Cat toys that aren't cat toys

[bedweary]

Does your cat/cats play with anything that would not normally be thought of as cat toys? Silly question, I know, but what kind of odd things do your cats play with?

Right now Iris is going nuts over the cardboard tube from the middle of a roll of toilet paper. She doesn't ever bother the paper itself, but the cardboard in the middle is BIG TIME fun.

Just curious. Barry

 

[gemlady]

Drinking straws, spring mounted door stops, their own tail, pencils and pens...

Anything a cat can get its paw on can be a cat toy.

 

[bedweary]

Originally Posted by gemlady

Anything a cat can get its paw on can be a cat toy.

That's for sure. Sniff it...if it smells O.K., bat it with a paw...if it moves, IT'S A TOY!

 

[jennyr]

Anything that can be batted off a table or sofa. Piles of documents on my desk. Milo goes for anything shiny like foil, bottle tops or loose earrings. He will carefully take sweet wrappers out of the waste bin and chase them around the floor. Dushka will spent hours tearing cardboard or paper to shreds. And toilet rolls, full or empty.

 

[ondine]

We have to be very careful with pens - one of our cats is nuts about them but looses every one. If I could find them all, I could open an office supply store!

Her brother does not play with anything except the laser pointer and milk bottle caps. They drive him bonkers. But we usually have to limit him because he'll start to chew on them. I don't want him swallowing a piece of plastic.

The others like regular toys but will turn just about anything they can into a bat-around toy.

 

[kittyl0ve4]

Mittens will play with ANYTHING if she finds it entertaining. She loves boxes and paper bags, as most cats do. She also loves to play with the twist ties from bread. I don't let her play with them of course, but the people in my house are ignorant and lazy, so even though I tell them to make sure they throw them away, I still catch her playing with them. I take them away promptly, and if I ever find any on the floor, I pick them up right away.

She likes bendy straws, the cardboard middle from toilet paper and/or paper towels. She likes tin foil or paper balls, and plain pieces of paper (she just LOVES to tear it up into pieces

)

Here's the weirdest of them all: Rugs. We have a rug in front of the sink in the kitchen. When she is in one of her psycho frenzy moods, she will attack the rug for a long time. I'll go into the kitchen and find the rug on the opposite side of the kitchen all bunched up in a crazy folded up way. She is a nut-case and I abolutely love it

Watching cats play is one of the most entertaining things in the world. I like watching them play more than I like watching T.V.\t

 

[c1atsite]

Originally Posted by bedweary

Right now Iris is going nuts over the cardboard tube from the middle of a roll of toilet paper. She doesn't ever bother the paper itself, but the cardboard in the middle is BIG TIME fun.

mine like the "inner cardboard" too.

you can even use it as a massager for the side of their face.

i plan to save a longer one from a Bounty roll.

 

[zoeysmom]

Anything that's not a cat toy, really. And I can't give them some alternative item that I think would make a good cat toy...it has to be something they discover!

Christmas decorations were a big hit. Belle went nuts over these plastic icicles we had on there. Even with decorations put away, she keeps bringing them to me!

Pens are a big hit. I can't even have the cats in the room if I use a glue stick (the school kind) as they drive me crazy!

Today, a tiny little troll toy fell out of my coat pocket (some kid found it and gave it to me while I was on yard duty) and Belle thought it made the best toy. She was carrying it around in her mouth!

 

[cruisermaiden]

Milk rings! You know, the little plastic ring that the milk cap attaches to, but not the kind you peel off, it has to be the round ones. Those are Spookys favorite! Of course I watch him with them so he doesn't eat them...

 

[mira's_mommy]

Rubber bands, not the real rubber ones but the ones for hair. They stretch, they bouce, they launch across the room. What fun! They eventually get lost (when I moved the furniture to steam clean my carpets I found probably close to 200 of them) so they go find a new one. I have to keep them on the little ring thing they sometimes come with, and that has to be hooked to the washcloth ring in the bathroom. If I set one on a table, in my purse, or even put it on my wrist they steal it. I go through about a thirty pack of 'em a week.

 

[ldg]

Yup - here too - anything that can be batted off a table, milk/water bottle rings - well - any plastic cap/bottle top, really, the cardboard from toilet paper and paper towel rolls, shoe laces, hair ties, headsets (we do try to put them away!), tissue paper - of course paper bags and boxes! - that "popcorn" used for packing, straws, pill bottles (again, we do try to keep these put away

), pens, pencils... Oh! You know that kind of plasticy paper that a lot of printer paper is wrapped with? They LOVE that!

Silly kitties!

Thank goodness none of our kitties into eating ANY of it. Except Ming Loy - she'd eat the headsets if we didn't grab 'em.

 

[stephanietx]

My credit card! I had it out on my desk to purchase something online. Went to retrieve it and it was missing. Found it a couple of weeks later in the spare bedroom. Guess it was fun to knock it off the desk and then bat it around into the other room. Naughty kitty!

 

[goonie]

Goonie loves pens. she brings them to you and drops them by your feet. Sammy loves to play with plastic zip ties. he goes crazy over them

 

[sk_pacer]

Da Magpie is fascinated with and destroys paper in any form from toilet paper to heavy cardboard boxes. The cursor and the mouse are fair game for either cat as are shoe laces, the neck cord on my phone case, in short, anything that dangles or moves. The barn cats love baling twine - it is nothing to see them all trying to catch the loose ends as I pull the twine from a bale; boy are THEY gonna be disappointed when they find the new bales have netting, not strings!!!LOL

 

[silva_unt]

Favorite non-cat toy are pony tail holders!! She doesn't get tired of these. She fetches them or plays alone with them. She swats pens off tables but doesn't play with them. She also likes milk jug rings that you pull off. She likes bags and boxes, tissue paper, and wrapping paper (large pieces to pounce on or go under).

 

[allmycats]

oh God, yes, Gigi loves all those things.........and she especially LOVES SHINY things! We made her a teaser toy on a dowel with strips of shiny food wrappers. She'll follow that thing to the ends of the earth..she likes it better than a storebought furry/feather/dangly teaser toy. She's about got all the strips torn off, we need to make her another one! She also likes hair bands and those rubber bracelets with a statement on them <g>. Everything is fair game really. Sometimes I feel like I live with a monkey!!

 

[gemlady]

Originally Posted by stephanietx

My credit card! I had it out on my desk to purchase something online. Went to retrieve it and it was missing. Found it a couple of weeks later in the spare bedroom. Guess it was fun to knock it off the desk and then bat it around into the other room. Naughty kitty!

I hope you checked your statement for odd purchases from pet sites.

Originally Posted by sk_pacer

are shoe laces,

This brings back a memory of my Dad. One day at the table he started laughing. A kitten was sitting on the toe of his work boot playing with the leather shoelace.

 

[bbdoll22]

domino and little miss LOVE bottle caps, we cant give them the water bottle caps anymore cause I'm afraid they'll choke so now we give them the large caps from gatorade bottles. domino loves to fetch them!!!!

 

[dilly]

Originally Posted by bedweary

That's for sure. Sniff it...if it smells O.K., bat it with a paw...if it moves, IT'S A TOY!

Thats about how it is here too!

 

[mrblanche]

Originally Posted by CruiserMaiden

Milk rings! You know, the little plastic ring that the milk cap attaches to, but not the kind you peel off, it has to be the round ones. Those are Spookys favorite! Of course I watch him with them so he doesn't eat them...

I saw one source that said by actual survey, milk rings are the single most popular cat toy in the U.S.