Cat essentials

[Maiyakat]

We will shortly have two young cats join our household. There seems to be a huge range of cat towers, beds, toys, scratch posts, hammocks etc that apparently no cat can live without but I'm guessing like with a baby you don't really need half of it! So beyond the basics of food, water and litter what do your cats recommend? 🐱

My cat adores her Teepee!

A few toys and a tall scratching post that they can stretch up on. That's it really as they'll sleep where they want.

I think it depends on the cat and circumstances.

Indoor cats probably need more in the way of toys and towers. Also for towers, it depends if there are small children or other pets they may want to avoid.

Some cats are vertical scratchers, some are horizontal. We bought a lovely tall scratching post which was ignored in favour of our coir doormat.

In general I’d say wait and see what they are like / their preferences before shelling out too much!

I’d buy a flat scratch pad made of card and an extra tall post.

As you get to know them you’ll find things they like and they always end up playing with things that aren’t technically cat toys. It wasn’t unusual for my boy to have a new potato for a toy on the kitchen floor which visitors find odd.

Definitely a good, sturdy scratching post, and something my DD calls a Cat Attentioner, which is a stick with some string attached, feathers, fluff etc at the very end …. Literal years of entertainment (although you will go through several as they are hunted killed multiple times)!

Sturdy scratching post and felliway spray to use where they scratch inappropriately (for us it was stairs and sides of sofa). It's expensive but has worked brilliantly. A spray for cat wee is good too, just in case. The quicker you can get rid of the cat smell the less likely they are to go back and do it again.

The most popular thing we have is a pop up cat cube that we got from the breeder. A year later and it's still used daily. I think hers was from Amazon but this Wilko one is similar. www.wilko.com/wilko-pop-up-cat-cube/p/0454192?gclid=Cj0KCQjw852XBhC6ARIsAJsFPN1NHPo9ekrEyhjgYCNFvxuL3iLhK8hHl7WhkuzKp9YBNc4ByfWLcJ0aAhkuEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Hi OP.
I think you've got the key cat essential in a playmate for each other. 😼😼. Really good call getting two.
Agree that the best toys are simple - a feather dangling on the end of a stick is perfect.
Never bothered with cat beds, cat trees or similar - your house will be full of places that the cats will take over anyway.

Cat tower with scratching post incorporated and a few toys they can roll around. Mine loved that wand thing with feathers at the end. They are a year now and don't play much with the toys - too busy crushing all my plants and prowling around outside.
If you are getting two they mostly play with each other.

Only need a scratch post or two really.

Just to add, it's rare to find a cat that can resist a ping-pong ball!

Thanks for all the advice. Will get a scratching post and some simple toys and go from there; will check with the fosterers as well. DD is old enough to give them space if needed and they will have various hiding places.

Oh if you have any plug covers (the type that come on new electrical things), keep them for now, they go down very well in our house.

when we brought our kitten home we had an abundance of toys, his favourite is a teaser wand that has different attachments and some clear string on it. £9 on Amazon and he plays with it everyday without fail (and loves it!)
other than that, it depends whether they’re indoor/outdoor. Ours in indoor so we have a big cat tree. If you have kids or other pets it’s good to make use of vertical space as cats feel protected when they have a ledge to peer out on.
scratching posts (I bought one yday from tk maxx for 4 quid) one upstairs one downstairs. Litter tray and maybe a tunnel.
no need to spend a fortune though as our cat loves to play with earbuds haha they will find something to entertain themselves with!

My daughters cats used to love batting celebration chocolates around the room, as I found out when she told me to help myself from the box and most of them had teeth marks in the wrappers………

I had a birthday card with kitten teeth marks on it once, wasn’t even my kitten.

Buy a cat tunnel and a Da Bird/Go Cat teaser toy: hours of entertainment.