The 10 Best Toys that Your Cat Will Love- and You Probably Already Have Them in the House

I have always gone out and bought the cutest toys for my cat, and to my dismay they lay in a pile with only an occasional bat around the room! I swear that it is just a cat thing to do the direct opposite of what you want and expect him to do!

My cat will ignore the cute little fuzzy mice the dangling feather toys, and the sparkling foil balls but will play with a wad of aluminum foil for hours; he hates the sound of the foil being ripped from the box and will run and hide, but once it's crinkled up into a ball it must turn harmless for him, and it's all of a sudden a toy! He also loves Q-tips, rubber bands, twist-ties from bread bags, the rings from plastic milk jugs, and plastic pop bottle caps. I always find a collection of these under the refrigerator, stove, and furniture when I clean. A good interactive toy for cats is a shoelace. I keep one under the couch cushion and will pull it out and play with him at times; he loves to try to "catch" the lace as I pull it away. This is good exercise for an older, lazy cat. They don't seem to be able to resist the temptation of the swinging lace.

Another good toy that won't cost anything is an old plastic film container with a few pennies inside to make noise as he swats it around. Of course the favorite time for a cat to "find" a noisy toy and become interested in it is always going to be between midnight and 5 am, so you might want to hide it at bedtime. My cat also loves to bat around the empty cardboard toilet paper rolls. Another favorite for hide and seek is a large paper grocery bag- he thinks that no one can see him in there when he's plastered against the back of the bag; it must make him feel smart, like "Kommando Kitty". I also always keep bubble solution handy to get his attention; they're fascinated with the bubbles. You can get it cheap at any dollar store in the toy aisle; it's a non-toxic way to amuse cats and give them exercise as they chase and jump after the bubbles. You can also use watered-down liquid dish detergent to refill the bubble bottle if you choose to be frugal.

My cat has plenty of these homemade toys scattered throughout the house and definitely prefers them; I just need to figure out why I still feel the need to buy him a cute toy whenever I'm in the pet store... I guess that I'm the one who actually likes the fuzzy mice!