Consider Homemade Versus Store-Bought Cat Toys

Series Summary

Cats have been domesticated pets for centuries, providing companionship to people as far back as 9,500 years ago. Despite the stereotype of cats as solitary animals with no need for human presence, many cats have a very social relationship with their owners, providing and receiving affection on many levels. In fact, some people suggest that human owners provide a sort of surrogate mother figure for cats and kittens, and that adult domesticated cats live in a sort of extended kittenhood.

If there's any thing that a kitten (or adult cat living out an extended kittenhood) loves, it's playing. Cats are very driven by their prey instinct and practicing that prey instinct on toys is a favorite pastime. In this free video series, our expert will teach you how to create homemade cat toys for your pets. You will learn how to make a variety of cat toys from household items like balls of paper, tin foil, strings or socks. Get tips for making cat toys from boxes and paper bags, as well as advice on using catnip in your cat toys. Let our expert show you how you can have fun and exercise your cat with cheap homemade cat toys.

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Grace Fitzpatrick, I'm here on behalf of Expert Village today I'm going to talk to you about the importance of making your own cat toys. Making your own cat toys is a good idea for several reasons. The first one I would say is that you can save a lot of money. If you haven't noticed, cat toys are really expensive. Usually around the five to six dollar range and when you bring it home sometimes even the fanciest cat toys your cat will flat out ignore and not find interesting at all. I remember spending ten dollars on a really fancy cat toy with balls and whistles and all this stuff and bringing it home and my cats just stared at it and I thought, this is really dumb. Why did I just spend all this money. So, I've discovered that the simplest handmade cat toys are sometimes the best. Another reason why it's great to make your own cat toys is it's just fun. It's sort of like just doing crafts. You know, it can be experimental and then you can test out how well it works right away. You can also tailor make your toys for your cat so if your cat is, for example, a little bit skittish or shy you don't have to make a loud toy. You make a toy that doesn't make any noise or if your cat really likes cat nip you can include that in your toy. So, it's just fun because you can be creative and really do different stuff."