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Create Your Own Cat Toy (Yes, really!) {Craft Tutorial}

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Okay, giggle if you must. If you’re not a cat person you likely didn’t even open this one. If you are, I imagine you’ve also seen the row of cat toys at your local pet store. We have quite the zoo at our house. Maybe tame compared to some and crazy compared to others. We have a four year old sheltie, an eight year old male cat and an eight-plus year old female tabby. Our male cat has attempted to claim dominance in the household but often gets overrun by the other furry ladies in the house. He’s been acting out as a result so I set out to Petco to find some form of entertainment for him.

I grew up with cats (ordinary indoor pets; I wasn’t raised in a barn) and one of their favorites was the original cat dancer. This was nothing more than a flexible wire with rolled up cardboard on the ends but our cats loved it. At a mere $3.00 it’s worth the buy but our local store was out of stock (although this one wouldn’t be so tough to make either!)

Next to the empty display was a similar toy by Cat Dancer called the Cat Charmer. This was priced at $7.00! What?! It is nothing more than a flexible stick with a long string of fleece fabric taped to it. That just made me angry so I came home and in a few minutes I made my own out of things I found around the house.

CatToyHeader

Find any stick you have laying around (mine is a dowel rod but you could easily use a pencil or pen). Cut two or three long strips of fleece. (The advantage of the fleece is that it’s stretchy so if a claw sticks in there’s still some give to the fabric. I imagine any fabric would work.) Tie a knot in the top of the fabric. Slip the stick into the knot. Tape the ends of the knot to the top of the stick. Done. You might not be crafty but seriously, ANYONE can make this.

A bonus: My daughter had more fun playing with this than the cats did I think. Maybe I should change the title to toddler toy. In all seriousness she appreciated the chance to really play with the cats and the cats appreciated that she wasn’t chasing them around the house.

 

20 Comments

  1. These are so easy!! I made two of these for my moms cats. I can’t wait to give them to them!!

  2. This is a clever and inexpensive toy. It’s great to entertain cats, kids, and cat lovers! Thanks for sharing!

  3. I love cats but actually my whole family loves cats, so I have shared this on my Facebook wall so they all can read about the neat cat toy tutorial and try it on their own so their cats can too have a cute unique toy!

  4. I have extra fleece from another project and now I can put it to good use and make this toy. My 4 cats will love to play with this

  5. This is super easy and simple but fun. I made this for my 1 year old haha. He loved it, but of course I added some material to both ends of the stick and he just waved it like a flag. 🙂

  6. This is great! We have two cats that are always wanting to play. So this would be perfect. Plus like you said it is fun for the kids. I hate spending at least $5 on a cat toy that my cats have no interest in. Thanks for sharing!

  7. Making your own cat toys like this is the way to go. Will try this one. I am like you and appalled at the prices pet stores charge

  8. My cat would love this, she likes anything she can practice pouncing on, looks pretty easy to make, cute idea!

  9. that is so cool,,my cat loves to play with stuff like this,,the last one I got him was from the dollar tree an he loves it more than any other toy he has so it was well worth tie dollar I spent,,but I have the stuff to make him one next time ,,but seriously he has had this one for over a year an its still in good shape

  10. I am usually throwing yarn balls, lol – I seen the cutest TeePee for cats on Pinterest that would be easy to make as well. This is easy and I bet they love it! Thank you, you have me thinking now, ha ha

  11. This is such a good idea. I have tons of scrap fleece I’m trying to use on small projects. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this myself. My cats love playing with the pieces I drop on the floor.

  12. CAT TOys are so expensive. We are like you and make our own and the kitties are perfectly content and very playful with them.

  13. I love it since we just had a liter of kittens we will have to do some entertaining here soon. This is a nice cheap way of having a cat toy without having to buy one.

  14. This is a really good idea! I stopped buying my cats store bought toys! When we got our first cat, Kitty, 3 years ago we got him one of the store bought chaser wands that had feather attached to the end. One day I was in bed still sleeping and he jumped up on me and had this crazy look on his face and was gagging and gasping. I grabbed him and held him so I could see in his mouth and barely saw the tip of a feather sticking out of his throat. I reached in and slowly pulled it out. And those ones with the plastic shiny tinsel stuff can fall apart and cause choking hazards or bowel obstructions! Scary! Never thought to make my own! Thanks!

  15. this is super easy and would give my daughter hours of fun with our cat. he would love to have one of these to play with. thanks for sharing it! we will have to make this soon.

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