What is the best cat toy ever?

[applegrove]

That long metal wire thing with the things at the end of it. Can buy them anywhere anymore. They were of too high a quality so they got pulled off the shelves. I hate when they do that to a product.

[mcctatas]

1. If I go by my cats behavior...

any pair of nylons or tights I own that does NOT already have a run in them

[applegrove]

2. LOL so true.

[rug]

3. Parakeets.

[applegrove]

6. Oh you!

[tandot]

4. The plastic ring that holds the cap on a gallon milk container

Or simply twist ties.

My cat ignores any toy I buy him. However, if he gets a hold of those plastic rings, he goes all nuts.

[libnnc]

7. ding, ding, ding!

My cat goes all OCD on the milk tabs. They are her favorite by far.

[applegrove]

10. I should try that.

[Kool Kitty]

28. Yep, my cats love those, too.

Other good choices are the plastic rings on the Planter's peanuts jars and these springs that are made specially as cat toys. I get them at Stop & Shop, there are about ten in the bag-different colors and sizes. Hours of kitty fun!

[yellowdogintexas]

42. yep, kitties love those things. nt

[applegrove]

46. Great idea.

[applegrove]

8. Cats do like playing cap hockey don't they. Mine loves elastics too.

I guess because elastics put up a bit of a fight when they are attacked. LOL!

[justabob]

21. i missed your answer

that is the thing my kitties love best

[TZ]

41. I've never met a cat that doesn"t LOVE those

Mine love them---and other toys..but the milk ring will keep them occupied by themeselves for hours

[RoyGBiv]

67. Yup ...

I've purchased toys for my cats.

I needn't bother. They prefer these things.

Franky, my current feline owner, enjoys shoestrings. I got a new pair of shoes recently, so he dug out my old ones and ripped the shoestrings out. They now belong to him entirely. He's rarely without them somewhere near, and when he wants to play, he brings one of them to me, carrying it hung out of the corner of his mouth and laying it in front of me. It's cute, but a bit weird.

So then we play chase the string, and he'll play as long as I will.

[SoxFan]

5. This

[madeline_con]

9. Do you mean this thing? $5.00 at Amazon...

The Kookamaunga Kitty Swat Exerciser

[applegrove]

13. No it is about 3 feet long. And has what looks like little bits of bark or paper on the ends.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

73. A simple felt cat-nip mouse.

My cat goes nuts for those.

[Ellipsis]

11. Cat Dancer is the long metal wire thingie and you can get them direct.

http://catdancer.com/products.htm

[applegrove]

14. That is it exactly.

[rcrush]

15. Those things look like a cat would tear it up pretty quick.

Then they'd be all pissed it wasnt a real mouse.

[applegrove]

17. The ones with the cardboard on the ends are surprisingly long lasting. Cats cannot

destroy them.

[Ellipsis]

18. It's my cats favorite... over ten years old.

They freak to it.

They'll bring it to me and make me play with them.

[Robeson]

12. Bottle caps. Ink pens. Pencils, etc.

[applegrove]

16. Yup. Anything that will roll along the ground. But what I was describing is the cat dancer. Link

above.

[redqueen]

40. Yes... and wadded up balls of trash. Also empty boxes. (nt)

[emilyg]

19. Paper bags from grocery store.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. Bingo. In second place: Cardboard boxes....expecially shoe boxes that they can barely fit into.

[emilyg]

27. Oh yes - I've watched my not so little Boo-Boo

cram himself into shoe boxes.

[moriah]

38. Ninja got a Coke box stuck on his head last night.

It was pretty funny. He managed to get unstuck, then tried to get back in it again.

His favorite toy is a little mouse dangling from the end of a fishing pole type thing. He also loves plastic bags.

[coyotespaw]

32. my cat prefers plastic...

[applegrove]

47. I haven't seen a paper bag from the grocery store in years.

[justabob]

20. the plastic thing you have to pull off to open a new jug of milk

hours of entertainment at my house.... dry egg noodles are very popular at my house too. No store bought toy has caught any attention from my herd.

