How To Find The Best Cat Toys
The right size kicker depends on your cat as you don’t want them to be too big. For many adult cats, a 15″ kicker is going to be sufficient while a shorter kicker will be better for kittens. While your cat likely won’t care about the design of the kicker as long as it appeals to them, kickers come in a lot of fun designs. There are spaceships; baguettes and wine; and even Squidward shaped options you can find.
How to Choose the Right Toys for Your Cat
Toys play an incredibly important role in stimulating your cat, helping to maintain their behavior and well being, as well as providing exercise. They’re particularly crucial for indoor cats, who may not enjoy as much stimulation as their outdoor counterparts. With hundreds of options available, it can be tricky to figure out what toys are best for your cat. Check out our tips below to keep your feline friend entertained and safe.
Why Do Cats Need Toys?
Just like humans, cats need both physical and mental exercise to stay fit, healthy and happy. Getting sufficient physical stimulation and mental enrichment helps to enforce your cat’s good habits, and means they will be less prone to behavioral issues. When cats don’t get enough exercise, they can turn to disruptive actions like hyperactivity at night, scratching at unwanted surfaces, or play aggression.
Playing also solidifies the human-animal bond. Whenever you play with your cat, you are building trust and affection, plus toys will help to keep them entertained when you can’t be there.
What Toys are Best for My Cat?
The type of toys that suit your cat best will depend greatly on their temperament and habits. Most cat toys seek to engage their natural instincts: chasing, pouncing, scratching, and climbing. Your cat may enjoy indulging in one of these behaviors more than the others; or they may prefer a variety of types.
We recommend not purchasing too many toys until you’ve learned your cat’s preferences and habits, to avoid wasting money on toys that will collect dust.
Types of Cat Toys to Consider
- Balls: Some cats love chasing balls and batting them. You could try a regular ball, one with a bell inside (a ‘jingle ball’), a motorized ball or even a crumpled paper ball. The Sphero Mini is a motorized ball aimed at kids but cats love it!
- Toy mice, and other hunting toys: Cats are natural predators and toys that tap into their prey drive can keep them entertained for hours. The Pawboo Cat Toy is a motorized hunting toy that many cats love.
- Wands/fishing pole/feather teaser toys: Toys like this Feather Teaser or the Smartykat Loco Motion Electronic Toy will encourage leaping, pouncing, and stalking. Just ensure that any toys that include string are only used under your supervision, and are safely stored away from your cat after playtime, to avoid accidental ingestion.
- Laser pointer: You’ve probably seen plenty of YouTube videos with cats going crazy for laser pointers! They can be relatively inexpensive and effort-free way to give your cat a good workout. Just ensure you get one that’s safe for animals.
- Interactive feeding toys: Food puzzle toys stimulate your cat’s mind and can help entertain them when you’re not around; the Indoor Hunting Feeder by Doc and Phoebe is a great option.
- Climbing toys: Cat trees and perches give your cat something to climb when you’re not home, as well as places to nap. Cats love having high surfaces to perch on.
- Scratching posts: Cats love to scratch; it’s a natural instinct that helps them stretch, exercise back and shoulder muscles, and express happiness. It also helps to keep their nails trimmed somewhat. Specific scratching posts encourage your cat to scratch where you want them to – and save your couch from being shredded! We recommend at least one scratching post per cat to avoid territory issues. While vertical scratching posts are most common, some cats prefer horizontal surfaces for scratching, such as a jute door mat or corrugated cardboard scratcher.
- Catnip toys: Some cats adore catnip (although it’s worth noting that most cats don’t develop a sensitivity until four to six months, so for very young kittens, it’s best to hold off). It’s fairly easy to find toys infused with catnip, such as these catnip-infused mice.
