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From living with cats I know that everything that comes into the house must be investigated and two questions answered: Is it food? and Is it a toy? And many things that are not meant to be toys end up being more fun than any actual toy at the pet store
What accidental cat toys does your cat play with?
Any box
Paper bag
Plastic cable tie
Plastic bottle cap
Paper ball
Twist tie
Pipe cleaner
Nuts in the shell (pecans, hazelnuts, etc)
Milk jug ring (AKA buy a cat toy, get a free gallon of milk)
Bottle caps, most especially the ones you need an opener for (noisier, I think)
Plastic bags (the noisier the better)
Noisy bottle cap(s) IN a noisy plastic bag (oh, man, nirvana, she will play with this arrangement for days)
rubber bands
Q-tips
Ha ha, just looking at this list and if she was a baby and not a cat, I'd be in jail!
Bottle caps, most especially the ones you need an opener for (noisier, I think)
Plastic bags (the noisier the better)
Noisy bottle cap(s) IN a noisy plastic bag (oh, man, nirvana, she will play with this arrangement for days)
rubber bands
Q-tips
Ha ha, just looking at this list and if she was a baby and not a cat, I'd be in jail!
In my experience it doesn't have to be a fancy or expensive toy to get a cats' attention. About anything that moves or makes a noise will usually do the trick. But for any store-bought toy, the mandatory rejection period must be observed first, regardless of how curious they are about the gift you so lovingly gave them. They usually get around to playing with it when they think you aren't looking.
As said already, the most mundane of household items can be the hit of the party. But, drawing on past experiences, I feel I should put a word of caution out here. As we all want to provide the best for our kitties, we sometimes loose awareness of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Below are a few thoughts FWIW.
*Make sure all toys, whether made or bought, are too big to go under the refrigerator or any other heavy appliances. Failing that, be sure to have a working flashlight, a yardstick, or a muscle-bound neighbor on call for emergencies.
*Give some careful thought to the type of flooring you have before selecting a rolling-type noise making toy (the notorious Jingle Ball comes to mind). Such a toy might not be a problem on a carpeted floor, but most certainly will be on a hardwood floor outside your bedroom at 3:00 in the morning. A work-around is to pick them all up and secure them for the night, and numbering said Jingle Balls will help to make sure you have them all.
*Not strictly a toy issue, but if your bedroom is in close proximity to your bathroom, then do not teach your cat to flush the toilet. This one is pretty much self-explanatory.
*Large paper sacks (if you can find one outside of a museum) make excellent play forts, and were a favorite around my house for years. But as the cats aged they stopped going in them because they thought it was more fun to jump on the open sack (you guessed it) in the middle of the night. Eventually paper sacks were permanently retired from our home.
This is all in good fun of course, with a tiny bit of truth thrown in.
Be careful with plastic bags. I had a cat that got the handle around her body and the noise terrified her. Took me 20 minutes to catch her to get if off.
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