Of my current herd of kitties, there are three clear favorites from the basket of toys. Jesse is especially fond of little stuffed mice, most of which are disemboweled now. Sam loves, LOVES, loves his catnip fish. And Cinders is a sheer fiend for the traditional feather on a stick. Gidget's favorite toy is A Lap. She's not much for playing. Unless it's a laser 'bug'. Laser bugs are ferociously chased by all four.
In the 'you weird thing' category: My beloved Bear was very fond of a teensy little fiberfill mitten and boot that he pulled off a Christmas decoration. Currently, Cinders has a couple of plastic pieces from a fake flower that she adores batting around. She's also keen on leaves from the ponytail palm.
Free or cheap: cardboard boxes, crumpled bits of paper, catnip mousies, laser pointer. We used to run the laser pointer dot under a closet door when we were done playing, and Sam would sit there patiently for quite a long time waiting for it to come out again.
Brand-name: Kickeroos and Yeowww! catnip toys. Our Yeowww! rainbow has been licked and kicked until all the bright colors have faded, but it's still as potent and attractive to our cats as ever. We had to get a second Kickeroo because our two toy-loving cats were bickering over it.
Useless for our cats: wrestling mitt (we were hoping to use it to help Alex get out some of his aggression and energy, but he's scared of it), anything battery-operated (moving laser pointer dot, squirrel-tail-inna-chip-bag).
At the moment, the t-shirt igloo we made is pretty popular but the novelty will wear off and we'll disassemble it. Otherwise, they love their kick-log, and those glittery pom-poms - one of our guys is a fetch cat, and those pom-poms are a good size for him to carry around.
Oh, those glittery pom-poms (I call them "sparkle balls"), my cats love them, too. Wish you could just buy a whole bag of them, I can only find them in bags of assorted toys, so I have piles of unwanted plastic jingle balls and other stuff they won't play with just to get the little sparklies.
Davey the Monster is still at an age (nearly 2, but still a kitten at heart) where Everything Is a Toy and Must Be Played With -- just last night the little monster climbed up onto the refrigerator after I'd gone to bed and knocked a couple of ceramic dishes down. Large crash and I'm up sweeping up the remnants in the middle of the night. I can only hope the crash scared him enough that he'll stay off the fridge for a while. If not, oh well, at least that's two less breakable objects for him to destroy.
His very favorites, though, are the little fuzzy balls with sparkly tinsel threads that come in the assorted toy packs from Hartz. He will instantly go after those. Unfortunately, they're small enough that they very quickly get lost under furniture. I generally have to go on a toy hunting expedition at least once a day to recover them for him.
It's hard to say what Simba likes, because every time he tries to start playing, the Monster will come and grab it away from him. He also likes small, soft things, when he gets a chance, and he and the Monster like to play together. Simba likes to hiss and howl and scream at the top of his lungs while he's playing, so, although they're not hurting each other, I will break them up just to stop the noise.
My old kitty, Miss Jerry, likes to chase strings on a stick. Also my fingers, but she's gentle and doesn't hurt my hands, as long as I remember to keep her claws clipped. She doesn't play with toys on her own, and she's not very active, but she lies on her back and flails her little arms around after my fingers.
The "tiger tail": A long narrow strip of plush on a stick. Tullamore likes it so much that he'll fight for it.
The whippy plastic bands that are around packages instead of string these days.
Shoelaces.
Jerome has a stuffed toy rat that he loves like Garfield loves Pooky. Sometimes he brings it to me so that I can throw it. He catches it and starts grooming it. 4 years and this rat is still whole!
I am wary of using a laser pointer, because one of my cats got epilepsy (?) when he was ten. I am (perhaps irrationally) worried that him hunting the red dot a lot might have triggered it.
Aw that's so cute! Love Garfield and Pooky. Tiger tail is also popular with my cats. They're not into lasers. They do like balls that run around like a toy track. :)
My cats must have all been strange cos they never played with cat toys. I gave up buying them. Most of them loved to run round the house at the speed of sound tho!
The String. (It is a piece of acrylic yarn a meter or two long that I lucet-braided to be a little stronger. At least once a day, she will come dragging it from somewhere in the house making cries of triumph until we congratulate her, then she will drag it off again.)
