Toys for easily bored cat

[Baldieheid]

One of my 3 is very active, but likes it to be interactive. She's 1.5 years old and loves to play, but is getting bored of what we have. The other 2 will play happily by themselves, but she wants a human playmate. We have
A crinkly, 3 way tunnel
Various feathery wants
Numerous balls, crinkly balls, ping ping balls, bouncy balls
Laser light
Ribbons and strings to chase
Crumpled paper that they all live diving I to, and cardboard boxes to leap around in.
They also have free access to the outside from 7am till 8 or 9pm ish. She goes out but isn't away long, unlike her siblings who hunt for hours.

She sleeps for 30 mins a couple of times a day, the rest of the time she's active and looking to be entertained. But she's bored with all these lovely toys.
I'd really love some more toy ideas for her, to add a bit of excitement into her day. She's only playing half heartedly most of the time now. It would be good if she spent more time outside but she'd rather be with us, for some strange reason. She's happy, healthy and hyperactive and her energy levels need bringing down....

Most important I find with my boy is to swap the toys in and out, don't have them all out at once. He seems to forget about them after a week or two and then it's like they're new again!

Ball towers
Catit senses play circuit
Blankets
Anything that squeaks
Toilet roll tubes
Pop up tent with several entry holes (tesco Meowee brand)
Springs (on amazon, the cat ones have no sharp ends)

Put on something thick on your arm
Go in for a tummy rub
Allow cat to batter your arm like a kicker toy
Tend to wounds afterwards

This is called Killa in this house and is quite popular 🙄

Good luck.

Ooooh those springs look interesting. Thanks! Those are totally different from everything else she has. Agree about hiding toys and bringing them out fresh every couple of weeks, but she still eventually loses interest. The trouble is she's not a hunter - unless you could leaves. If she was more interested in hunting like her siblings, she'd use up some energy on that.

Her favourite toy is her feathery wand, but even that's becoming a bit old hat...other than that, she loves a crinkly sweetie wrapper that she can ping about, so perhaps those springs would be acceptable. I'll try those, thank you.

YesItsMeIDontCare - whilst that made me chortle, all 3 of ours are absolutely happy to have their bellies rubbed and the boy actually asks for it. The previous 2 would have torn us to shreds for it.

What about a puzzle feeder?
She sounds smart enough to train i.e. high fives, fetch, walk on a leash outside. That's not really encouraging independent play, mind but it is more fun as a human than dangling a string on a stick.

Mine is easily bored but the rings from the top of a milk carton keep him entertained for ages, he hides them around the house and brings them to me when he wants to play. I flick them across the floor and he's off 😂

I bought a ball that moves itself and changes direction at random....it scared her initially as it moves fast on a wood floor, so we put it inside a shallow cardboard box.....she found that fascinating this afternoon but just watched it. We've put it away for now and she's just spent the last 30 mins galloping madly round the house snowploughing through the amazon packing paper.....
The springs arrive during the week.

My late girl adored these, but this lot aren't remotely interested. Pity as they're a fab toy. She also loved a champagne cork she found in our garden.

Boycat loves playing with the rubber charity bands. Dd1 flaps them around and he comes running, and then we play fetch with him, as he likes carrying them round in his mouth.

I think we're realising that this wee girl probably has feline adhd. She just can't play alone, or amuse herself. Her siblings can keep themselves entertained for hours but this one is fidgety and antsy. She's no hunter either. Leaves. She brings home leaves.

I have an indoor cat with this exact same problem! Myself and myself could spend like 1 hour playing with him and he still wants more….

then we got this…

www.amazon.co.uk/Blackhole-Catch-Tail-Cat-Toy/dp/B07X8SYYXK/ref=asc_df_B07X8SYYXK/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=463216493437&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16249407543977750609&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006943&hvtargid=pla-848812217513&psc=1

he is OBSESSED and now comes to us to ask us to switch it on! It has different settings so he doesn’t get bored and switches itself off!

Myself and DH… obviously 😂

So off the back of this thread i bought the little spring toys for our cats, and they are a massive success! Normally they dont show much interest in a new toy straight away but both of them played with them for about 20 mins solid as soon as i got them out!

