Use your imagination, and it'll be purrrrfect (I'm sorry) [Updated #2] (DIY Cat Toys)

Member Name: MorganaDQ

Product:	DIY Cat Toys
Date:	18/05/01 (257 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cost nothing

Disadvantages: Ummmmmm

"I'm supposed to be grateful for THAT?"

[New update is 'Catnip']

The look every cat owner knows. It doesn't matter whether it's over food, toys, bedding, whatever, the look of contempt a cat can give you will beat any that another human can give, hands down.

I think the first time we got this look from Lucy, our queen, was when we presented her with a cloth mouse. You'll have no doubt seen them, impregnated with catnip (allegedly), and with a thin leather strip for a tail. They're not expensive, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the kind of thing we think we'd like if we were a cat. Well, I think so anyway.

So how long did the cloth mouse get? Ummm. No more than two minutes at a guess. She sniffed, scent marked it a couple of times, pawed at it a few times, then walked away. And that was the last time any attention was paid to that poor little cloth mouse. I couldn't tell you where it is now, probably at a dump somewhere.

We don't have much of a problem entertaining our cats now because they have the freedom to go in and out as they please, but a few years ago my soon-to-be husband lived in a second floor flat with Lucy and Pawldo (our young tom), which of course meant entertainment for them was essential, as well as exercise.

The way we discovered the DIY cat toys was purely by accident. One day when Lucy was feeling especially brave, she watched while hubby untied his long shoelaces. Before we knew it she was laid flat to the floor, her little white cheeks puffed out, and her back end wiggling ready to pounce. It's just as well we knew she'd never dare to put her claws near any part of our anatomy, as hubby hadn't had a chance to move his hands before she pounced. Then rolled onto her side. Next was the 'punching' of the lace. A bit of chewing. The little headshake which basically means she's trying to ki
ll her prey. And so it went on, and on, and on...

So there you go, that was the very first of the DIY toys. I could make this easier for you... much much easier, couldn't I? Okay, have a list.

-- Shoelaces/string -- Obviously, mentioned above. Dangle it above their heads and they'll jump higher than you thought possible, so be careful of your fingers. If they look like they're losing interest at that stage, let it drop a little so it drapes over their face, then pull it back up. Usually both our moggies are pretending not to be interested so they can get a better shot at catching their prey. Trailing it backwards and forwards across their field of vision gets Lucy so excited she almost looks like she's gonna burst, and it means she'll dart back and forth for ages, giving her plenty of exercise.

-- Sticks -- Thought these were just for dogs did you? Well okay so they don't play fetch, but it's the same kind of thing as with the string. The difference here is that you need to be careful when they pounce on it, otherwise it could do some damage if they hit at just the wrong angle, though we've never had a problem. Attaching a piece of string to one end too, means you have the extra length for playing so you can keep your hands scratch free.

-- Milk bottle lids -- Or any lids really, but we tend to limit it to plastic ones, though I'm not sure why. The shallow green plastic milk bottle lids have always been Pawldo's favourite, from being a kitten. Believe it or not, he would happily play fetch with them. Holding the lid and tapping it with a fingernail got his attention faster than opening the tin of food when he was still small, then just throwing it somewhere safe. He tended to bat it around for a few minutes before he picked it up in his tiny mouth and trotted (yes, trotted) back to us, dropping it at our feet ready to go again. He could do this for hours, and sometimes did.


-- Foil balls -- How many of you don't have a roll of kitchen foil in your cupboard? Exactly. Just tear some off and roll it into a ball. The noise of doing this usually gets our cats attention straight away, and Pawldo will watch intently as I roll up the foil in my hands. Then just throwing it somewhere safe, again, they'll happily run after it and bat it between their paws. These are even more fun for us because we have vinyl floor covering in the kitchen. Cats really don't have the hang of vinyl floors, and actually glide across the floor quite gracefully ;)

-- Cardboard boxes -- Pawldo used to combine this with the lids when he was a kitten. At the time he was still small enough to be able to easily get inside a cornflakes box, and having one laid on it's side was a perfect collection point for all his toys. Now, leaving a bigger cardboard box in the middle of the floor is far too tempting not to investigate. Cutting a hole or two in it will add a bit more fun for them too.

