Best Cat Toys

Finding the best cat toys are one of life’s challenges as most cat owners will agree but they help fill your cat's life with fun and amusement. Our little critters get bored easily and keeping a good variety of the best toys without spending a fortune isn’t impossible but it does take some effort. I have six cats and when I come home with a new catnip toy, I have to have one for each cat or disputes will arise. However, other toys such as fun tunnels, small squeaky mice and feathers on poles seem to be frequently shared.

Frequently our cats are left alone closed in homes and apartments for long periods of time while we are off working, visiting friends, involved in sports etc. and they have no activity, no stimulus and no human companionship. Toys help fight boredom and give your cat an outlet for their instinctive chasing behaviors.

Just as with children, it’s a good idea to have a toy box to store toys so that you can rotate them, slowing down the inevitable boredom point that will come with seeing the same toy all the time. I wish I had a picture of the time I caught L’Oreal Blaze, headfirst in the toy box with only her butt showing, rummaging through the toys looking for something distinctly different than what she currently had available. Rotating toys on a regular basis is a good idea and helps to prevent the item becoming “run of the mill”.

Cats have natural predatory tendencies so toys that look like prey or move like prey, sometimes with you pulling an attached string, are usually a hit. Playtime is a good time to bond with your cats. I find that each of my five cats is predisposed to different types of toys. Blaze and Coty go crazy for the red laser lights or simply flashlights, chasing the beam all over and getting a good workout at the same time.

Revlon couldn't care less about lights but she does love toys on tracks inside a device that allows her to hit it, then it spins away, defying her attempts. Max Factor is a big oaf, we call him our Neanderthal, and his preferences are cat toys that he can wrestle with. Chanel #5 is somewhat different. She seems to like all of the toy variations but never plays for very long with any of them. Giorgio tends to like fuzzy things that feel like real mice, mainly because he's a good mouser and catches a few in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, he brings them home as gifts.

As I mentioned on my cat exercise page, there are some interesting items around that house that will work so you don’t have to spend much. A crumpled up paper, walnuts in the shell, an old tennis ball...these all work at my house. I’m periodically trying out newer, and hopefully best cat toys so I can make honest recommendations and naturally my cats benefit from this. It gets expensive so I don’t do it all the time. My recent finds are a collection of laser beam toys.

Coty and Blaze, the light lovers, are the guinea pigs. They give a “Paws Up” to these three laser items. I started with the Multipet Ba-Da-Beam, the first automatic laser beam toy I'd ever seen. An added bonus to me was that I could turn it on for 15 minutes and leave cats playing...without me. It was so successful with Coty and Blaze that I looked for similar items in order to have some rotation.

This is when I found FroliCat Bolt & FroliCat Dart. It's a toss up which one Coty & Blaze like best but with this one Max joined in giving it another "Paws Up". When you click on the item it will take you to a location where you can see a brief video of cats chasing the beam. I consider these some of the best cat toys in a long time.

I also found a couple of other items that are keeping the critters amused. Kong Kickeroo has Max, Revlon, Blaze and Chanel going wild for it. They wrestle, kick and hug this catnip toy. The Cat'N'Mouse toy is a hit with Revlon, Blaze and Coty. I can hear them playing with it even when the area is dark. The only one that shows any interest in the Flashing Firefly mat is Chanel. It's not the lights that attract her, she just likes to sit on it. As I try more toys I will add them to this list of the best cat toys. If you have suggestions, let me know. You can email...instructions are on the Contact Page.

Best Cat Toys

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