Cat toys are all around us at home. We don’t really need to buy them. We should take care because some informal toys can harm — small, short lengths of fine string, for example, can be trapped in the mouth and throat causing serious damage. Supervision is fairly important or at least an awareness of what is going on. Is the toy in the video dangerous, do you think? I watched him most of the time and it seemed safe to me.
Cats see things differently to us. Obvious! But it applies to toys. We like cat toys to look like cat toys. There is a commercial aspect to them. Cats aren’t commercial or consumers.
Cats see objects to play with. How do they select them? We’re not completely sure but bits of plastic are a favorite. They can get their teeth into them. They can push bits of plastic around, which animates the plastic object so that it becomes alive. They’re not too hard and they are durable.
The piece of plastic in the video is the plastic cover for the three prongs of a three-pin plug which we have in the UK. It comes with the packaging. Gabriel loves it and has played non-stop with if for 20 minutes and longer at one stretch.
On the basis of what I’m saying and what you can see in the video it does beg the question whether we need to buy cat toys because they are ultimately all around us at home.
The age old games that cats play, running and jumping and stopping for a quick wash and fishing under the furniture, so lovely to see I could watch Gabriel play all day long. Yes he is growing fast and looking very confidant in his new home. You’ve done wonders with him Michael.
He is so curious and wonders why you are following him I bet. On the distilled water here, a soft ring comes off and Charlie loves those. After she plays they are ok to leave where they are since they don’t kill bare feet! Cats are funny critters! My dogs would rather play with the store purchased cat toys haha
Sometimes we succumb to commercialism 😉 . Just joking. Some toys are pretty good. Gabriel likes a mouse and on the cat condo there are mice hanging on strings which he spends quite a lot time trying to destroy.
I ask myself why cats do that. We see it quite a lot. It may just be that as play is quite vigorous and liable to mess up the coat that the cat wants to maintain it, even during play. That would seem to be the common sense answer.
Yea especially Kittens or Older Cats. Jasmine Loves playing with Lids off bottles or anything bits of rubbish. Oh and Yes she loved bits of Bark or even Leaves. She would bring them to me and just play continuously.
I like how he stops to lick himself in the middle of playing. Monty will do that too. I ask him, “Did that foot just need to be licked?” He just stares at me waiting for me to continue the game.