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Easy DIY Toys Your Cat Will Love

Cat playful in an empty cardboard box

Cats love to play and there are several reasons why play is so important to your furry companions. Just like humans, doing something cats enjoy relieves stress, makes cats feel happy and can increase the loving bond between a cat and their owner. Along with enjoyment, play plays an important role in kittens while they develop and learn survival skills and how to find their own prey. Granted, most cats will never use their prey drive to help them survive but it’s still something they have instinctually, so play is a great way for them to exercise their genetically bred instincts.

Cat toys are expensive, especially if you want to provide your cats with lots of enrichment. DIY cat toys are a great way to give your cats new things to play with without having to break the bank. Cat toys should make the most out of their play style and encourage them to explore new things. Toys should have different textures, something to claw, something to chase, or an interesting new smell that they find enriching.

Homemade cat toys don’t have to be complicated, we’ve found some great ideas for super easy toys you can find around the house or make at home.

Toilet paper rolls

The key word when trying to make something fun for your cat is easy, ideally, with materials that are cheap to buy or better yet, materials that you already have at home. Toilet paper rolls are a great material to make some fun toys out of because they’re a waste product that goes in the bin.

Some cats will enjoy playing with toilet paper rolls on their own. They roll so it can be as easy as giving them the toilet paper roll to chase which takes no effort at all.

If you want to be a little more creative with your toy but still put minimal effort in, take some of your feline friend’s favorite treats and pop them in one side of the tube. Fold one end of the tube over so they don’t fall out and then give the tube to your cat to fish out their treats.

Once they grasp the game you can fold over both ends of the tube and make it even more challenging!

Empty boxes

Every cat owner has gone through the experience of buying their cat something new only to have them want to sit in the box and play with it more than the actual toy you bought them.

Make use of old boxes by giving them to your cat to enjoy. You can even cut holes in the top and put a few toys they already have inside the box for them to fish out and chase around.

Natural scratching posts

If you’re bored of buying your cat scratching posts only to have them in tatters just a few weeks after, you can take to making your own. There are lots of different ways to make scratching posts for your cat but one of the easiest is to use something you already have.

Staircase banisters of chair legs make great scratching posts, you may have already noticed your cat taking a shine to them. Use some scraps of cardboard to protect the chair leg or banister underneath and buy some rope to coil around it in tight rings. Once you’ve gone high enough, tie it off and you have a very cost-effective scratching post.

All you need to do is replace the rope when it gets worn!

Pom poms

All you need to make a cat pom pom for them to throw and chase around is yarn and a pair of scissors, nothing else. Simply take a long thread of yarn, and wrap it around your hand. Once it’s big enough, slide it odd and take a shorter piece of yarn to tie all the threads together. This gives you the pom pom effect. All you have to do then is take your scissors and cut along the coils of yarn to give you the perfect, fluffy pom pom for your cat to chase.

Cat eyeing and ready to pounce on feather wand DIY toy

Wand toys

Cats love to chase and cat wands are great for interacting together through play. Cat wands can be fancy, you can get interchangeable ends and different flexibility but they don’t have to be.

You can buy wooden dowels from any craft store, glue a length of rope or thick elastic to the dowel depending on how springy you want the toy and then attach anything your cat might like to chase to the other end. You can use feathers or ribbons to make a low-cost, easy-to-make DIY cat toy.

Almost anything can be made into a toy as long as the materials are cat safe. The most important thing is that you and your cat have fun with it! If you’re interested in cat insurance in Canada for your new furry friend, take the first step and get a low-cost + high-value pet insurance quote from PHI Direct.