Pet Toys For Christmas Disaster

My friend got 2 new kittens this summer.  This was their first Christmas.  We wanted to get them fun things to play with.  Our efforts turned out to be a disaster.  We bought one toy full of pink feathers that had a snowman head.  You were supposed to hang it on a door knob so the kittens could bat at it.  The toy didn't last 2 minutes.  One kitten went to bat at the feathers, and got a feather caught in her mouth.  We had to rescue her from the feather.  It came right off the toy.  Several of the feathers came off, as a matter of fact.  The toy didn't last 2 minutes.  As soon as my friend stuck the toy on the door knob, the bottom half came right off from the top part.  It is going back to the store.  Then we bought a mouse that was in a stocking from the Martha Stewart collection.  The mouse was supposed to have catnip in it, and the stocking had that noisy plasticy stuff that crinkles and makes noise.  The cats couldn't have been less interested in that toy than if it was a rock.  It went back already.  The last toy, a ball of mylar crinkly stuff is still here.  One of the cats is a little interested in it, but it needs to be tied up somewhere so she can bat at it.  I have never had such bad  luck with so many toys for cats. 


I am writing this to warn you about buying anything with feathers, or other fuzzy materials on them.  Cats cannot be left alone with any of these kinds of toys.  They are interactive toys, meaning you can only let them play with them when you are in the room watching their every move, and preferably, you are interacting with them, and not really letting your kitty get a hold of the feathers or fur, but tease them with them so that they can get some real exercise jumping and stretching for the toy while you drag it along in front of them, or dangle it overhead.  Once you are done playing with these kind of toys, they need to be put away behind closed doors so that your kitty can't climb up to them and get them in their mouths.  Toys can look fun, but so many of them are dangerous to your babies.


One toy I whole heartedly recommend is a toy that has a round track with a ball in it that won't come out.  In the middle of the toy is a scratcher pad.  Our cats don't play with the scratcher pad at all, even though we put catnip in there for them.  They mostly lay across the center of the toy while they bat at the ball.  One of our kitties can really get the ball going.  All you have to do is give the ball one good bat when you bring it in the door, and your kitties will do the rest on their own.  They love this toy.  It can't hut them, and it won't break on you.  It is well worth the cost.  There is a smaller version where the ball is encased in a circular structure and there are holes all around, so the cat has to stick its arm inside to bat at the ball.  I have seen cats play with this type too, but I like the open circle one much better.  I can give the ball a whirl when I walk by and this always gets someone interested in playing with the toy.


Another toy I like is a stick that comes with 6 different dangling toys.  Some are feathery things, others have a ball at the end, and some are snaky things.  This is definitely an interactive toy that you have to put away after you are done playing with your cat, or the cats will destroy the toy, and may injest some of the feathers or fur, which, as I explained above, or meant to if I didn't, is very dangerous, and can choke your cat to death if you aren't there to supervise.


As usual, like any other baby, you spend all this money trying to find the right toys for your babies, and all they are interested in are the ribbons the toy was wrapped in, and the box to jump in.  I hope your pet toy buying experience was better than ours.


One more toy that disintegrated was a toy I bought for my Rosie.  It was a little bear with a squeaker in it.  The bear's hair came out by the handfuls all over the floor.  I had to cut off the rest of the hair.  Now Rosie has a bald bear to play with.  She likes her snake though.  It has a squeaker in every section.  It won't take her long to destroy it, but she will have fun doing it, and it didn't cost too much.


I hope your Christmas toy buying experience went better than ours.  Always remember to keep your receipts so that you can take anything that falls apart back right away.  You shouldn't have to pay for anything that falls apart the minute you touch it, or turns out to be a severe danger to your pets.