How to Make Your Own Cat Toys With Coat Hangers

Toys play an important role in helping to maintain your pet's physical and mental well-being, but they also provide a source of entertainment to cat owners. For those times when your pet is interested in playing, but you may not be available, toys with thick, bouncy wire components provide entertainment that kitty can enjoy on his own. Like many of the best cat toys, wire coat hanger toys are cheap and easy to make with household and common craft materials.

Things You'll Need

• Cloth cat toy, pom-pom, or scrap of cloth
• Needle and thread
• Twine or yarn
• Scissors
• Wire coat hanger
• Craft plaque or small piece of scrap wood
• Metal vice
• Vice grips
• Tin snips
• Staple gun
• Epoxy

Instructions

1. Sew a loop of twine, yarn or hemp onto the cat toy. Stitch heavily to make it as secure as possible.

2. Unbend and straighten the hanger wire. Untwist the area beneath the hook to separate the hanger, then use the tin snips to cut off both ends of the wire beneath the twisted areas. Straighten the wire by flattening the bent corners in the metal vice.

3. Bend one end of the wire into a circle about 2 inches across using the vice grips. Make the circle about two inches across, then bend the circle so that it's at a 90 degree angle to the rest of the wire.

4. Attach the circle to the wooden base. Press the circle flat against the surface of the plywood. Attach it in place with the staple gun, using at least six staples. Reinforce this with epoxy, using enough glue to cover each staple. Let the epoxy cure according to the instructions on the package before proceeding.

5. Twist the other end of the wire around the toy item. Thread the toy's string loop over the exposed end of the wire hanger, then use the vice grips to twist the end of the wire back in on itself, trapping the string loop in the bend. Cover the folded wire tip in duct tape to secure it further and protect your cat's claws from the end of the wire.

6. Prepare additional hangers in the same way with additional toys, if you like. Attach these to the same base.

7. Set up the toy. Bend the wire hanger slightly so that the toy dangles at a height just above where your cat's head is when he's sitting. If you have multiple hangers, bend each of them so that that the toys are at different heights and pointing out in different directions.