The other cat has a catnip cigar she likes. It is the only toy she likes. It is the only catnip cigar she likes. It is, at this point, shredded and disgusting.
Also every cat I have ever met loved peacock tail feathers. Not the pretty ones with the eyes, the ones from the outer edge that are basically just a REALLY long quill with a swallowtail tuft on the ends. Cats I have never seen play went nuts over them.
My friend's blind kitten loves nothing so much as the eggs from inside Kinder Eggs with a penny or something in them to rattle.
Every cat I have ever known loves a fuzzy pipe cleaner wrapped around a finger to create a "coil" which bounces and skitters very satisfactorily. Also, life like mice made of rabbit fur and stuffed with catnip are very satisfying to my kitties as well. They often bring them into my bed in the night, howling that they are mighty hunters, feared by vermin everywhere!
Of course, an actual live mouse who has been audacious or foolish enough to enter the house of cats is the MOST wonderful toy of all.
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Date: 2017-10-03 04:17 am (UTC)In the 'you weird thing' category:
My beloved Bear was very fond of a teensy little fiberfill mitten and boot that he pulled off a Christmas decoration.
Currently, Cinders has a couple of plastic pieces from a fake flower that she adores batting around. She's also keen on leaves from the ponytail palm.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 05:55 am (UTC)Brand-name: Kickeroos and Yeowww! catnip toys. Our Yeowww! rainbow has been licked and kicked until all the bright colors have faded, but it's still as potent and attractive to our cats as ever. We had to get a second Kickeroo because our two toy-loving cats were bickering over it.
Useless for our cats: wrestling mitt (we were hoping to use it to help Alex get out some of his aggression and energy, but he's scared of it), anything battery-operated (moving laser pointer dot, squirrel-tail-inna-chip-bag).
no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 07:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-03 04:50 pm (UTC)His very favorites, though, are the little fuzzy balls with sparkly tinsel threads that come in the assorted toy packs from Hartz. He will instantly go after those. Unfortunately, they're small enough that they very quickly get lost under furniture. I generally have to go on a toy hunting expedition at least once a day to recover them for him.
It's hard to say what Simba likes, because every time he tries to start playing, the Monster will come and grab it away from him. He also likes small, soft things, when he gets a chance, and he and the Monster like to play together. Simba likes to hiss and howl and scream at the top of his lungs while he's playing, so, although they're not hurting each other, I will break them up just to stop the noise.
My old kitty, Miss Jerry, likes to chase strings on a stick. Also my fingers, but she's gentle and doesn't hurt my hands, as long as I remember to keep her claws clipped. She doesn't play with toys on her own, and she's not very active, but she lies on her back and flails her little arms around after my fingers.
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Date: 2017-10-03 04:53 pm (UTC)The whippy plastic bands that are around packages instead of string these days.
Shoelaces.
Jerome has a stuffed toy rat that he loves like Garfield loves Pooky. Sometimes he brings it to me so that I can throw it. He catches it and starts grooming it. 4 years and this rat is still whole!
I am wary of using a laser pointer, because one of my cats got epilepsy (?) when he was ten. I am (perhaps irrationally) worried that him hunting the red dot a lot might have triggered it.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-05 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-04 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-10-04 01:36 am (UTC)The other cat has a catnip cigar she likes. It is the only toy she likes. It is the only catnip cigar she likes. It is, at this point, shredded and disgusting.
Also every cat I have ever met loved peacock tail feathers. Not the pretty ones with the eyes, the ones from the outer edge that are basically just a REALLY long quill with a swallowtail tuft on the ends. Cats I have never seen play went nuts over them.
My friend's blind kitten loves nothing so much as the eggs from inside Kinder Eggs with a penny or something in them to rattle.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-05 06:01 pm (UTC)Of course, an actual live mouse who has been audacious or foolish enough to enter the house of cats is the MOST wonderful toy of all.
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Date: 2017-10-05 09:28 pm (UTC)What he likes is my elastic hairbands and this. The object in the linked image is a reusable silicone tie that I use for bags of food. My cat apparently thinks it's the best cat toy ever.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-05 07:15 am (UTC)