-- Leather shoes -- I know this might sound like an odd one to have, but hear me out. Lucy loves leather shoes. Actually loves isn't a strong enough word for the way she reacts over them. She'll begin by sitting by a shoe and scent marking it gently, then gradually get more and more excited as she does it. Before long she'll have wrapped her front paws around it and will be scrabbling with her back ones, though still trying to scent mark it furiously. Now okay, so this doesn't get her running around, but it's keeping her occupied and giving her some enjoyment, so who am I to stop her? One word of warning though, we always need to be careful when we have visitors, because she'll happily do the same while people's feet are still in the shoes ;)

-- Leather offcuts -- Okay, so this one's a combination of the leather shoes and the string. We found a length of leather (a thin strip about 3'
long) on the living room floor last night when we got home from shopping. Seems our little darling Lucy had been in a cupboard and dragged it out with her. Now okay, so not many people have leather offcuts (we only do coz hubby makes, or used to, leather stuff... scabbards, baldricks, quivers etc), but for those of you who do, it's one to remember. Oh, and it's stayed out. Lucy was found this morning going crazy over it so why deny her, right?

-- Torch -- Willow (hubby's first cat) used to go insane for this. At night, switching off the main light and turning on a torch, then letting her chase the light wherever it was shone, gave her lot of exercise, and of course there was nothing to try to find later because what she was chasing couldn't be caught. I think that's why she went so crazy over it, because she could never get those little paws on her prey, whatever she did. I've heard of some people using the laser pens in much the same way, but you need to be very careful with those because they could blind your cat. I would personally never touch them.

Pretty much anything reflective on a sunny day should do the same job, of course... watches being a favourite in a friend's home.

-- Mirror -- Okay, so this only worked with Pawldo when he was a kitten. He's still quite stupid (he really is you know), but he does have the brain to realise that what he's seeing is his reflection. Putting a mirror at ground level (making sure it couldn't fall on them, of course), can drive them crazy. Pawldo never hissed or growled at his reflection when he was younger, but instead would try to pounce at it, paw a little at the mirror, but mainly do that 'hooked-tail, sideways run/jump' movement backwards and forwards in front of the mirror. It was quite something to watch.

-- Lengths of cloth -- Used in much the same way as the string, if you have any offcuts of material, use them as cat
toys instead of just throwing them away. I've not found these to be as good as the string, but rubbing a little catnip onto a piece of material and just giving it to the cat, they could be in heaven for hours on end, and Lucy often is.

-- Catnip -- Ok, I'm now wondering just how I managed to miss this one. The first time we (meaning the cats, of course :P)discovered the joy of catnip was when a friend visited and brought some with her. Without a thought of the floor and cleaning up afterwards (grrrr), she sprinkled some directly onto the carpet. Within seconds Lucy was rolling round like the demon felidae she likes to believe she is. She was covered in the stuff and she was amused for much longer than we ever expected.

After we'd hoovered it up later that night, for weeks she still went back to that same area and rolled around, purring her little heart out. Ok, so doing it that way is messy, even if it's effective. So grab some of those offcuts I mentioned a moment ago and make some little catnip bags instead. Trust me, you don't need to be a master seamstress to do this. So long as the stitching is good and strong, it should last a good while. I've been known to add a thin leather strip to it aswell, much like the cloth mice you can buy in the pet shop, only these ones actually get some interest!


Well that's all I can think of right now, but I'll be sure to update as and when we discover more.

Our cats both go outside now, and most of their playtime is spent in the garden chasing bees and birds, or just jumping out at each other and running away. They still do have some playtime inside though, and Lucy especially likes the undivided attention from us that playing provides.

One word of warning before I go. Pawldo loves plastic bags... the rustle of them, the feel of them, everything. One day we'd dropped a bag on the floor and hadn't realised. That is, until
I nearly tripped over Pawldo as he was flying from one end of the house to the other. He'd managed to get the handle of the bag caught around his neck, but of course couldn't get it back off. So his natural reaction was to try to run away from it. Obviously it followed him everywhere, and the more he ran, the more the air caught in it and pulled it backwards, the more distress it caused him, so the more he ran.

We were lucky in that we managed to catch him relatively quickly and remove it, but it could have caused him some serious damage. I guess this is a warning that however much your cat likes to play with something, think about the safety first. In my experience, cats will play, attack, pounce on first, and then panic if something goes wrong.

As with anything else, use common sense when you try something out as a toy for your cat, and you'll all be happy. You may find you're a little scratched too, but you'll still be happy ;)

Now, good luck fishing out everything from under the sofa where they'll inevitably end up ;)

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