toys needed for cats ??

I have a question . There are so many toys for cats , but now I was wondering : which ones are really a MUST ??

My Sydney is a rather lazy cat , maybe because of his heartproblem . So I think is would be better to make him play a little more
There must be possibilities where the cat can amuse herself , not always needing you to be around
How about a huge cat house including scratch-pole , cord , bells , etc...?
Please , if anybody can help me with new ideas , tell me :blubturq:
(and , no a second cat is not what we have in mind ..

thanks !!!! your purrrrrrrrrrr-friend Sydney the kid !!

LOL, no second cats I can't promise that your cat will play with these, but I can tell you what are hits with everyone in my house. The cat tree with a rope toy, catnip toys, the dangling things that hang from the doorknob, and the sparkly balls

I can only speak for my four and each of them has their own preferance on their fav toys.

Xavier and Fallon dig those little soft furry mice that they sell in pet shops at the front counter.
I don't know if they are made with real mouse fur or what but they go bananas when I toss one on the floor. Xavier turns into a mad cat when he gets one. He chases all around the living room and when it gets too close to sliding under the couches he grabs it up in his mouth and carries it off to the middle of the room.

Sampson and Fallon love this little pole toy I bought them. It's a 3 foot plastic pole that's very flexible and it has long leather straps at the end(It's not a s&m toy I promise!!) and they love to attack it. Sampson likes to box with it and he'll grab it in his mouth and growl.

Sampson, Fallon and Xavier all love bubbles. I bought cat nip bubbles once and it was very difficult to blow a decent bubble. They kept popping before they left the wand. I tried regular bubbles and they loved them all the same. It's so cute to watch them chase them around and swat at them.

Mitzi... Well Mitzi likes to eat... Occationally if she's in a really frisky mood she's play with the kitty pole but that's about it. She does like to roll around in a pile of cat nip though.

There are a lot of different interactive toys to choose from. Last year we got Snowball one of those interactive pyrmid toys which has waving tendrils and a storage space for catnip in the center. At first Snowball was afraid of it, but now he plays with it several times a day and really seems to be enjoying himself. The motion detector in the toy doesn't always work the way it should, but that doesn't seem to bother Snowball. An interactive toy (but not necessarily the pyrmid toy) may be something that's worth considering for your cat.

The sparkly balls, actually pom-poms from the craft section, are the big hit in my house. Both really like these. Trent likes bubbles, Ophelia tries to sniff them and then runs away when they pop on her. Trent's latest favorite is a little fuzzy catnip mouse. He carries that thing everywhere.

Ophelia isn't much of a player either. Occasionally, she plays on her own, generally with a ball or a silk rose bud (she found those on her own from some arrangements I used to have when she was a kitten. She will only play with the black ones, she won't touch the burgandy roses - silly kitty!) We have found a couple toys she really likes, but only when we play with her. She loves the feather teaser (only with ostrich feathers. Tried something else once and she snubbed it.) She will play with just the feathers that she managed to pull out of the teaser if we wiggle them for her. I also have part of a roll of craft trim (small rope) that she has claimed. Once again, we have to play with her, whip it back and forth or play trolling for kitties (drag it behind us walking around).

My cats go crazy over their Cat Dancer (a thin springy wire with rolled up cardboard on the end).

One cat also loves her feather stick.

All love the furry mice, though some prefer the small ones and others prefer the larger ones with the loooong furry tails.

Another favorite is a furry mouse on an elastic band that hangs from the door frame.

But, I think the big winner is cardboard boxes. I cut holes for the cats to go in and out of and then stack them on top of each other to make a jungle gym (tape the boxes together so they don't fall and line up internal holes so they can climb to the top from the inside).

In the Martha Stewart magazine for this month there were directions for making cat toys with felt, stuffed with bells and catnip. I made some mice, canaries, and balls. My cats loved these and I had fun making them.

-safron

Get a laser pointer! I have NEVER seen cats have so much fun chasing anything as that little red light. After about 15 minutes, my big kitty started to figure out and look suspiciously at my fiance, who was holding the laser pointer while we were watching TV, but it still didn't deter him from running around the living room like a maniac trying to "catch" it. VERY entertaining, for both the cat and you! :flash:

Ivo isn't much for playing, but she LOVES sitting in her kitty condo and watching the birds I've been putting bird seed out on the roof, to attract the birds, and Ivo can spend hours just watching. She even tries to catch the pigeons, but ends up banging her head against the window

hits around here are good old fashioned feather dusters, cellophane off of cigarette packages, empty spools of threads, aluminun foil balls, empty toilet paper holders, old shoes with long shoelaces.....I buy the cats toys but they never play with them long, the trac ball the pyramid climb all that stuff just gathers dust. So I improvise.......

All my kitties like string and feathers.

Peppurr loves string.
Mimi loves feathers!
Vader will play with just about anything.
Twinkles likes string and feathers.
Tigger doesn't like to play.
Majesty is still warming up to the house, so i'm not sure what she likes

The all time favorite at my house is the small fury mice and the scratching toy with the corregated cardboard round in the middle with the little ball on the outer edge. Even the old cats like that one. Some of the small furry mice are made with rabbit fur and that's why you'll see the tails chewed off. They eat them.

There use to be a large furry mouse made with rabbit fur that was a huge hit, but they stop making it. The others aren't as appealing. I like the larger ones better because they don't get knocked under the furniture as easily as the small ones.