Finding the Right Toy for Your Cat
Finding the right toys for your kitties can improve their quality of life, their health and fitness, and strengthen your bond with them. While each cat is different and there’s no perfect toy, here are some tips that may help you find the best combination of toys for feline companions.
The importance of play in cats
Playing with cats and providing them with attractive toys aren’t things you do just to keep your cat from getting bored. It may be crucial for maintaining a high quality of life for your kitties and for ensuring a positive, proactive relationship with them.
A study by the National Institute of Health found that domestic cats given more playtime, especially where their owners participated through interactive play, demonstrated a higher quality of life and a better relationship with their humans. The study concluded— “Play may be an important factor in assessing and maintaining cat welfare.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10936385/
And remember, cats are hunters; most cat toys simulate hunting activities, satisfying your kitty’s natural urges. Here are a few tips for finding the perfect toys for your kitty.
Factors affecting cat toy preferences
Breed
While there are no hard and fast rules about which cats prefer which toys, due to individual differences, certain cat breeds do tend to be attracted to toys that cater to their particular interests and lifestyle.
Active cat breeds, such as Burmese, Bengals, Somalis, and Angoras tend to enjoy high-energy play, involving stalking, chasing, and pouncing. They also may be attracted to puzzle-type toys, where certain actions are rewarded with treats.
Wand and fishing pole toys, robotic birds and mice, mechanical toys, such as hide-and-seek toys, and laser pointers all have the potential to captivate high-energy cats.
Chiller breeds like Rag dolls, Persians, and Russian Blue’s may enjoy stuffed animals (especially when laced with catnip), soft or crinkly balls, springs, etc. They also may tend to prefer to play on their own, whereas high energy cats love interacting with their humans.
Gender
Assuming that your cat has been neutered or spayed, gender may still play a role in how your cat plays and its toy preferences. Male cats tend to engage in more energetic and attack-focused play and frequently enjoy human interaction, whereas female cats, while possessing similar hunting instincts as males, tend to be more independent and display less overt aggression with their toys.
That said, many of these stereotypes can be thrown out the window, when it comes to individual feline behavior. We’ve boarded a wide variety of cats. One of the most aggressive is a Persian female, who couldn’t get enough of our cat dancer and who attacked it with genuine ferocity. Likewise, we’ve boarded Siberian female cats that literally tore apart our battery-powered hide-and-seek toy.
Cat Streamer Toy
Age
Kittens love toys that simulate hunting and catching prey, emulating what they do in the wild. There’s one kitten I’ve cared for that puts 90% of his efforts into stalking and pouncing. He rarely responds to wand toys when the mouse or streamer, etc. is dangled above or in front of him. Place the mouse on the ground 3 or 4 feet away and gently tweak it every 10 seconds or so, and he’ll assume that familiar stalking pose and, after 15 or 20 seconds, he’ll spring and attack…then walk away and wait for his next ambush.
Stuffed toys are popular with cats of all breeds and ages, but especially with kittens, who paw, cuddle, lick, or hold these toys. Sprinkling a bit of catnip can produce more aggressive play behavior. Older cats may enjoy catnip-laced soft toys as well.
There are a variety of “hide and seek” toys on the market that cats, especially young ones, love playing with over and over again. The only problem we have faced with these toys is figuring out how to get the various cats we’ve played with to not destroy them.
Young adult cats enjoy a wide variety of toys, especially wand and wire toys. In our experience, mouse wand toys seem to bring out the most feral and aggressive responses in cats, especially males. Spring toys, and mechanical/robotic ones are also popular with maturing cats.
As cats age, their appetite for aggressive hunting behaviors may wane; however, that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy play. You just need to find the right combination of toys to get them stimulated enough to use them. Laser pens seem to have the right kind of movement and are bright enough to attract the attention of many senior cats.
Wand toys provide an opportunity to interact and bond with your older cat while improving their mental and physical health through exercise. They may not launch savage attacks on their favorite mouse anymore, but may still enjoy a swat at them a bit, and in post-catch licking/pawing. The thing they probably enjoy the most is the bond they feel with you when you positively interact with them.
Cat dancers have been around for decades, perhaps centuries, and are a great standby toy. It’s easy to create eccentric and unpredictable motions with the cat toy, which excites many cats, especially younger ones. Cat Dancer Interactive Cat Toy
Cat toys can be purchased from a variety of online sites, such as Amazon, Chewy, and Petco. We found that the lowest price tends to be offered on Amazon. When you think of all the hours of enjoyment delivered by a single $10 cat toy, we think the investment is well worth considering.