[applegrove]

49. Many have mentioned that milk ring. I'll have to give it a try.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

23. I always found an open

brown paper bag and a little catnip in the bottom provided hours of entertainment for both the cat and myself..........

[applegrove]

50. I haven't seen a brown paper bag available anywhere except for take

out. I'll have to order some dinner in to get one for my cats.

[csziggy]

24. Old buggy whips with a sock full of catnip tied to the end of the lash

And yes, you can still buy buggy whips - they are usually called lunge whips and are used to exercise horses.

We had an old one and made a cat toy out of it - called it our "Confuse a Cat Stick." Works really good for most cats, but my current one is too smart. He played with it for a few minutes, realized that I was holding it and attacked my hand instead of the catnip sock. After that, he never attacked the sock, just me. Out of the twenty or so cats we have used this toy with, this cat is the only one to go for the holder!

[applegrove]

51. I take it you donate the sock to the cause. I'll maybe try that the next time

my clothes dryer returns an odd sock to me or as the CBC theory goes... the lint all gets together and forms a new sock. LOL!

[mitchum]

25. A small animal with a breakable neck...

according to three of my four cats

[woo me with science]

26. Sweet, pink fingers with blood in them,

according to our cats, anyway.

[skinnyjeans]

29. It's a simple thing--

the milk jug plastic ring.

[BlueCollar]

30. Cellophane crumpled up and thrown on the linoleum floor...n/t

[OnionPatch]

33. Aluminum foil works, too.

I haven't found anything my cat likes better. It's a waste of money to buy store-bought toys.

[Indi Guy]

31. A sock toe knotted full of catnip never seems to fail... n/t

[zanne]

36. Mine chew through those pretty fast.

So it's messy, but they love rolling around in it. (I guess it could be compared to a human rolling around in money).

[Lincolngirl]

34. Max has a couple favorites,

foil balls, cheap, and he walks around with them in his mouth like he has hunted them.
Anything with a feather,
milk gallon rings..

And, don't forget the laser light!!! Goes nuts over that!!!

[applegrove]

52. I have some foil. I'll have to try that today.

[zanne]

35. Pen pencils.....anything that can be rolled off a desk. nt

[zanne]

37. Their favorite game in the world....

A little boring for humans, but it's like Disneyworld to them. Crouch on one side of a door with a rat-tail comb. Slide part of the comb under the door and move it around. You will soon find that your comb is "stuck" because a paw just "caught" it. Repeat. Again and again and again....

[yellowdogintexas]

43. variation: two cats, one on either side of the door. My cats love to play

door crack wars.

[TZ]

44. Mine love that too.

Unfortunately door crack wars usually results in said door being pushed closed and one trapped cat....

[machI]

39. A Laser Pointer

I can get the stray cats in the yard to climb pine trees from inside the house

[crispini]

58. +1

However, of my three cats, only the stupid one is entranced by the dot. Hours of fun for her. The smart cat looks at it, looks at my hand, and goes, "I'm not being fooled by your fake bug."

[pokerfan]

75. Laser pointers are great but did you know that it's patented?

Method of exercising a cat

What is claimed is:

1. A method of inducing aerobic exercise in an unrestrained cat comprising the steps of:

(a) directing an intense coherent beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus to produce a bright highly-focused pattern of light at the intersection of the beam and an opaque surface, said pattern being of visual interest to a cat; and

(b) selectively redirecting said beam out of the cat's immediate reach to induce said cat to run and chase said beam and pattern of light around an exercise area.

United States Patent 5443036

[applegrove]

77. No! That is weird.

[yellowdogintexas]

45. for my old Siamese, it was a rabbit's foot keychain, you know the loudly colored

ones from vending machines. Somehow my daughter acquired one and it was promptly stolen by the cat. He became absolutely crazy ..the look on his face of utter wildness when he carried it around in his mouth was priceless...he played hockey with them and wailed and moaned when he scored a 'goal' under the washing machine or the refrigerator.

Which led us to the Great Hunt to acquire one every time we found one.