Oh ChatterMonkey, that gives me some hope. Ours should arrive on Wednesday.

Tonight she's had an hour with her favourite feathery wand, played with some soft bouncy balls on the staircase (had so much fun her sister joined her and ultimately took over as, unlike Willow, she's co-ordinated and actually good at balls!) and a further hour with the laser light pen. She's now stuffed herself and has taken herself off to bed for, at most, 20 minutes.

Their brother, meanwhile, has been carrying around a dead shrew for the last 3 hours. He's only ever caught one or two before, and every time we got close enough to take it off him, he shot back out the catflap. After 3 hours he finally allowed me to have it in exchange for a lickelix. Never a dull moment!

I pondered that the other night....it's on my wish list.

The little ring pull things off my oat milk cartons are THE best thing ever for Luna, my only girl cat. The boys aren’t fussed but she will follow me to the fridge every time hoping I’m opening milk and will drop her a new toy to fling about.

My 3 cats love those springs. I have a very impressive collection under my sofas and beds which they wait for me to scoop out weekly with a pole!
my cats are indoor but with a large outdoor catio but they enjoy tunnels, cardboard boxes and I recently discovered draping a sheet over the sofa to make a tent they can hide/pounce in makes their day

i too change their toys around as they get bored. But mine also love the Banana and rainbow ‘yeowww’ toys on Amazon. I was surprised as it doesnt do anything but they all love cuddling and licking them. They aren’t cheap but I would buy more
They also like me throwing cat biscuits in the catio so they can forage for them. They just want that extra stimulation I think

Try a Cat dancer.

It's a wire with bits of rolled paper.

My girl cat is like yours, doesn't sleep much and just wants entertaining all day.

We also have a bird on a long elastic sting that hooks onto the door frame.

Toy mice in a six pack, the grey and white kind from pets at home. They will only play with these toy mice. She especially likes it if you throw them under a towel.

As said above, I rotate the toys out every few weeks.

Have you tried the little toys you can put catnip in? Or just walking round with extra long loose boot laces trailing behind you? Preferably loose enough she can pull them out if she really tries, the sense of achievement might occupy her for a while. Or indeed trailing anything loosely attached to you.
You can also get catnip spray, not that you want her to be more hyped up but our very similar cat will play with a very lightly sprayed cuddly toy by herself for a while.
And if all else fails you’ll eventually learn the art of doing most things one handed whilst twirling whichever feathers on a stick toy is the current favourite in the other.

I had to teach my kitten boy to self soothe/self calm - he had (still has) boundless energy, I thought I needed to work out how to run off this energy, but actually it was more important to teach him to calm down and settle to sleep/rest. Not as successful as I’d like but at least he has small rests in between his crazy runs 🤣🤣
Would recommend those springs, mine arrived a couple of days ago - he absolutely LOVES them!

Well thats my “Im spending too much on these cats - I will resist” promise to myself broken 🤣 I hope they enjoy but have to admit I get more excited than them.

These days Im more excited to get an Amazon delivery to see the cats all trying to jump in the box

Pipe cleaners!

Wrap them around your finger in a loose coil and mine all love them 🤷🏽‍♀️

So many good ideas here.

Frazzled, you make a very good point. She just keeps going, way past the point of exhaustion. She also gets hangry so if she's extra spicy to the other 2, it's often solved with some food. There's food down all the time, but she won't stop playing or bugging to eat. She's high maintenance, that's for sure.

A previous cat was fascinated by one of those little wooden tops you get in a cracker. I would drop and spin it, she would pick it up and drop it, then drop it and hit in mid air, trying to work out the secret. Most cats also love string-go-under, when you drag it under the corner of a rug or cushion (not a precious one). They spend ages working out how the visible parts are connected

She does sound over stimulated tbh

Hi @Baldieheid Thanks for posting. Just in case you're still searching for something to entertain your lovely cat, I wanted to pop in and share this article on the best cat trees. My cat Ruby loves to climb and clamber rather than play with toys, so hopefully it will be useful. The page was created with the help of Mumsnet users and consumer reviews. Do let us know if you found it helpful.