Toys recommendations for an unbothered cat.

[HappyCup]

If your cat doesn’t really play with toys but there’s one or two things they will play with, what are they?

My cat will only play very, very rarely. I’m looking for something new to tempt her with.

Mine like either furry catnip mice, but only if they rattle. Or these ball things with a moveable string inside them. Also only when they rattle. They're very prone to breaking them open (bell inside then escapes) at which point they lose interest.
Will briefly play with wand toys but get bored easily.
Best thing to play with is their sister.

Best thing to play with is their sister.
😂 This opens a whole ‘shall we get another cat’ can of worms... (We can’t but would love to.)

The Yeowww! banana or cigar. Da Bird, on original stick/string or removed from it and thrown. Hair bobbles (need to supervise extremely carefully at first to ensure they’re not the type to eat or chew these). One of ours will get five times as excited about anything if it is combined with a tunnel or cave arrangement. They get bored of all of these after a short while, but Da Bird (decapitated version) and hair bobbles are what get carried/batted around the most when not actively playing with them.

I wish I knew! When it comes to my DCat:

Hair bobbles, plastic bottle lids, head phones, and living creatures = Yes
Anything actually designed for cats that I have spent money on = No

DC1 Favourite toy is a Christmas Sprout cat toy we got from sainsbury's at Christmas last year. He will chase it for ages.

DC2 Favourite is plastic milk bottle tops. Followed by the catnip Kong cat toy.

They will both play with the laser pointer sometimes

But will suddenly have the zoomies or what DD calls the greebles and have a mad 10 minutes chasing each other.

Pipe cleaners. A plastic beaker in the bath.

But mostly they like playing with each other, or a person.

Bit of string

DCat enjoys her catnip banana and also catnip mouse. Does also like to chase/kill nerf pellets as well

Anything that wasn't bought for them.

Hair ties, cable ties, bottle tops, tea light candles, bits of string, bottles of nail polish, bits of scrunched up paper, the dogs lead (while attached to the dog) 🙄🤣

My cat’s 3 favourite toys are my furry dressing gown cord, a toy I made from a piece of string threaded through a paper straw and a laser pointer!

The Yeowww! banana or cigar. I have these and the green fish. The banana is definitely the favourite.

One of my cats also loves the yellow plastic thing from a kinder egg, and Dove deodorant lids but it’s a right pain getting them out from under furniture

One of mine has a good time with these occasionally - we have several - he tosses them about and kills them like real live things 😕

www.bmstores.co.uk/products/catnip-cuddle-toy-tatty-rat-3013892

They all like the red laser dot & one is a hair bobble fan.

They play less and sleep more now than in their youth though - eldest is 10, youngest is nearly 7.

DCat shuns everything that is bought for her except the little furry birds with a few feathers that tweet when moved/bopped. They are only a few quid from Pets at Home, which is just as well as they soon become manky with cat spit (and stop tweeting if you wash them). She won't engage if you try to start a game with one though, they need to be strategically abandoned around the house for her to claim the discovery.

I have a hand puppet polar bear that I use to play with my cat. It’s really thick material so his claws and bites don’t touch my skin.

Feather on a fishing line type toy

Mollies mice and things with feathers on. Occasionally a teaser Toy or a small ball.

Pipe cleaners, cardboard boxes and the actual real toy cat toy is a feathers and a bell on a fishing rod contraption. But that is way down the list. Cardboard boxes are a firm favourite.

My phone charger bought a pack of jingly balls, a mouse and a scrunchy ball last week. Tipped them out the packet and he turned his nose up at them. Decided to lay on them and go to sleep and now apart from the occasional bat of the scrunchy one and the mouse he's hidden somewhere he's ignored every single one. He did however when he was younger used to mad for a laser pen. Also came in handy when he'd refuse to go to bed cos I could shine it down the hall and quickly close the door behind him. He also used to go mad for a plastic toy with a scratching mat in the middle and then a plastic rim around the edge with a ball inside. He'd spend hours and hours batting that thing round and around. But his favourite toy of all time was those little plastic seals you get on frije milkshake bottles my exH used to get. He'd go crazy for them and would dig them out of the bin to get them out. He no longer has those though cos I can't stand the bloody stuff.

Screwed up ball of foil
Pencil
Mice 🤢

My cat never used to play with anything.
He has a cat tree that he seems to love to play on! He will jump on to it then kind of roll around on his back! Attack the corners and grab the dangly ball that is attached.

Also real feathers he likes that I found in the garden.

Cable ties are a big hit. Newspaper pages spread out on a bed or the floor so he can jump into them / hide under them / tear them up.
He also loves watching bird videos like this one on my laptop:

Lots of your cats sound much more playful than mine! She’s 13 though so maybe it’s more her age.

She won't engage if you try to start a game with one though, they need to be strategically abandoned around the house for her to claim the discovery.
This! On the rare occasions she plays it has to be in private. As soon as you engage (or even look at her) she stops.

I’ll try a few of the things suggested to see if they tempt her but leave them out for her to discover herself.

Mine love the yeowww toys! Has millions of them. My bengal likes my door stop 🤣

Bird videos - who knew they were such a thing! Great fun.

Definitely pipe cleaners or bits of garden wire..I',d forgotten how much they like these.
Boxes of course.