Does anyone advocate rotating toys?

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nano

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This might be my imagination...

But is is a good idea to rotate toys?

For instance, if I encourage Nano to use TurboScratcher she will be enthusiastic for a week or two but eventually she will get less keen about using it. Not as much intensity. So I bought a couple new toys and put TurboScratcher on the shelf.

Then the same happened with Cat Dancer. She went nuts with that game for a while, but recently she doesn't have the same level of excitement. So just now I took out the TurboScratcher and she went nuts for it again.

Is that how it goes? A cat goes nuts with a toy for a few weeks but eventually gets less excited -- until you come back to it later and watch them go nuts again?

So should we be rotating our toys and games? This would be the opposite of food where we try to feed them the same meal repeatedly at the same time of day to give them a steady routine.
 
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Definitely - rotating keeps the toys interesting. Cat owners should probably invest in a toy box! I've got three drawers full of cat toys, and use an old billiard trophy of my husband's to keep "fishing pole" toys in.
Jamie expects his foods to be rotated, too - I always have three dry foods going, and don't dare offer the same brand/flavor of canned food twice in one week. On the other hand, fixed meal times and certain bowls for certain foods are a must with him.
 
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Yeah, we rotate them too. They get bored with the same ones after a while, especially with the more automatic ones. The exception is the pouffy balls. Forest gets totally despondent if he can't find his white sparkly pouffy balls.
 
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Keep your catnip and catnip toys in the freezer. Take them out about 24 hours before you want to use them to play with your cat, and they will stay fresh a Long time. You can give frozen loose leaf catnip to cats on a hot summer's day and it will cool them up, just make a nice pile on the floor so they can lay in it.
 
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Originally Posted by hissy

Keep your catnip and catnip toys in the freezer. Take them out about 24 hours before you want to use them to play with your cat, and they will stay fresh a Long time. You can give frozen loose leaf catnip to cats on a hot summer's day and it will cool them up, just make a nice pile on the floor so they can lay in it.
Click to expand...
M.A. - do you mean frozen "fresh" catnip, or should it be dried and then frozen? I can't figure out what's best - fresh or dried. We have fresh catnip in our yard, and some cats seem to prefer that, while others only react to the store-bought dried, with dried Canadian catnip the favorite.
 
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I mean purchased loose leaf catnip. I buy mine from Kittybags.com it keeps forever in big plastic sealed bags in the freezer. This one bag I have had over a year now. The kitties know when I am going after the catnip. The minute they hear the bag being pulled out, they are right there. (i feed loose leaf organic catnip for fiber)
 
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Originally Posted by hissy

I mean purchased loose leaf catnip. I buy mine from Kittybags.com it keeps forever in big plastic sealed bags in the freezer. This one bag I have had over a year now. The kitties know when I am going after the catnip. The minute they hear the bag being pulled out, they are right there. (i feed loose leaf organic catnip for fiber)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info.
 
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Nano... you're not crazy (unless I am too which is always possible
) -- I've been wondering the same thing.

Cosmo will enjoy a toy for a few DAYS and then gets bored and the level of intensity diminishes... then I rotate to something new. Also, rubbing the toy in catnip seems to liven him up again to a previously boring toy.

Also, crumpled up paper -- for some reason it has to be freshly crumpled for him to be interested. If it's one from the floor that was crumpled the night before, he could care less about it! But a new one he goes crazy for! Cats are strange LOL
 
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I rotate toys regularly. When they're not out to be played with, I put them in a plastic bag with some catnip in the fridge.

My mom actually used to rotate our toys when we were little. She did the same with her grandkids. So its a proven trick, even tho she proved it with furless kids
 
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I have a drawer for the extra toys in my house and will rotate them in from time to time. I started doing it when I was sick of picking all of them up to vacuum, then realized they liked them better if taken away for a while.

And I'll move the cat condos around once in a while also. When I see one that isn't used that often, I'll swap it out with another (I have a lot of them in my house).
 
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Originally Posted by Nano

This might be my imagination...

But is is a good idea to rotate toys?

For instance, if I encourage Nano to use TurboScratcher she will be enthusiastic for a week or two but eventually she will get less keen about using it. Not as much intensity. So I bought a couple new toys and put TurboScratcher on the shelf.

Then the same happened with Cat Dancer. She went nuts with that game for a while, but recently she doesn't have the same level of excitement. So just now I took out the TurboScratcher and she went nuts for it again.

Is that how it goes? A cat goes nuts with a toy for a few weeks but eventually gets less excited -- until you come back to it later and watch them go nuts again?

So should we be rotating our toys and games? This would be the opposite of food where we try to feed them the same meal repeatedly at the same time of day to give them a steady routine.
Click to expand...
Mine are the exact same way. They go crazy for new toys. So, I definetly think rotating toys is a good idea. Otherwise, you just have to keep buying new ones.
 
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nano

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I started a new thread about the catnip stuff, but yes I try spraying all toys with catnip mist or sprinkling dried catnip into the crevices of toys like TurboScratcher.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48755

I don't mind buying a few different toys, and Nano plays hard so she tears some toys up, but I just want her to get some use out of them so she has fun.
 
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