- Household items, like cardboard boxes: Cats enjoy using cardboard boxes and other hiding places to play in; they love having enclosed, dark places to hide and observe the world. When inside a box, they feel protected because they are in an enclosed space. Cats are also curious creatures and are naturally drawn to the texture of cardboard to scratch, and to dark places to explore. Cutting holes in a cardboard box will often offer hours of entertainment for a cat, as they can hide whilst observing their environment (practicing their natural stalking tendencies). By hiding treats or toys inside a box for your cat to retrieve, you can also tap into their predatory instincts. You can also link up several boxes of different sizes to create an obstacle course or maze for your cat. These are one of the easiest toys to find – just repurpose a shipping box! Make sure there are no staples in the cardboard that could hurt your cat, and remove any tape so they do not chew on or swallow it.
The best cat toys seek to engage their natural instincts: chasing, pouncing, scratching, and climbing.
Cat Toys You Should Avoid
Keep in mind that not all toys are safe for cats. Contrary to popular depictions, they shouldn’t be playing with balls of yarn or string. If swallowed, yarn, string, ribbons, or similar materials can get stuck in your cat’s gastrointestinal tract, causing serious damage that can be fatal for your cat if left untreated.
Plastic can also cause intestinal damage, so keep plastic bags out of reach and monitor the toys that your cat plays with and chews on. If your cat starts destroying a soft toy with strings or other hazardous materials, throw it out immediately.
How to Play With Your Cat
To interest your cat in play, assemble several toys and your cat in an environment where they can focus on you. Twitch the toy in front of them, just out of reach. You will know you’ve succeeded when they pounce, bat at, or try to chase the toy. You might also throw some toys around, or roll a ball past them.
It could take time to find the balance between letting your cat catch the toy and keeping it out of their reach to maintain their interest. Take note of what works as you go, and don’t be afraid to try new motions or techniques!
How NOT to Play With Your Cat
Some types of play are less desirable. For instance, play-fighting with littermates is a natural part of a kitten’s socialization process, but without a littermate to play with, most kittens will turn toward their human companions.
We know kitten play-fighting can be adorable, but play-fighting with your kitten or cat can result in biting and scratching, and it can be hard for you to break this habit later. (Which means guests in your home could also inadvertently become targets for play-fighting—something you probably want to avoid!)
Discourage play-fighting by refusing to engage or acknowledge it and instead redirecting the play desire to something appropriate like a toy. Keeping your kitten’s nails trimmed will also reduce the damage they can do to unprotected skin.
Remove Damaged Toys ASAP
As soon as you notice any sort of damage on your cat’s toys, such as a ripped toy or a piece breaking off, you should take the toy away from your cat and dispose of it. Any size piece can pose a choking hazard, while sharp elements and bits of rope or ribbon can be particularly dangerous when it comes to intestinal punctures or blockages.
Speak to Your Vet for Further Advice
If you can’t seem to find the right toy for your cat, or you’re concerned about the safety of any of their toys, speak to your vet for advice. They can provide further recommendations for how to keep your cat stimulated in a safe, healthy way.
How to Play With a Kitten
Playing with your kitten is not only fun—it’s an important part of the bonding process between you and your new pet! Kittens need plenty of playtime and socialization to grow into happy, well-adjusted adult cats.
Kitten 101: Creating Positive Behaviors
Instilling good behaviors in your new kitten takes practice and patience. It’s important to be consistent and make sure they learn appropriate, positive behaviors to grow into a well-mannered adult cat. There are four key processes you can use to help your kitten learn these good practices: socialization, habituation, stimulation, and training.
Discouraging Unwanted Behaviors in Cats
While training is traditionally associated with dogs, it’s equally important to work on instilling good behaviors in a new cat, and discouraging unwanted ones, such as inappropriate scratching, biting, inappropriate climbing, aggression, territorial behaviors and urine marking. With practice and patience, your cat can learn to behave appropriately and positively, ensuring they remain well-mannered as they grow older.
Catios and Cat Enclosures for Indoor Cats
A ‘catio’, also known as a cat patio or cat enclosure, is a great way to solve the indoor/outdoor dilemma that many cat owners experience. Catios provide important enrichment to indoor cats, allowing them to observe and experience the outdoors and all of its sights, smells and sounds, without some of the dangers associated with being an outdoor cat.
