Do Cats Really Enjoy Cat Toys?

[Yavin4]

Do cats really enjoy having items dangling in their faces? Is it fun for them or incredibly annoying? Their eyes do get big, but is that a sign of joy? Or a crazed desire to get rid of the thing dangling in front of their faces?

Maybe we are torturing cats with how we play with them.

[davsand]

1. i'm pretty sure Chaucer would bite anyone that tries to take his catnip mousies.

He's never been a big fan of that tube with a ball in it, but don't even THINK about getting between him and his stuffed sock!

:evilgrin:


Laura

[Systematic Chaos]

2. If it were really torture, they'd just turn around and saunter off.

The fact that they stick around and get all eager means that it must be fun for them. :)

[Teaser]

3. if they get to think they're gutting something

I'm pretty sure they enjoy it.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

4. yes

my cat is always bringing me his mousey so we can play toss and fetch.

[madinmaryland]

5. How about the "red dot"?

aka the laser pointer.

Just the sound of me picking it off the coffee table, makes them jump to attention! Yeap. Still works!!

[david13]

6. The red dot will drive my new kitty insane. However, mostly she

takes one morsel of dry cat food in her mouth, carries it around to find a place to play with it, plays, tries to pretend it is hiding under something, then eats it.
Then repeats, for hours at a time.
Paper bags, anything that will make noise. She will climb and take a cat food can, empty, opened, label off, washed, from the box for recycling, carry it around and play with it.
Sometimes she will chase her tail for an hour, or the back leg.
Play, that is her major activity in life. And I think it means she is happy, content, and likes it here with me.
Her old companion is just too old for any play any more.
dc

[Bertha Venation]

7. Yes. Especially if they're not

intended to be cat toys. Ours' current favorite toys are a milk ring and a pebble.

I don't think toys like strings and laser pointers are torment. I do think they really enjoy them.

[snooper2]

8. Cats like what they like

humans are ignorant to make any sense of it :)

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. Milk rings seem to be pretty univeral cat-frenziers.

.
.
.
Try a thin strip from a rolling paper -- crease it about 2/3 - 3/4 from
the top end -- and let it drop from as high as you can reach.
.
.
It helicopters down to the ground and cats become instant and devastating
surface-to-air missiles. Hmmm, SAM would be a good name for a cat.
.
.
.

[snooper2]

10. actually, you make it way to complicated

a toilet paper roll,

a spoon

and a box...


Happy for hours

[Arkansas Granny]

15. Mine always liked a balled up paper towel with a little bit of aluminum foil wrapped around it.

You'd be surprised how far they can bat those things on hard floor or carpet.

[MrMickeysMom]

11. Every time Mr. Mickey's Dad finishes with the monthly budget...

... he wads it up and pitches it.. Instant soccer playing kitteh fun for Mr. Mickey!

A good thing to do with the budget, too.

[Betty88]

12. mine do

Manny loves those sticks with feathers or bells any kind of dangley crap. He has had one for years, its nothing but a stick with a bell (that I had to duck tape the bell to the stick he played with it so much)he will bring it to us when he wants to play.

Emily likes to play with little mice. She "sings" when she really gets into it. Many times I have woken up in the middle of the night because I hear her crying. I go out to find her rolling on her back with a toy mouse in her paws singing "I'm killing the mouse, I'm killing the mouse hi ho the dairy meOOOOOOOO I'm killing the mouse"

[cherish44]

13. I have a well worn mousie on a string that shows mine like toys

But then the world is their toybox. They also love the plastic rings off of milk containers and aluminum foil balls.

[tigereye]

14. they love it- our cats used to love us throwing a ciggie

pack to then to chase, catnip, jumping up and down while we flipped a light sheet up and down over them. They loved it!