How to Entertain Your Cat for Hours on End with these Homemade Cat Toys

Instead of spending a lot of money on toys for your cat, here are some cat toys you can make yourself that are low cost and fun. These cat toys will entertain your feline for hours, and entertaining your cat during the day can result in better sleep behavior at night. The majority of the supplies you'll need can be found in your house and the others can almost always be found in your local craft store.

This first cat toy is designed to allow your cat to use some of his foraging instincts during the day which will help eliminate excess energy and may result in a healthier cat since it has been said that a domesticated cat will spend as much time eating as a feral cat will hunting and eating combined. You will need to take two plastic cups and poke two small holes in the bottom of one. Make the holes just slightly bigger than the dry cat food pieces that will go inside the finished homemade cat toy. Poke one hole in the other plastic cup and thread a piece of yarn or string though it and tie a knot so the string won't slip back through the opening. Now place a few pieces of food, or small cat treats, in the cup with two holes, don't use too much or the food will spill right out. Tape the two cups together, top to top, and hang it off a ledge or door knob. Your cat will then have to bat this toy around to get the food to fall out. This cat toy will help prevent boredom during the day and allow your feline friend to use some of their natural hunting instincts to feed.

The next cat toy is just as easy to make but also allows for a little additional creativity if you want to spend more time on this project. Start with an empty toilet paper roll and seal off one end, you can either just put masking tape over the edge or you can cut out another piece of cardboard and attach it to the end with tape or glue. You can fill this cat toy with anything that rattles, such as rice or beans and if your cat likes catnip, you can put some in the tube as well. Don't fill it, just put enough in it to create a rattling sound your cat will enjoy. Seal the other end the same way you did the first one. Your cat can now play with this toy, or you can decorate the outside with yarn or just draw on it with markers, either way, this cat toy will provide hours of fun.

One last cat toy I suggest making to entertain your feline will require a thin wooden dowel which you may need to purchase from a craft or hardware store. Depending on how in depth you want to get with this toy you can wrap the dowel in colored ribbon or just leave it plain, it won't make much difference. Now using a hot glue gun, glue a piece or ribbon or string to one end of the dowel, the length you use is up to you, it will be the distance between you and the cat while you're playing, I make it with about two feet usually. On this ribbon you can attach little bells, colored feathers, or multiple pieces of colored string, all of which can either be glued or tied on. You don't need to add too much to this cat toy, sometimes the simpler things in life will entertain your cat longer than the complex ones.

These three cat toys make a great source of entertainment for your feline friend, as well as yourself while you're making them and your creativity is the only limitation. Any of these projects can be made probably within half an hour so it won't take you very long to make a cat toy that can be enjoyed for hours on end.