what games do you play with your cat?

[deliasmithy]

My 3 are all entirely different and therefore love different games based on their special talents:

Eldest is agile and therefore loves long distance running about and jumping high to catch a toy in her mouth. She is all about distance and speed like a cheetah.

Middle cat I think was a r*nt (hate that word) and doesn't run or jump high, but she is a gymnast and likes turning things into forts to defend with her paws or she likes performing acrobatics on the bannisters, her rl specialisms would be the beam and double bar. She is also magnetised to boxes and baskets.

Tom kitten (7 mths) loves to play fetch. He also likes tug of war and doing back flips. he is a dab hand at ping pong football. He acts like a butch alpha male but squeaks like a girl and loves hugs. He is hard to keep entertained.

I have cardboxes with holes cut out, big toys, little toys, toys of different texture, cat activity thing, scratching posts galore, toys on a string, catnip toys, a scrunchy tunnel, cat beds etc but I struggle to wear him out.

Any suggestions?

Lots and lots of toys which he plays with himself, chewing them and dipping them in his food bowls when he's finished.

His biggest joy though is our stairs. (Don't know whether you have any.) Racing up and down them but also playing paw catch through the banisters.

Sorry - just saw you have banisters. Try a paw catch game or two. He should take to it directly.

Thanks I think I need a shopping trip for more robust toys.

The inside of a kinder egg with something small & rattly inside keeps kittens entertained for ages. The shape makes its direction unpredictable when it bounces off things & the rattly thing inside makes an interesting noise. Plus you get to eat the chocolate. Winner.

Oooh I like that idea!

delia

I've found that they like little soft toys to eat, throw etc etc. Never forget any local charity shops - they often have a bin of soft toys (which I suspect they find quite hard to shift) and you can usually get some really small plush teddies, dogs and so on for 20-50p each. They're usually very robust, take a quick wash in the machine on a synthetics program and dry within an hour or so.

Pine cones are good, it's a different texture for them. Milk bottle tops strung together on a string used to be good too but most of us don't get milk off the milk man any longer.

So I went to pets at home and bought more toys including cat nip scented paper that you screw up.
All three cats stared at my offerings with an "are you mad" look.
£15 well spent!

To the charity shop I go.

A small tip. When you get some carryable toys, start to put them in semi-hidden places (once they've used them once or twice.) They like to hunt them down and find them.

Sort of the same places are best - eg at the top of cushions on the sofa or behind chairs - so that they're just out of immediate line of sight from the ground but are easily found during a search.

A small torch or one of those laser toys provide hours of fun (make sure you don't point them in eyes though). Or if you can't be bothered with wafting a torch around, get one of those rotating disco light thingys that you get in gadget shops and sometimes discount shops. They will chase the lights round the room!

My two are both nearly 14 and still like to play. My girl has always had a thing about foil, so we roll it up into balls and she goes crazy running after them along the floor or even up and downstairs. My boy has a thing about running after ping pong balls. They also both like a piece of lace to chase and we put a chop stick under a magazine and stick it in and out of the other side at different angles for them to try and catch.

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My cat loves tin foil screwed up, a glove with things dangling from the fingers from the pound shop and I have a toy that you can put treats in and they have to try and get them out I think I got it from pets at home.

I have a kitten and his favorite toy was curling up on my bed, waiting till I moved my feet in my sleep and then pouncing.

He also lies on his back and does gymnastics with his stuffed mouse. And my DD shouted: 'Stan just killed a moth!' as said kitten marched into room tail in the air with a bit of dead moth wing sticking out of his mouth.

And that's only what you've seen him catch!

I discovered the best cheapy cat toy the other day. We have a massive roll of double sided velcro that we bought for tidying up computer cables etc. Every appliance and loose cable in the house now has a bit of velcro for keeping the cable wrapped up. The other day I got something out, took the velcro off it and made it into a circle and chucked it at the cat thinking she might have a passing interest in it. She played with it for a good 20 minutes. It seems to be so popular because it shoots off in random directions when she bats at it but she can also pick it up in her paws because it's not rounded in every direction and sometimes when she tries to pick it up she ends up chucking it in the air which requires more scrabbling around for it.

She still loves it - you just need to chuck it at her and she plays with it for ages although I do need to rescue it for her sometimes when it falls off the bed.