Playing with green beans

[bikeman]

I had thought this behavior odd with our other older cat, but our new young kitten also has a fondness to playing with green beans as her favorite toy.

Not a cooked bean, but the fresh out-of-the-garden variety. The larger and more bent, the better. Neither cat will eat them (although they could if they wanted to), they just spend hours on end tossing them up in the air, batting them around, carrying them about the house in their mouth, and just having a good time. The new kitty is extremely protective of them.

When the bean disappears underneath the hutch or couch, I just pick a new one instead of looking for the lost bean. Since they don't rot, I have no worry they'll do any future damage left as lost.

Must be the smell and texture, and the noise the beans make as they bounce off the wall that attracts the cats to them.

Anyone else use beans or another common food to use as a feline play toy?

 

[arlyn]

Mine seem to like baby carrots, I thought they were weird.

 

[mihoshi]

My cats would eat the beans lol. That's their fate when they get to fat for the judges so they're used to it. I didn't know they didn't rot though, interesting.

 

[kattcom999]

My youngest furbaby loves to play with carrots and one of my other females like to steal potatoes from the bag and play pounce and attack with them (the closest she comes to eating any of it is to bite it when she attacks).

 

[kitty's_mum]

this is such a coincidence. A colleague at work told me that her cats play with green beans and i thought it was funny. I haven't yet given Kitty a green bean to see what she does with it...

 

[jennyr]

I had one used to play with carrots too. Once he grabbed an apple that fell ont he floor and his teeth went into it. His expression was really funny - I don't think he liked it at all!

 

[maherwoman]

Our Hobbes hasn't had much experience playing with food (tried with an ice cube on the kitchen floor, which has been a HUGE toy with past kitties, and he just sits and stares, and eventually walks away).

BUT...his favorite toy is this little plush doll that used to be my daughters. We call her Dolly. He throws her up in the air, plays with her hair, carries her around the house in his mouth like a "kill". It's adorable.

Can't give him a foil ball (his ABSOLUTE favorite), though, because he growls and will actually attack his sister (whom he loves VERY dearly) if she so much as LOOKS at it.

 

[rosiemac]

Rosies got many toys that she plays with, but give her a slice of carrot, a flower head(that she bites off!

) a bottle cap and anything that doesn't really cost anything and that girl can play happily for hours with them!.

Here she is a few weeks ago with a peapod!.

 

[maherwoman]

Originally Posted by rosiemac

Rosies got many toys that she plays with, but give her a slice of carrot, a flower head(that she bites off!

) a bottle cap and anything that doesn't really cost anything and that girl can play happily for hours with them!.

Here she is a few weeks ago with a peapod!.

Oh, now...that's is just ADORABLE!!!!

 

[jennyr]

That is a great picture!

 

[sunnicat]

My mom had a cat that loved to play with olives. You would have thought they were stuffed with catnip, the way she went at them!

Sophie will knock around anything I leave within her reach. The cap off my soap as I wash my face in the morning, the comb, anything. One thing I have had to really watch her with is when I get my medications out of the bottle. If I put them on the counter, she's at them, knocking them to the floor. Scared me to death, afraid she was going to swallow one. Only took one time for me to learn to keep them in my hand until I take them!

 

[cjandbilly]

Lettuce... one lettuce leaf, and they're entertained for hours!

 

[bikeman]

My cats had better not read any of these ideas, or I'll be too busy arranging for more toys to get any real work done. As it is, I'm now hiding all pens and pencils from the new kitten. So far, nothing beats the raw green beans though.

 

[linkfarm]

Yeah! Our two ragdolls love playing with green beans. Go into garden and pick their own and then bring them inside and it's all on.

Much crashing and leaping throwing bean into air and catching it. Hilarious to watch.

Cheers Morritz   

 

[ajdewolf]

Same here, my almost 10 year old cat still goes crazy over fresh green beans in particular. We noticed this habit even as a kitten, he would tear open grocery bags to get a green bean to chase around. Caught him doing it a few days ago! We've been calling it the "Green Bean Olympics" lol

 

[Etarre]

jennyr, my cat used to 'help' me eat apples and pears. When I bit into one, she'd come running over
and lick off all the juice!

I will have to try the green beans...I don't like them, so I never buy them and my cats have never 'met' them before.