Cheap or free things to use for toys for kittens and cats

[ginnyinWI]

Feel free to add! Here are some I've made/used:

Pipe cleaners--but wrap two together because they can be chewed into pieces.

Short pieces of ribbon

Wine bottle corks

The tops from squeeze tubes of baby food

Clothes pins--not the springy kind

Leather shoelaces--great for chewing

A spool wrapped in cotton yarn with a jingle bell attached

Knit or crochet balls and mice made with yarn scraps

Cut a butterfly out of cloth, put in some stuffing and a candy wrapper for crinkle, and some catnip. Sew up.

A small wooden spool with a shoelace through it, knotted at both ends.

A box turned upside down with doorways cut in the sides. Make a mouse hole on one side just for paws.

Those little plastic seals that come in cartons of orange juice or soy milk.

[applegrove]

1. Captain Morgan is just over one years old and still hunts for the perfect

toy every day. Lately it has been Q tips from the garbage. Yuck! He is a really smart cat and finds the most novel thing to play with. He thinks the garbage can is his toy box. And when I get mad and run to get him away from it yelling all the way he thinks that is a really fun game of tag. He totally has me trained.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I have always taken old jeans

that were ready to be thrown out, and taken a piece of denim about eight inches or so long and about 4 inches wide. I put catnip on the piece and roll it up, then just sew it shut. It is safe since there is no decoration on it, and the cats don't care that it doesn't look like a mouse.

Actually, there are only two things that I make sure to keep away from the cats, and that is twist-ties and rubber bands---they love to grab them to play with, but I don't think that they are safe.

[ginnyinWI]

3. those would be durable, too.

I can imagine a cat or kitty wrapped around one, kicking it.