Do your strays/ferals play with cat toys?

Do your strays/ferals play with cat toys you gave them? This includes catnip!

Yes, all of mine do. I have a few kitties that were feral as young kittens and a couple that I adopted as adults.... all of them love toys!

I have over 20 toys for my strays, they all really enjoy them especially ones with catnip, or a long shoelace I play with them supervised. They also like the feather wand.

Mine did when we caught them.

I voted for "Yes, but rarely," but I should clarify.

Our ferals I don't think of as ferals anymore, because they've been indoor pets for so long. Our indoor babies all play with toys and frequently, though they love interactive games the best. They all respond to catnip, though it took Flowerbelle years.

Outside, the true ferals, I never saw playing with anything. Except Tuxedo. When we lived in the RV, the inside kitties would play with stuff and it'd fall down into the stairwell - and when we opened the door, sometimes a toy would fall out and we didn't notice.

We learned this because we saw Tuxedo (who still hissed and growled at us) bounding around the yard like a crazy man one day - and we figured out he was playing with one of the little furry mice that have rattling things inside! It was the cutest thing we'd ever seen - but it gave us those heart-breaking smiles, because it was so "what he could have if he wanted it" kind of moments.

Now that he's an inside love bug, those little furry mice that rattle are still his favorite toy.

Laurie

All but one of my group like catnip. The one that didn't disappeared a few years ago.

I think they like toys until they are about 2, then they lose interest. I took out a cat feather wand once and they acted like I was planning to do something bad to them.

My strays are outside, meaning they play with the toys outside even with all the birds and sticks they easily could use as playthings.

My girl cat (boyfriend found her in a parking lot) doesn't like to play with toys. She likes catnip but it calms her down rather than making her crazy. I think she's older & that's why she's not into toys.

Oh my gosh, do they ever play with toys! Our three feral kittens have long been into playing - even when they were out on the street. We fashioned 'toys' for them and they would just play and play for hours - in fact, it was a homemade toy that convinced them to come into our house (rather than food...go figure).

When they first came to live with us, there wasn't much interest - shock, I guess - but then randomly I balled up a piece of paper and threw it on the floor and Paddington just went CRAZY. Now, our house is covered in pieces of paper. They love love love aluminum foil balls as well. I have a homemade wand toy that gets tons of play every day when I am with them. Our third - and most hesitant- kitten has recently started playing with us and she is now getting so much bolder.

I feel like I could write a dissertation on my kittens and toys!

No interest in catnip though - I heard they don't really develop an interest until they hit sexual maturity....but we have some ready for when that does happen!

My "no" reply applies to 99 % of the adults. One of the bunch will play with the toys though.

Back when I had ferals living in our yard (most have since been relocated to foster homes, farms, 2 to a No Kill Shelter, one was killed by a car , and the other one is now in our home), they loved playing with toys. Their toys ranged anywhere from toys that I bought for them (a mouse toy with an electronic squeak, a chewable possum looking thing, and jingling balls) to things they stole from the backyards and garbage of some of our neighbors (3 muddy Hacky sacks, a small vinyl football, a single Hello Kitty waterwing, etc.) And they loved when I gave them catnip too. Now that he's inside, Little Grey has also taken a liking to feather wands, golfballs, and these cloth birds with feathers that mom my sewed up recently.

I do a lot of work on my job from home, so I need office supplies. So far every one of those with the possible exception of the stapler (it's too heavy) has been a "batta-toy". I've kittens in what I describe as their "terrible twos"....

Houdini loves cat toys, but is totally indifferent to catnip.

My previous cat, Edna--an indoor only--loved catnip. She would roll around in it like she was in ecstacy. But Houdini....not interested at all....but she loves the toys.

Lena and Larry love the little mice I got them. At night, before I go to bed, I try to retrieve all of them from under the couch, piano, refrigerator, bookcase, stove.....wherever they've batted them during the day. Then they play with them some more and in the morning, there's only one.

I also have two little catnip bags that they play with.

Hmmmm......I'm actually missing two of the mice. I'm sure they're under something, but they're not in the usual places.