Fickle cats

[Amy SF]

I have piles of store-bought cat toys in the closet. Every so often I bring some out and try to get my two kitties interested in playing with them. They aren't. Okay, when each toy is brand new, the cats are interested for a little while, but then they lose interest and that's it. The ONLY toy they express more than a passing interest in is a homemade teaser my niece made from a stick of wood and some colored ribbons she got in a crafts store. Why do they reject store bought toys? It doesn't matter what kind of toy it is, after an initial interest in it, forget it.

They are more interested in items that are not intended as cat toys. If I drop a twist-tie on the floor, Misty goes mad for it and bats it around for a while. If I leave a pen on my desk, Sabrina will jump up and knock it off the desk, then jump down and push it around for a few minutes. It doesn't even have to be a pen. Once I left my toothbrush on the bathroom counter to go do something else and she couldn't resist jumping up and pushing it off. And then of course when I'm wrapping gifts they love to play with the ribbons (but not bows).

Why oh why do I have such fickle cats?

[missleigh]

Hehe. My Moe loves the plastic tops to water bottles. He will play with one of those for an hour, but completely ignore the fancy wind up mouse, crinkle balls, etc.

[Amy SF]

the plastic tops to water bottles

Oh yeah! My girls love those too!

[renaissancesun]

Why oh why do I have such fickle cats?

Because they are the only kind that exist. :D

[Amy SF]

Because they are the only kind that exist. :D
Touche'

[PortableKitten]

Johnny Raisinhell and Large Marge love those little disc type things that are beneath the cap on Silk soymilk. I too, have a ton of toys but they like those best. When I clean the kitchen there is always three our four that they lost under the fridge.

[kpickell]

Hehe, yeah, that pretty much describes most cats.... Such an easy animal to buy toys for... just open your trash. shoe strings, bottle caps, tin foil.

I suppose cat toys are manufactured in a way to appeal to the person buying them rather than the cat. My own cat however goes crazy for the large tubes (like an extra long stuffed sock) that have catnip in them. He doesn't care for any other catnip toy, but he loves those things.

[missleigh]

Johnny Raisinhell and Large Marge love those little disc type things that are beneath the cap on Silk soymilk. I too, have a ton of toys but they like those best. When I clean the kitchen there is always three our four that they lost under the fridge.

Large Marge! :lol: that's so awesome!

[qetta]

Yep, I think it's just the way cats are. When we first brought ours home, we bought tons of cat toys from the store. The little buggers wouldn't even look twice at them. But drop a straw on the floor and they go nuts-o. My boy has a thing for Q-tips. The way I have to lock my Q-tips up is unbelievable. My girl loves ribbons tied together and then tied to the back of a chair. That will amuse her for hours. They both love crumpled up pieces of paper.

It's funny. Before any guests come over, my husband and I do a quick search around the house for missing cat "toys." We learned to do that after my mom was over once and wanted to know why there were Q-tips in our couch.