Best playthings for kittens?

[KittenSmitten1]

Name changed as the kitten pics will out me!

New kitten! 11 weeks and gorgeous, came home purring & playing, confident as anything right from the start.

So tell me what toys or playthings is your kitten (or was your cat) obsessed with?

I have posted the obligatory pics - they are being reviewed but will load soon, hopefully

All my past cats that I had as kittens usually loved a rolled up ball of silver paper or tin foil. They batted it around for hours. Most went under furniture or the fridge so there were lots of them dotted around the house. Or a piece of string but that gets a bit tiring (for me) having to drag that about for them.

He is gorgeous! 😻

Another kitten. They will play with each other.

Another kitten.

We got 2 kitten sisters and it was a madhouse for 3 years. Charging about, play fighting.

Another dkitten. What you pay for a second one will be less than the cost of replacing your soft furnishings.

Gorgeous 😍
In addition to pp's suggestions, mine loves the (crap explanation incoming) 3 tier tower with a ball on each level that goes round. Current obsession is a slow feeder ball that you put some dry food in and as they bat it about, the food drops out.

Cardboard box.
my curtains
other kittens

Your curtains??
Joking aside, ping pong balls were loved by mine, you’ll need loads as they will all go under sofas.
Mine also loved these squishy animals of the kids https://amzn.eu/d/00ho7wxx but might be a bad idea when so young in case they eat them. But I think they feel like a mouse to them. Mine played fetch with them like a dog.
Don’t get a lazer pen to chase - they’re stressful for cats as they never catch it.
A climbing tree would be good too.

In contrast to some posters here, I don’t think there’s any pressing need to get another kitten. Some people say that two kittens are less destructive than one but in my experience two kittens can result in double the damage.

We’ve attached an old small cuddly toy to a long shoelace. This can be dragged along the floor for the kitten to chase, capture and maul to bits.

Gorgeous - I can see your future, it looks like this!

We didn’t get this boy until he was one - he was a stray kitten living in a shed - but he likes little mice he can carry about in his mouth and bat around. He also likes small plastic things, vials eyedrops come in, pen lids etc, stuff that he can send under the oven then cry until someone moves it. (Our previous girl was obsessed with the things liquid came in for those Covid lateral flow tests which I guess have a similar vibe.)

Mine likes paper bags, shoelaces, bits of paper tied to string, ping pong balls - I bought a large bag of multicoloured ones and tipped them all on the floor for her which was funny - a tatty old galaxy wrapper screwed up into a ball. Basically anything that was either very cheap or free. All the lovingly purchased toys are pretty much ignored.

Cats are not herd animals and are fine being a one cat family.

I would have said another kitten, as that’s what I did, but then my DD got her first as an only kitten and he loved the attention. He lived with DD and her flatmates and with the current trend of wfh always had someone on hand to wave a dangly stick or throw a toy. He is the most sociable and friendly cat I have ever known. Throw a party and he’ll be right there.

He loves a puzzle toy or a tunnel, mine never did. Remember cats are fickle creatures, the more you spend on a toy the less likely they are to play with it.

cardboard boxes either with holes or just as they come and paper bags are always popular. Even in their old age mine try to get in the boxes before I have unpacked them!

Agree with the rolled-up tin foil and the string. Add ping pong balls and cardboard boxes with hidey holes cut in them. Scratching posts will either be loved or treated with contempt and totally ignored.

You can buy catnip-infused toy mice and whatnot - I've always kept a selection in a Tupperware box with added loose catnip to recharge them. Some cats go crackers over catnip but it doesn't affect others at all.

One long-standing favourite toy in this house was one we bought from Pets at Home (I think), and is a grey furry ball with about 6 legs coming out of it.

Lots of fabulous ideas - thank you - kitchen paper is a firm favourite at the moment - as are the sofa arms - had forgotten that would happen

I would have loved 2 kittens but we already have a very chilled out 5 year old boy (his brother died 2 years ago) and didn’t want to turn his life totally upside down. Their brief introductions have gone well so far, a couple of early swipes and he’s settled into a placid curiosity / tolerance for now.

The plastic covers that come on electrical plugs have been a firm favourite from kittenhood to old age with one of mine, as have dried pineapple leaves (🤷‍♀️)

Another kitten, a very long time ago, loved a ribbon and carried it around for months but I wouldn’t recommend that as she eventually ate it. Although there were no ill effects, it could have been much worse. She also loved a furry toy that had a squeak in it and played with that for years.

Balls, crinkle balls, a tunnel, paper bags, my legs, my hair, bird on a string, bath water, cat tree, the stairs - if my two are to be believed

For mine, the more expensive the toy, the less it ever got played with so don't bother buying the fancy ones.

I buy all their food/litter from zooplus and spend the reward points on a pack of toys each purchase. Springs / Balls / Mice / ribbons / dangly things, and anything with catnip goes down well. I have a box full of them in the cupboard and everything something goes a few days without being touched it goes into the box and something else comes out.

That way there is always something novel for them, and after a few weeks stuff they were bored with is fun and new again.

The toy my boy loves the best is a bird on elastic you hang in a door frame, and then as they bat at it/claw it it goes springing up and flying aroun. However my girl chews through anything with elastic in it the moment she gets a chance, so I bought a giant spool of elastic thread to fix it as it gets broken and try and only put it up when he's supervised to stop her.

Ping pong balls, pipe cleaners. Laser mice.

A fluffy snake thing that he could carry around in his teeth for hours. Used to call it his feather boa.

A mini kickaroo he could murder (replaced by the largest one possible that still gets murdered occasionally now he's nearly 15).

Ping pong balls. Mostly at 3am.

Long sticks made of plastic, bamboo, anything. He'd fix on the end whilst you swept it across the floor.

He still like the fluffy mice dangling from elastic on the cat tree he rarely uses for anything else.

Amazon Box houses.

Paper 'grass'.

A cardboard chaise-longue.

op absolutely gorgeous ginger ninja......shoe laces, cat nip mice and anything that crinkles were my cats favourites. Also ping pong balls :)

My boys are a similar age, they like best the fishing rod toys with bells and feathers on the end.

It might be worth getting one of those variety packs of kitten toys and seeing what is most appealing. I've found different cats have different preferences - I have one cat who loves a willow stick or a paintbrush (or an earbud!), another who favours a soft ball, and my two youngest are obsessed with springs. At various times I've had some of the fancier toys, and they've not tended to be of lasting interest, although the rollerball track is still regularly played with by one cat five years later whereas the others don't bother any more.

I bought a pack off Amazon with lots of different toys in, my youngest loved the tunnels, which led to my front room full of cat tunnels! 😻

Plastic drinking straws, foil balls (thrown), tissue paper stuffed into a small cardboard box. Instead of catnip toys, I bought catnip spray, to spray onto soft toys. You just have to experiment with things, no point buying many toys.