What toys do cats really like?
In mid November, I adopted a cat. Saki is 7 years old and in good health. She hid under the sofa for the first 2 weeks, but she has come out and is a happy member of the family.
She often needs lots of love. Her need for petting and validation rivals my need for validation from people in my life. It’s a bottomless need. I give her as much as I can, and then calmly say “no more”. I’m happy to say she understands the word no. She’ll always protest, but she leaves me alone just long enough to read a Fluther thread, and then she once again insists that I need to show her affection.
Saki has some little mice with feather tails. One has disappeared. The last I saw it it was under the kitchen table.
She needs more toys. She needs more stimulation in her life. What do you recommend? What have you bought for your own cat that has proved irresistible to them? I appreciate your ideas.
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Paper balls, tin foil balls, fuzzy balls (attach one to a piece of string, they love it if you bait them with it), feather-on-a-stick toy, Matatabi sticks (‘drugs’ for cats), long ass pieces of fleece string (baiting them, or wrap around them (loosely, stay around), carton boxes (my Tsounouri doesn’t do boxes, but most cats will); additionally you can make it a ‘house’ with holes in it (to enter and exit, and some smaller to peek through, or put your fingers through so they can ‘attack’ you), catnip (watch them get ‘high’ (see Matatabi).
Honestly, the toys my cats love the most are the ones that involve me interacting with them. If I use the laser pointer…they love it. If I use the automatic laser pointer toy, they honestly couldn’t care less. If I get the feather-on-a-string, they go bananas. But any feathered toys just left for them are ignored. They love anything I throw or bat….but once I stop engaging, it’s just a thing on the ground to ignore.
Yeah, what @Entropy said is oh so true.
Interact.
Every day I play with my cat, two, three times, for a quarter or so.
On top of that I let him out on the balcony, which is his play pen (netted, with climbing materials, and scratching stuff).
To add to my above list: hide anything under a rug or fleece blanket.
They absolutely love to ‘hunt’ and ‘attack’.
Can be a little ball, a string, or your hand.
The moment it comes from under the edge of the rug they’ll jump it ferociously (my Nouri does).
Mine enjoy the soft fuzzy balls and the toy on a string a lot. The string toy really helps with energy levels and reduces aggression.
Every cat is different in their preferences. I had 1 cat that would take 1 of those little mice & throw it up in the air & catch it for hours when I didn’t have time to entertain him. Another cat had a passion for a plastic cap off a cola bottle. I’d throw it & he would either catch it & bring it back to me or he’d swat it back to me. A piece of yarn being wiggled in front of their face can keep them entertained for a good length of time. A wiggling toe under a blanket can be effective as well. Strumming your fingers in front of their face can work well with many kittens & cats. If it moves, there’s a good chance that it will be a hit!!! They do enjoy interacting with you more than entertaining themselves. Most have a very short attention span so switching up how you’re playing with them helps although the new game isn’t that different from the last one!!!
They love chomping on exposed ankles.
Eating off the faces of dead oppressors.
Their favorite things are boxes big enough to go into.
My cats always like junk for their favorite toys.
Yes, boxes to sit/hide in, preferably put the open end on the floor and cut a hole in it for her to get through. And yes, the laser light! I, and my cats, have both loved toys with which they can entertain themselves, and there’s a lot of them out there.
Like a coiled wire with a feather on the end and a suction cup on the other end; you can stick it to the floor or to the side of a cabinet.
Another is a circular thing about 2 inches high and 1 foot across with a “moat” in it. There’s a ball in the moat and they love making it go around. Even better are the ones that have a cover over the moat in several place so the cat can hit the ball, then it disappears under the cover and they love using their paw to feel the ball and try to make it come out.
There is also something that wiggles which operates on a battery or I think you can charge some of them. So the cat just touches it and it wiggles away. Some move at a given moment with no contact by the cat.
@RayaHope has another idea…junk! My cats loved the lids from milk containers. Anything that isn’t flat, so that it can be flipped over. Look at pet stores online and you’ll get tons of ideas. Amazon and Chewy are great.
Oh! and keep 6–8 toys hidden away, then weekly change several out with the ones the cat’s already playing with. They love variety.
^I know we’ve bought them all kinds of toys and they don’t even look at them. They rather play with milk bottle lids and scraps of cardboard and a old tree leaf that gets tracked in. Crazy stuff that you wouldn’t think they would like. lol cats o-0
My cat loves paper towels on and off the roll.
Some cats like it if you interact with them using strings of yarn. I did that with someone’s Siamese cat. The cat knew exactly what was going on. If I stopped for a few moments, the cat would look up at me.
I’ve lived with about 15 different cats over the years. They like different things. Sometimes they prefer one specific toy to others of the same type. Or they prefer one bent twist-tie to all other toys. You have to try different things, and playing with them in different ways. Also on different surfaces and environments. A large sheet of paper (e.g. plain brown wrapping paper, at least 3 feet x 3 feet, can multiply the excitement of anything, especially if the toy and/or the cat can go under it).
Some favorites I’ve seen:
big sheet of paper
cardboard box
big sheets of paper sprawling over the top of multiple boxes, to create a cat fort maze
that bent twist tie
jingle balls
string
yarn
elastic string
tree ornaments
trees
cat trees
polar fleece string on the end of a stick
feathered things on the end of a string on the end of a stick
various fake mice, on or off string
shelves
cupboards
anything hiding/moving underneath something else
pulling on a sheet, so it looks like something’s moving under there
actual bugs
laser pointers (but they can’t catch them . . . unless you stop on an actual bug . . .)
rugs arranged so they make little tunnels for prey/cats to hide in
peacock feathers (especially, under large sheets of paper or rugs)
long stiff-ish grasses (but not sharp or choking hazards)
small plastic lids on hard floors
shoelaces
bags full of catnip
playing peek-a-boo with them
playing lift-the-cat-so-they-can-see-from-up-high-and-catch-moths
shadows of birds outside, on inside walls
chair skirt or other places they can hide inside and attack things you make move near the edge of
One of my cats, Smudges, loved a little possum. You could wind it up by running it along a hard surface, then set it down and it would go. Smudges would carry it with him around the apartment. I had to let him go to another family and made sure I sent the possum and a few other favorite toys with him. So, wind up toys.
Mine like the little mice that come in a pack in the pet toys aisle. They also like the feathered thing that’s on a string that’s attached to a plastic rod. @Entropy was right – they like when you interact with them – bounce the feathered thing up and down, throw the mouse across the room, stuff like that. They also will be very happy discovering a plastic milk bottle cap on the floor, as someone mentioned above, and they love boxes, as someone also mentioned above.
My cats go out, so when they’re in the house, they’re usually either eating or sleeping, or staring at me hoping I feed them.
Those wool balls that go in your clothes dryer are a hit.
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