As a cat parent, I have spent a lot of time and resources trying to please my demanding kitties by buying them stuff especially toys that will keep them entertained and preoccupied for hours and hours. Most of the toys that my cats enjoy are the interactive ones that run on batteries. They’ll love it for a while, but then again, they can only like it so much and then they’ll get bored and they’re off looking for another entertainment. Even though my kitties are very spoiled, there are some simple toys that they keep going back to and they seem to be always having fun with these kinds of toys. So per my cats’ experience, here are the simple toys they’ve kept on playing for several years. Some of these toys I’ve repurchased and restocked for as long as I can remember, although it’s pretty obvious that I could have just made them myself. But then again these toys are so cheap anyway that it’s almost better to buy them rather than make them in order to save time and effort, still, if you’re the crafty type, then you’re gonna have fun making these simple cat toys at home.
Mylar Crinkle Balls ($6.69) and Cancor Innovations Mini Crinkle Ball ($11.87)ย – Usually comes in a pack of 12, these foil-made toys are so colorful and so reflective and they make a crinkling sound once the cat bats them. It stimulates the cats’ hunting instinct and they’d play fetch with these. They’ll pounce and throw this toy around until it gets caught under the sofa or somewhere they cannot reach. You’re definitely going to need a lot of these because these will be constantly thrown around by your cat. Making this toy is pretty easy, just buy a roll of foil and cut it into little squares or rectangles, then pile or bunch several pieces of them together and tie them with a string in the middle. Flare both ends to make it rounded resembling the shape of a ball.
Catnip Pillow/Bag ($6.32) and Yeowww! Catnip Toy Yellow Banana ($5.99) – Cats love catnip, it’s pretty much their weed and it’s harmless to them. Some cat parents love to sprinkle catnip all over the floor for their cats to play around, and I used to do that but I stopped because it’s messy, and my cats couldn’t stop licking the floor after that. So I bought this catnip-filled bags or pillows and my cats love them. The Yeowww! Banana Catnip Toy is their most favorite because it has a strong catnip scent. The ones you see in the picture has been quite overused and abused by them. It’s full of their spit and bites, and the catnip oils had pretty much seeped into the bag, but my cats love this toy so much. They’d roll on it, tumble with it and they’d get crazy with it. It’s very simple to make your own catnip pillow toy, just buy a pack of organic catnip and make a simple cloth bag, then throw the catnip inside the bag and sew it close. Watch and observe your cat’s reaction when playing with this toy.
Cat Dancer 101 Interactive Cat Toy ($2.99) – This is the first toy that my cats ever loved, and they’re still crazy about it. It’s a simple toy that just simply works. It bounces in different directions and you don’t even have to do anything, you just have to hold it and the wire attached to small pieces of rolled cardboards at the tip will do the job. Your cats will be jumping like crazy when they play with this. It actually kinda made me feel stupid and realized “Why didn’t I think about inventing this toy before?” It’s pretty much simple to make, just get a thin piece of wire long enough to be a wand and wrap or tie its tip around a few rolled cardboards and brandish it at your cats. Presto!
Spot Colorful Springs Thin ($7.04) – Comes in a pack of 20, this is probably the simplest cat toy I’ve ever seen and one that my cats love to play with since they were kittens. They’re crazy about this toy and they’d run around the house playing soccer with this. This is basically a simple short thin plastic spring like those you can find in spring-bound notebooks, but I warn you not to use those unless they’re made of plastics because the metallic ones are not safe for the kitties especially since they tend to grab these with their mouths and they could get hurt if the edges are sharp. The plastic springs like you see here in the review are soft and light with blunt edges, and they come in two sizes; the wide ones, and the thin ones. My cats seem to have a special preference for the thin ones. So if you can find some plastic springs around the house that don’t have sharp edges, then you just found yourself a practical cat toy. But as with most pet toys, always supervise your cats whenever they’re playing.
Have you ever had your cats play with these? Any simple cat toys you can recommend?