Color And Cat Toys

[sabian]

This is pretty simple question I think. Does color of cat toys have anything to do with the appeal to cats. I have all kinds of toys and Manny just turns his nose up and walks away from most of them. His favorite so far has been a plastic bag from the grocery store, a twist tie off a loaf of bread and his fav of all was a balled up piece of white copy paper. None of which hold his attention to exhaustion.
One day I opened up a fresh bag of dry food and I pulled off the plastic piece across the top with the string woven in. He seemed to be intrigued by it and I thought to myself, it kind of looks like a cat toy. Like a wand with a string hanging off of it. I started dragging the string across the floor and he went crazy chasing it.
Eventually he pulled the string out of the plastic tab so nothing was left but the string so, I just started pulling the string around and it just seems to drive him crazy. He plays to the point of panting every time I get it out. I give him a couple of treats and within 20 to 30 minutes he's sound asleep.
The string is red and I've tried other strings and it doesn't have the same effect so, it's got me wondering if it has to do with the color? Like a bull fighter uses red to entice a bull could it have the same effect on a cat? Could the color vary from cat to cat? Any thoughts?

 

[sabian]

Yay, I'm an adult cat now! LOL

 

[Katie M]

Charlie's toys are multicolored. I'm not exactly sure how cats even process color

 

[orange&white]

My understanding is that cats don't see very many colors, but they do detect contrast. So a white or bright cat toy on black or dark carpet/flooring or vice versa would get their attention more than black-on-black or white-on-white. Movement, motion and scent are more important than color.

I expect the string off the cat food bag is enticing because it is cat food scented, not because it is red. If you put a "boring" string into your bag of cat food for 24 hours, I'd bet it will become an "exciting" string.

 

[danteshuman]

My cats seem to like bright colors for their wand toys (bright blue or bright red.) I don't know I just buy them a toy or three or OK sometimes 5 or 10 every month and see which ones they like Then I buy more of the ones they like You can tell which toys your cat loves because it is falling apart.