My indoor cats are getting older, and are decidedly less active than they used to be. One of them is really getting chubby, too. None of the usual games and toys thrill them anymore. Sure, they might half-heartedly swipe at the “fishing pole”, but only if they don’t have to move their lazy butts to do it. What are some cheap or homemade toys for cats that might inspire them to get playing again? How about fun games? I know there’s more than enough cat owners here to get some good ideas.
I taught my cat to play “fetch”. I stand at the top of the stairs with one of his favorite toys (a little rubber ball), throw it down the stairs, he goes tearing off after it, and brings it back, yelling at me to throw it again.
I admit, this took some time for him to figure out. He’s chase the ball, then drop it. Eventually,though, he realized that if he brought it back to me, I’d throw it again, and the fun would continue.
“Fetch” is one of our games as well. Pixel is always bugging me to throw a ponytail holder for her to fetch. Havoc, OTOH, finds Flutterballs to be infinitely distracting.
Both of them also love their Turbo Scratcher.
Get an inexpensive laser pointer. My eight year-olds go nuts for it. If the floor is clear I can sometimes get them to chase it the entire length of the apartment.
Our cats’ favorite toy is the ring off a plastic milk jug. The only drawback is that they’re awfully ouchy to step on when you have hardwood floors. But about as cheap as you can get. They turn up their little spoiled kitty noises at all the expensive crinkly feathery stuff.
Oh, and a laser pointer is good for some runnin’, as well. One of our cats can make it about four feet up the wall with a good running start. HazelNutCoffee’s cat is so enamored of the laser pointer that she’ll jump up the wall looking for it even when it’s turned off and sitting on the coffee table. A little distracting when you have guests over, but good exercise for the cat!
As a last resort, I suggest you take up knitting. Both the needles and the yarn are apparently irresistible to felines.
My kitties’ favorite toy is the ball in a plastic circle. I think it’s because they can bat it around without having to stand up. They also have some ping pong balls which are great fun on the tile, but get stuck under the couch.
I just got them a puppy as well. They don’t like it, but they’re certainly getting exercise, and no one is bored.
Our cat toys:
Plastic ring with ball inside
Feather/plushie on end of “fishing pole”
Laser Pointer
Stuffed “Mice” that yoy throw downstairs
Our oldest cat, Midnight, even when she was old and arthritic, still liked to play “catch”. She’d lie on the floor and I’d toss a tiny plush ball at her, and she’d try to catch it or bat it back.
One game that I used to play was to half-open a futon, sideways, on the ground, so that the two halves were at right angles, and supported the futon on its side. Right at the angle where they met, at the floor, was an aperture, then – a “mousehole”. I’d be on one side and the cat on the other, and I’d manipulate things. She could hear them, but not rreally see them, and as they came close she’d reach in with her paw and STRIKE! She loved it.
You might try a Cat Maze – it’s a corrugated cardboard box with different shaped-holes in the sides and top. You put a catnip-filled bag inside and the cat has to figure out how to get it out.
I have a new remote-controlled mouse. It smells like catnip, moves in odd ways, and is only available when it is being played with.
As soon as I get some batteries there will also be “thing in a paper bag” which is a shaky thing in a brown tyvek back with rustle-y stuff in it.
We also have many balls, which are preferred to mice, but one kind is known as Ball. These are hideously gaudy balls made of something that resembles old-fashioned Christmas Tree tinsel, but isn’t. They come in pink, green, gold and white. White is favored because the first Ball was a gift and it was white.
Occasionally I can find felt balls with catnip in them, and those are treasured. Felt seems to have a particularly nice feeling under the claws.
I also feed an indoor-cat formula to my Sophie.
Nadia likes it, Bubba is terrified and flees the room when she sees the spot.
Go figure.
Not really a “toy” that is going to make them actively move about, but one of the best gifts I ever bought my older cats was one of those cat beds that fastens to the window frame to give them a wider spot to lay on while looking outside. Of course, given that the window I put it in overlooked a birdbath and a bird feeder, it was the A1 spot for both cats and they either had to work out taking turns being there, or they had to get along in sharing it.
Da Bird. The best cat toy ever. Buy extra feathers. I have a 6 year old lazy tabby and she even gets up for Da Bird.
That’s a damned odd looking ferret.
And this is an odd looking cat.
Obviously Photo Shopped.
Don’t I know it! I play catch more with my cats than I get to with my kids.
“Get the mouse, Murray! Get the mouse! Get the mouse!” THWACK!!!
I don’t know about older cats, but my kitty will eschew any and all store-bought toys, no matter how elaborate or expensive, for a straw. It’s crazy how much she loves to play with a straw.
Oddly our oldest cat, who’s now fourteen, is the most playful of the bunch. He still stalks his toy mice with all the aplomb of a cat actually out hunting. He’ll “spot” the mouse, then wag his head from side to side for a second to guage the distance, and pounce!
The youngest, about seven y.o. doesn’t seem to care about anything besides food and catnip. Sometimes we find him on his back and holding the catnip toy in his forepaws, apparently blissed out.
A number of years ago, I had a kitten who played fetch without needing to be taught. One day I absent-mindedly threw a plastic bottle cap for her to chase, and she brought it back for me to throw again. She would only do it with that type of plastic bottle cap. And if there were other people in the room, she got everyone else involved. Smartest cat I ever had.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everybody. Some success, last night I found a new toy for my fat lazy guy. I was filing my nails with an emery board, and he come right up to see what was going on. I waggled it at him, and he loved it, went right for it.
It’s weird. Every cat I’ve ever known loves to munch on a emery board. Is it the delicious smell of sanded fingernail?