LOL my husband called up a local novelty company and ordered a box full, That cat entertained himself for YEARS until he had finally destroyed them. Our other cats did not enjoy them at all. He had them stashed all over the house.

One of my cats developed a love of Mardis Gras Beads.

[davsand]

48. A wadded up cigarette pack.

We had tile or hardwood floors thru the entire house and the cats would chase a wadded up ciggie pack for hours. Kitty Hockey, we used to call it.


I had one cat that loved super balls. She would carry it in her mouth into the bathroom and play with it in the bath tub. She'd do it in the middle of the night and I'd have to get up and go take it away from her because it was SO loud. Kitty Handball.



Laura

[applegrove]

54. My cats have used the bathtub as a squash court once or twice. Never in the middle

of the night though.

[TZ]

53. Another cats tail...

That twitching is just SOOOO exciting.....

[applegrove]

56. I think there is something in the timing of how a mouse moves or how a tail

wags that is irrissistable to a cat. I once had a cat video that had little mice and little birds in it. Both my cats loved it and tried to get into the tv to catch the critters on the screen. Mice move a little then stop. Then they move again. So do birds. A tail wagging must remind them of their youth playing with their sisters and brothers.

[azmouse]

55. Me.

Cats LOVE me! <:3)~~~~~~

[applegrove]

57. But we cannot clone you and buy you at petsmart.

[azmouse]

59. We won't really know that until someone tries.

Oh heck, this might be my plan to make millions. Just think, thousands of me to sell as cat toys. I like it!


hmmmm... there must be some downside to this I haven't thought of yet....

[WritingIsMyReligion]

60. Empty baby carrot bags.

No joke--the female cat here goes BONKERS over them.

[astral]

61. Them little three-weiner catnip things

on a long STRING, for safely playing teg-war with the cat. My cat also lovey-dovey's his catnip toy. . . . .

[Skittles]

62. crinkled aluminum ball

yes INDEED

[applegrove]

63. That seems to be a popular one. I'll have to try it with my two cats.

[Skittles]

65. be prepared to stamp it flat when they wake you up

[applegrove]

66. I sleep like a log. My cats never wake me up. Unless I am ready like in the early afternoon.

[Skittles]

68. last night my cat Riff Raff walked on my face when I was sleeping

*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

[applegrove]

76. My Twilight will paw my face as I am falling asleep if she wants attention.

That'll wake me up as she uses her claws.

[Skittles]

82. ooh, that's bad

Riff Raff also has a habit of hovering his face close to mine when I am sleeping - perhaps trying to detect signs of life - but to be awakened by whiskers touching my face sends me into a panic - feels like some kind of critter bug

[applegrove]

85. Whiskers would feel like a bug.

[Generic Brad]

64. Small paper plate with holes punched in each end

Then you tie two different colored pieces of yarn to the plate. It's home made. It looks stupid as hell. And it gets my cat to literally wig out.

[Lil Missy]

69. squirt cheese. n/t

[FloridaJudy]

70. A half-dead mouse

Not that I would ever bring one home, but my cats have always been of a different opinion.

[Jamastiene]

71. You can go to any guitar store and buy a bass guitar string.

They go by gauges. Tie a toy to one end and attach a sturdy board to the other end. It would be almost the same thing.

Also, You can take any sort of thin stick and tie a string to it, with a fuzzy something tied to the string to make a "fishing pole" toy.

Best cat toy in my experience: A lightly wadded up piece of notebook paper. Just don't pack it tight. It's gotta make the crinkling sound. Cats LIVE for the sound a toy makes. The more the toy can sound like it is suffering at the wrath of the cat's paws, the more they'll like it.

Second best: A cardboard box

Cats are very easy to please when it comes to toys. They'd rather have the wrapping paper or the box the toy came in most of the time.

[sohndrsmith]

72. green olives. But only for one cat and I still wish i knew why...

he would go NUTS if he got even a drip of the juice from the bottle of green olives... it affected him like catnip squared. It was so odd...
I wish I knew what that was about - he definitely got "drugged" (similar to the way catnip affects cats) or just on some level of rapture from - green olives.

