Toys For A Cat That Doesn't Like Toys

ailish

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My toy-hating cat likes the little catnip mice. Only. No wand, she is without that cat instinct to go after dangling things. Also, many things that aren't toys...bottle of eye drops, pens, plants but not the grass grown for her - our plants, bugs, actual mice, snakes, invisible things...
 

nese

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Ours also does not pay too much attention to toys I purchase for them, they generally prefer the box, not the toy itself :D . What they like is paper bags, shoe lace, any cords, scracthing post, and lastly (which is their favourite now) clothespin!
They like to chase clothespins on the bare floor, and throw under the closed doors, then look under the door and meow :)

The only "real" toy they like is cat wand with real bird fur and furry mice. They do not have special interest to catnip.
 

Neo_23

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I notice a huge difference between toy mice made of synthetic fur and toy mice made of rabbit fur. My cat will carry the rabbit fur ones everywhere and play with them on her own. The synthetic ones never get played with.
 

pipperoo

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My cat won't play by herself-- she won't run after a toy, doesn't respond to catnip. I can sometimes get her interested in a wand toy, but its hit and miss. The only thing she will play with - and on her own (hallelujah!) is her ripple rug.
When she was a kitten she got pure blissed-out joy from that thing. Now that she's a grown up, she sleeps on it, under it and several times a day I spy her diving and jumping and lunging at some trinket hidden in its folds.
 

Margret

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Are crinkle balls safe for cats? Most of the ones I see are the size that a cat could swallow. Also, can they be torn/chewed and swallowed by a cat?
My Jasmine has managed to gnaw the head off of a toy mouse that came from the grocery store, but she's never destroyed a crinkle ball. Some are about an inch across; I assume that's the kind that you worry about a cat swallowing, but it's still too big for that. It's also, unfortunately, small enough to hide under the sofa very easily. I prefer the larger ones, that are maybe 4 inches across. (I haven't measured, just eyeballing them.)

Margret
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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Notacrazycatlady

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I found some catnip bubbles--with a wand tool where you dip in the mix and blow bubbles. Two of the cats were leery of the bubbles and just watched them. The little kitten, Leo, was chasing them until he 'caught' one and it popped against his face. I guess the liquid stung his one eye because it was watering and he didn't want to open it. I used a warm, wet paper towel to wipe around his eye and he was fine a few minutes later but now he's scared of the bubbles so that 'toy' barely lasted fifteen minutes in total. Other cats might like them, though. I was certainly having fun blowing bubbles :D
 

MeganLLB

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I don't think cats really play with too many toys independently. Maybe if you find a good kicker or a catnip toy they might occasionally play with it on their own, or use food toys. I think it's more about how you play with them. Cats like to feel like they are hunting something and you need to "become" what it is that they are hunting with that toy. Like if your cats prefers air play, get a feather toy and twirl it in the air like a bird. Maybe they like ground play. Get a wand toy with a worm on the end and drag it along the floor. Make it hide under furniture and make the toy act like a prey animal. It's all in the way you are using the toy and the energy that you are putting into the interactive play. If you have a wand toy and just randomly swing it around with no thought or intention as to how you are moving it, the cat will lose interest.
 

vince

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Mine are both pretty much lazy lumps, but they do play with each other for some exercise. They don't use the toys I got for them, but go nuts over plain old dowel rods, the thinner, the better. 1/4" or so seems a decent balance between interest on their part and durability.

Ping pong balls in the shower or bathtub seem pretty interesting to them as well, (had to stop using ping pong balls in the shower because one of the cats figured out how to get the strainer off and I didn't want to have to snake out the drain). Must be the noise a ping pong ball makes that's attractive to them.
 

Docs Mom

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Try a super ball in the tub...that really livens things up...

Do have to watch the drain though.

Roxie has a thing for sink strainers too. She is constantly swiping the one out of the bathroom sink. Well she topped that when I found the kitchen sink strainer on the floor :eek3: that sucker is HEAVY !
 

Notacrazycatlady

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Try a super ball in the tub...that really livens things up...
I do that for Angus. Every morning after my shower, I have to dry the tub out (put the shower curtain up out of reach) and I have this red, rubber stress ball that I keep in the bathtub. Angus likes to chase the ball around the tub. It doesn't have as much bounce as a normal rubber ball because it was designed more for squeezing than bouncing so it doesn't end up getting knocked out of the tub much.
 

TobiDaDog

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I just bought a Hexbug mouse for my two. They've been following it around and batting at it all day. Even Sir, who's gotten quite fat and lazy lately. (I got it hoping it would get him up and it has) I LOVE that it works itself out of corners. It's gone under my fridge and back out a few times lol. It also flips itself back over, and starts itself when the cats touch it.

The ears came off, but that was because it got shipped with a 42 lb bag of cat litter...I just hot glued them back on.
 
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