew); paper, plastic and wired ribbon (!!); skittering leaves outside; anything I really don't want her to have, that is on a surface that is out of bounds, or that can be sent crashing to the floor at 3am. A favourite game is batting the lid of an old bottle of contact lens solution around the empty bath (hide the lid before you go to bed). Pip, poor love, rarely plays anymore, but can sometimes be tempted by a long stalk of dried grass, or a curl of stiff paper.

Crinkle tunnel is a favorite with Tilly, also a clockwork mouse wound up by pulling its "tail" give plenty of fun.

My cats aren't very toy-motivated, and get bored quickly, but I find it helps not to give them all their toys at once. Every so often I collect up what's lying on the floor, and put down another set that they haven't seen for a while.

After spending a small fortune on Oscar (the latest addition is a water fountain...which he walks past to get to the tap!!), Oscar LOVES plastic strips. Just long bits of plastic that come on the likes of electrical cable etc. These keep him entertained for hours, in fact last night he brought one upstairs into the bedroom at 4am to show us!!

Note of warning...be careful not to get them in your hoover!

I've just been reminded of those plastic plug covers you get with a new electrical appliance and ohh yess, in a bath or on a hard floor they make a lovely rattly noise and skim along in a lively way. Hell to tread on with bare feet though

Willow likes the ring you get on plastic milk containers, known to us as ringy-things. The kittens have caught on and the floor is littered with then!

Purdy love pine cones and will quite happily throw them up the drive herself - like a dog throwing a ball then running after it! She juggles them.

And of course they all LOVE boxes!

I was just thinking of boxes, bobbysgirl - big boxes, small boxes, open boxes, almost closed boxes, Tilly loves them all. The very best game is ambushing from a box, but that does require an ambushee, of course!

I think I have found the perfect cat toy, at least for the next few days until they get bored.

I have been making some leather belts and cutting them to shape have ended up with strips of leather about 3-4 mm wide at one end tapering to a point at the other, and about 40" long (I know I mix my measuring units). They have cat toy written all over them. Fortunately it is veg tanned leather so no worries about them chewing it. Even the 17 year old was happily having a paw and chew at it.

I think I must have one of the few cats in the world that doesn't like boxes. According to the charity she came from Freyja was found in a taped shut cardboard box with barely enough room to move when she was about 12 weeks old. Even now, 3 years on, she won't voluntarily go in a box, she will sniff and circle them, but looks aghast when one of the others happily gets in.

This is really a toy for two or more kittens - get hold of two cardboard boxes; one slightly smaller so that it can slide inside the larger like a drawer, cut off any flaps and make sure there are no sticky bits from tape. Then slide the inner box closed and (while kittens are out of the way, obviously) cut entry holes halfway up all four sides and another hole in the top.

This makes a good hidey-hole for a kitten to dive into and attack its mate from the inside - and vice versa. Arms and legs waving everywhere. A blanket or cushion inside the box makes it a good place to sleep when they're tired, and if you need to check on them you can always slide the two boxes apart.

It's so funny to hear that there's a common theme, Bungle absolutely loves little strippy bits of plastic, e.g. wired ribbon, the bit from round the top of a bottle of milk etc, I wonder what the attraction is?

Thanks so much for your recommendations, there's a couple of ideas there I intend to pursue. We recently found by accident that he likes a screwed up ball of tinfoil to bat around the floor, so I doubt I will be spending much money because, other than the ball pyramid, we have found that the more money we spend, the less interested he is! We were floating the idea of one of those big cat trees with lots of sitting space and scratching posts etc, but I reckon he will turn his nose up the way he did when we replaced his cheap and cheerful but much loved scratching post (which was also much used hence the replacement) with a great big posh one which he never touches! Cats eh?!!

Thanks for the tips everyone

Mine aren't so fussed about what they play with, as long as I give them attention and join in.

Favourites include: laser pen in the bathroom (for some reason they wait in the bath for me to trail it along the wall tiles); tunnels, boxes, catnip mice and they also love the carpet tunnel - a carpet offcut I turn into a tunnel.

From spring onwards they expect 'lawn meecies', where I sit on the lawn and trail a plant stalk across the lawn. This is normally followed by digging for valerian root in my plant pots and licking the catnip plants.

At the moment the best thing is a cat tree by a radiator!