One of the best cat toys I ever amused my cats with: shadows. I fostered two kittens that defied gravity and made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt when they saw a shadow on the wall. Wow, was that fun....

The BEST toy, (well, he might be insulted to be described as such) was a 3-legged turtle that my kids and I rescued from the side of the road (he'd already been run over once, hence the 3 legs and his shell was cracked, too). Because of his limb loss, he could only travel in circles (at least on the kitchen floor). I wish I had videos of our cat's reaction, because it would go viral on youtube, I think. Too funny.

Happy ending - we released "Fred" the three-legged turtle in the pond, and wouldn't you know - the pond has been FULL of turtles ever since... he was awfully cute. : )

[LisaL]

74. Empty open box. My cat goes nuts climbing into those.

[applegrove]

78. yes cats love to get "in" things.

[applegrove]

79. yes cats love to get "in" things.

[kath]

80. This one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000IYSAIW/ref=... (dang, I've forgotten how to get photos to post here!)

The "Turbo Scratcher" - only toy that our cats have enjoyed over a long period of time (other than cardboard boxes, paper bags and foam earplugs - don't EVEN get me started on how it cost around $1000 bucks to have one of those earplugs surgically removed from Lucky's small intestine after it caused an intestinal obstruction - ACK.)
It's truly a genius cat toy - they love batting the ball around, and they love the scratchy thing in the middle. The scratch pads can be replaced after they get shredded to bits.

The ball is *supposed* to be non-removable from the circular track. But Max, our very persistent and smart kitty, can somehow get the ball out, then chases it around the room or down the hall. When he was a baby kitty, he loved to sleep on the cardboard pad in the middle, especially after a vigorous session of batting the ball around.

Oh, and for naughty Max, little pompoms. Last Christmas, I received a couple pairs of slipper socks which had drawstring ties at the top of the sock with pompoms at the end of the ties. Wow, was he fascinated when I walked around the house wearing those slippers, with the pompoms swinging to and fro - POUNCE! Well, within a couple of days, he got to the slippers when I wasn't wearing them and chewed off one of the pompoms - now he loves carrying that thing around in his mouth, then dropping it on the floor, chasing it around, putting it back in his mouth, rinse and repeat. (he chews on things like a damned puppy, and has ruined at least FOUR sets of my daughters' Ipod headphones - GRRRRR.) I'm think I'm of buying a whole bag of little pompoms at the craft store, cuz his is lost under a piece of furniture or somewhere. That should keep the kitties entertained for hours and hours! (they play with the pompoms the same way as with the earplugs, but the pompoms are too big to swallow, thankfully!)

[applegrove]

86. I always wondered if those things with the ball in the round track worked. I guess it does.

And oh yes it is so cute when cats carry something around in their mouths (provided it isn't a dead or dying critter that is).

[kath]

87. It really is a great toy - so many of the toys that I see in the pet store that look fun get

pretty much ignored by the kitties when I bring them home. Not this one!

[applegrove]

88. I have lots of ideas of what to get the kitties. I tried that milk plastic thinggy and the cats are

ignoring it. So I'll have to try something else.

[zanne]

81. Ping-Pong balls.

This requires human involvement, but my cats just love it when I roll a ping-pong ball toward them. They pounce, try to "catch" it, but it's too slippery, pounce on it again, bat in around so it's bouncing off the walls, then stare at me. Of course, the staring part means "What are you waiting for--you think I'll actually bring that thing back to you"? I always wind up on my hands and knees, crawling around looking for ping-pong balls to toss to them. These balls are always strangely attracted to places like underneath the sofa, chairs, beds, behind refrigerators, etc. They do occasionally get stepped on, so I have to buy them pretty regularly.

[onlyadream]

83. A BAG! nt

[grasswire]

84. a walnut on a hardwood floor

walnut in the shell, of course.

The enemy of cat toys? Pianos and refrigerators.

[Dangerously Amused]

89. Another cat.