5 Free Toys For Your Kittens
How Your Cat Can Have Fun Cheaply With Recycled Toys
Cats and kittens can be very creative when they play, and most of the time they don't need expensive toys to have fun. Here are five cat toys you can make for free.
Everybody knows that cats are curious. Kittens are even more curious, because they’re seeing a lot of the world for the very first time. At the same time, kittens and young cats are very playful and love to get rid of some of their energy by playing with toys. But rather than spend all your money at the pet shop buying expensive toys that your cat ignores after the first five minutes, try these free or almost free toys that your cat will probably like even more. On top of that, some of these toy ideas will recycle otherwise unwanted items. That’s much better for the environment than buying those new-fangled plastic toys that hang in all the pet departments.
Toy 1: The Paperbag Ball
Done with your small paper sandwich bag? Roll it up into a rough ball and throw it down for your cat to play with. Rolled up paper bags are great because cats can bat them around like soccer balls, pick them up easily to take them into another room, and if they’re recycled from your snack they’ll even have an interesting food smell to keep the cat’s interest.
Toy 2: The Aluminum Foil Ball
This is a big favorite with all cats. Take a page-sized piece of aluminum foil and scrunch it up into a tight ball. Try to make it reasonably smooth so that your cat isn’t tempted to start pulling small bits of foil off the ball. Then roll it to your cat – a tiled or hard surface is the best, but carpet is fine too.
The aluminium foil ball will give your cat hours of fun. The sound of the foil clattering across a hard floor is attractive to them, and it bounces if they drop it from their mouth, or hook it up with one of their claws and let it go.
Toy 3: An Empty Box
Save a cardboard box that’s about the size of your cat next time you make a boxed purchase. Cats love to play inside a box, because they then feel safe from possible dangers. If you’re brave, make a couple of paw-sized holes in the corners of the box and dangle another toy near the hole – your cat will love sticking its feet out to grab. Just don’t put your fingers near this hole!
Toy 4: An Old Shoe
Ever seen how excited a cat gets when you get home from work and take your shoes off? It seems that as far as cats are concerned, the smellier the better, and they love to sink their head inside a shoe and also play with the shoe laces.
Of course, you don’t want them destroying the shoes you need, so put them carefully in the cupboard, and give your cat an old shoe that you no longer wear.
Toy 5: Used Pens
Perhaps because it’s like the stick of a tree that they’d play with outside, indoor cats love pens: some cats will steal your pen off the desk as soon as you turn away! But rather than risk getting ink around the house, or find yourself without any writing tools, save an old pen when the ink runs out and give it to your cat as a toy. It might carry it around the house, bat it across the floor or attack it with its full might.