How To Find The Best Cat Toys
Does your cat seem more interested in playing with a wad of trash or your curtains than all those toys you buy them? It may be because you’re not picking out the best cat toys out there from your cat’s perspective and instead are focusing on other factors. Don’t feel bad! It can be challenging to think like a cat.
While not all cat toys are created equal, there are some toys that are way more likely to be appealing to your cat than others. Let’s go over some things to look for to help you pick out a cat toy your cat will love!
Listen To Your Cat
If you think back to your childhood, chances are there were toys you liked to play with and toys you weren’t a fan of. Heck, even now you have hobbies you enjoy and others you realized you didn’t like! Cats are very similar as they, too, have preferences for favorite types of toys they like to play with. Others, they’ll just ignore them.
The quickest way to figure out what types of toys your cat likes is to see what they’re already playing with. What are the qualities of the toys they seem to like? Are there non-toys that they seem to play with quite a bit such as leaves of plants or crumpled-up trash? How big are the toys they like to play with?
By finding similarities between the toys your cat is using, you’ll know more about their preferences from the beginning. Finding toys that are similar will make it much more likely that your cat will actually want to play with the new toy you get them. While there’s nothing wrong with trying things that may be different, try to maintain some of the qualities of their known preferred toys.
Think Like A Hunter
To cats, play is hunting and hunting is play. The best cat toys are ones that will take advantage of their instinct to hunt. That means you’ll want something that resembles prey a cat may hunt in the wild in both appearance and behavior.
Toys that you can move, such as wand style toys, tend to be some of the best options out there to achieve the behavior of prey. While some cats will occasionally like playing with small solo play toys, they don’t really act like prey unless you manipulate them and shouldn’t be the only thing offered to your cat.
Toys cats like tend to be about the size of something they would hunt in nature. Most of the time, this means smaller toys are generally going to be better as they usually hunt smaller creatures. Unfortunately, I see too many cat toys out there that are too big for your average cat. Even if you see a toy that’s really appealing to you, if it’s too big compared to an average mouse or bird, you’re better off putting it back on the shelf.
The 4 B’s of Wand Toys
Most wand-style cat toys, which are my favorite because they allow you to really play with your cat in a natural, satisfying way, can be divided into one of four categories based on what type of cat prey they most resemble. I call these categories the four B’s because it’s easier to remember them that way. Chances are your cat will display a preference for one type of toy, though some cats will play with anything! Let’s take a look at what each of them are.
Birds
This one is pretty obvious, but bird style toys are ones with feathers. They’ll often get your cat going if you wave them around through the air. If your cat is really enjoying themselves, they may even leap off the ground! Just make sure the bird lands eventually as some cats may prefer to cat a bird that’s on the ground.
Examples of the best bird cat toys include Da Bird and Fukumaru Cat Wand Toy.
Bugs
I make it no secret that my thoughts on bugs are less than positive. One of my favorite things about cats is that they hunt bugs and may cats will like toys that look like bugs. Think toys that have a small moving part to them and that move erratically.
The best cat toy out there, the Cat Dancer, happens to be a bug toy. You can also turn the Cat Charmer into one by tying a knot in the end. If you prefer an automatic toy (and your cat isn’t scared of it), HexBug has a really fun vibrating bug toy that your cat will chase for hours. Zoloft loves his!
Basilisks
You may be reading this one and wondering “What in the heck is a basilisk?” A basilisk is a serpent from European mythology that would kill whoever looked into his eyes. Basilisk style toys are thus anything that’s snake or worm like. Think long, wiggly, and moving back and forth.
The Cat Charmer is a great example of a snake style toy, but so are these insanely popular wiggle worm toys. Your cat needs to try them!
Beasts
The final of the four B’s is the beast style toy. These are anything that is solid and oblong shaped like a mouse. These ones tend to be pretty universally popular among cats, though keep in mind that size matters when it comes to how appealing they are to a cat. The toy should be about the size of an actual mouse as toys that are too big won’t get your cat’s hunting instinct activated.
Use Caution With Electronic Toys and Lasers
I know, I know… Your cat loves their laser toy or it’s the only toy that seems to get them playing. Despite this, I still urge caution when using laser toys. Lasers can be frustrating for cats as they can never complete the full hunt cycle. The red dot is impossible to catch and the use of laser toys has been associated with behavior problems. If you are going to use a laser toy, it should be very brief and the cat should be transitioned to a toy they can catch quickly.
