Switching out your cat’s toys frequently doesn’t always have to mean purchasing them. You can make his day a lot more interesting if you just save your toilet paper rolls and repurpose them with ingenuity. Here are some ideas to enliven your cat’s waking hours that won’t cost you a cent. Better still, these toys are easy to make even if you’re not handy with a glue gun or never earned an A in Home Economics class.
Pyramid. Save up at least 10 toilet paper rolls and staple them together from the inside — four on the bottom row, three on the next row, two on the next, and one on top. Keep poking a feather though different ones. Watch your cat enjoy going nuts trying to catch the “prey.”
Chase toy. Put a bell inside an empty toilet paper roll. Fold up the two ends and shut them securely with scotch tape. Swat it along the floor for a second for your cat to see. He will soon follow suit.
Food puzzle. Cut straight through several toilet paper rolls from the side, making smaller rolls of varying heights. Put glue around one edge of each of them and attach that edge to a piece of heavy cardboard or other heavy paper. Then insert a piece of the cat’s kibble inside each “smokestack.” You can make a meal out of the game, too, by putting a few pieces of kibble into each one. Your cat will bat at it, stick his paw in it, nose around, and maybe even turn the whole thing over, but he will get out the food, and it will be much more fun and interesting to him than eating out of a boring food bowl.
Punching bag. Snip a hole toward one end of a toilet paper roll and then snip another hole toward the other end. You can use a sharp knife or the pointy end of one side of a pair of scissors. Pull a string through the two holes and knot it inside the tube on both sides. The string will form a handle that you can put over a doorknob. Attach feathers to the bottom of the toilet paper roll so that they’re facing down when you hang it. Then watch your cat reach up to give left hooks and right jabs.
For more ideas on how to turn empty toilet paper rolls into toys and food games, go to YouTube and check out “7 LifeHacks with Toilet Paper Rolls for a Cat.”
Put some coins into an empty soda bottle and screw on the cap tightly, then shake the bottle and put it on the floor so your cat can have a go at it. For more feline intrigue (and less chance that your pet will chew on the plastic), wrap the bottle in a tube sock.
Press some aluminum foil into a ball and throw it across the room. Even the sound of the crinkling gets some cats ready for action. If you make a game out of it where you try to get the ball for yourself as the cat pushes it around, he may like the challenge even better.
Keep an eye on your cat as he’s playing so he doesn’t end up chewing on something he shouldn’t.
I enjoyed my first Tufts Catnip Newsletter! Thanks!