Many laser toys may be automatic ones that you can’t control and transition to a regular toy later. I encourage caution with these as your cat may appear to be engaged in play, but they are actually becoming frustrated over time.
Non-Laser Based Electronic Toys
For automatic toys that aren’t based on a laser, my recommendations are a bit more mixed. These ones generally can be caught by your cat so they can fully imitate a hunt. However, they often don’t really act like prey normally would, can be scary to some cats, or both. It may be worth testing some to see, but they really aren’t a replacement for playing with your cat yourself.
I’ve tried a few electronic toys myself and there are some that seem to be a bit more successful with cats. The butterfly flutter bug toy seems to move in a way that is similar to how a real bug might and, for less noise-sensitive cats, isn’t too scary. The SmartKat Concealed Motion Teaser is an automatic toy that has a wand move under a sheet back and forth to entice your kitty. This seems to appeal to cats that like that kind of play and isn’t as loud as others on the market.
Don’t Forget About Kickers
Besides chasing and hunting, some cats like kicking things with their back legs as part of play. There are some toys that will naturally satisfy your cat’s urge to bunny-kick something. Typically these are larger toys so your cat can hold them with their front paws and scratch away, though some cats will do this motion even with small prey.
The right size kicker depends on your cat as you don’t want them to be too big. For many adult cats, a 15″ kicker is going to be sufficient while a shorter kicker will be better for kittens. While your cat likely won’t care about the design of the kicker as long as it appeals to them, kickers come in a lot of fun designs. There are spaceships; baguettes and wine; and even Squidward shaped options you can find.
Play With The Toy Correctly
Even if you find a treasure trove of the best cat toys around, if you don’t play with them correctly your cat isn’t going to care. Remember how a bit higher up I mentioned hunting being like play? Well, you want the way you use a cat toy to imitate how a cat would hunt. That’s part of the reason leaving a bunch of toys around won’t replace active play with your cat: the toys don’t move so they’re basically dead to the cat.
Instead, pick an awesome wand toy you can move around. Move the cat side to side or away from your cat. Moving it toward them or dangling it in their face isn’t what real prey would do and it makes the hunt too easy. Move at varying speeds and consider eventually moving erratically like injured prey would. Remember that as long as your cat is watching the toy, they’re engaged. Many cats don’t pounce right away so keep it going as long as they’re keeping an eye on what’s happening.
Eventually, you do want to get your cat to catch their hunt. Get the toy into an easy catching position and then let your cat pounce!
Want a trick to make play even more effective and satisfying? Give them a small meal or a few treats after a play session. This makes play even more like what cats would experience in nature as they can consume their prey.
The Best Cat Toys Are A Variety Of Toys
While cats may show a preference for one style of play or kind of toy, most cats are going to like it if you give them some variety. You may have seen this before if your cat loves a particular toy for a while then suddenly will barely glance at it. It’s a good idea to switch out toys even if your cat is playing with a particular toy a lot on a regular basis. This also keeps to toy like new so you don’t have to constantly buy new toys.
Of course, if you want to buy your cat new toys I don’t think they’d be upset.
How frequently should you swap out toys? For most cats, I suggest a weekly switching of toys. Put the one toy away so your cat can’t find it at all and grab a new one. Rotate through a couple of toys and then bust out the first toy again. It will be like the firs time your cat ever played with it again!
If you’re looking to keep things simple, you can get a wand toy with a clasp to allow you to swap out the toy portion, but keep the wand. Your cat won’t care as much about the actual wand so just keep switching the toys each week. You can even get a set of replacement toys if you want to add more variety to your cat’s life.
When it comes to which cat toys are the best cat toys for your cat, the unfortunate reality is you may have to try a few different kinds to find out. Rather than looking at it as an expensive chore, think of it as a way to get to know your cat better. As you figure out their preferences, you’ll be able to get better and better toys that you’ll both have fun playing with.