Generally my two cats prefer to play with plain items found around the house, rather than things I've bought for them.

Examples are lengths of rope, plastic rings from milk bottles, crumpled pieces of papers, mesh bags that contained oranges.

(You have to be careful with strings or small objects, which may cause them to choke, or get tangled in their digestive system.)

One purchased toy they really like is Da Bird.

But their favorite toys are live insects.

 

To add to what Dave L. said, you can try cardboard boxes, paper sacks, even plastic straws - Miss Mavis likes the neon ones. Ping Pong balls are also a favorite. When I had multiple cats, they enjoyed playing in a laundry basket. One cat would jump in the basket, and the other would poke at it through the openings. Another favorite are large feathers - like pheasant tail feathers. A wooden step ladder left standing and open is also fun, especially if you put some of their toys on the steps.

 

Boxes and bags of all sizes, mesh laundry hampers, cat ball tracks, empty paper tubes (from xmas gift wraps), any bugs as long as they are alive and move.

 

The only two toys Neko will play with long and hard are:
Plain toy mice

and this wand thing

He also likes to randomly start playing with clothing tags that have been dropped on the floor. He puts his front paws on them and slides them around the wooden floor.

Willie likes lots of toys but prefers ones where I play with him, he likes da bird toy a lot. He will play with a crumpled up ball of paper. Neither of them like noisy toys (with bells) or those ball toys, but my friends cat LOVES the balls with a bell inside. Get a bunch of those cheap toys they sell as petco in little bins, they each cost under a dollar, and see what the cat likes. Get some wands of different materials. I know mine would not like anything fluffy that would get stuck on their tongue but other cats might love fluffy toys. Each cat is different.

 

Gracie also really enjoys those "Wubba" toys by Kong, the same manufacturer that makes lots of popular dog toys.

The 'Wubba' looks a little like an octopus - round cloth-wrapped ball on one end for hugging between the paws and gnawing, and several long 'tails' on the other end for kicking with the back paws. Heavenly! Plus they rattle and crinkle and are catnip scented.

I feel very confident that it's a safe toy for unsupervised play, too!

Gracie's been eating toys lately and we've had to be much more careful about the size and 'swallow-ability' of her mice and such...

Fran

 

Mine love the pen lights to chase around. Also putting ping pong balls in my bath tub. Rolled up balls of tin foil. The blind kitties love, love, love peacock feathers. My vet ties a long string on the back belt loop when she gets home and has lot of duties to do. Her cats love to follow her and chase the string.

 

My kittens play with almost any toy, but I would say their favorites are:

1. The wands with a toy tied on a string attached. I once found one where the mouse on the end squeaked every time it moved. These are also great for teaching the cats how to do flips in midair!!

2. The small fluffy mice (any color). These get so much use at my house; I have to buy about 5 new ones every month. I have also found that you can tie a string (thick enough that they won't eat it- I usually use a hemp type string for making jewelry) around the mouse & then tie that to door knobs, furniture, kitchen appliances, etc. for extra enjoyment while you're not available to play.

3. A laser pointer and/or remote controlled mouse- because sometimes you need something to play with the kitties that doesn't involve any movement on your part...!

4. If your kitties like to wrestle, get them some kind of soft "long" toy. Pumpkin has a plush snake about 3 ft long. She wrestles it & kicks at it like its a real snake!! Simone prefers some softer toys that resemble ferrets.

5. Lastly, their new favorite is a wind up toy with a feather on the end. The feather is suspended on a rod & the rod/feather spins around in circles like a tether ball. They love it so much that it is the one toy they are not willing to share (they usually share food even.) It is also funny for you because you get to see a feather smack them in the face over & over & know that it is not hurting them...lol!

Can you tell that my kitties are spoiled?...And I haven't even mentioned the other 3/4 of their toys...

 

Question about feathers: does your cats not EAT the feathers? I had trouble with Miu eating the feathers off the top of her cat post.

 

I don't leave the feather toys out with my kitties unless they are constructed really really well. I pick up the extra feathers, mouse tails, strings, etc. that come off the kitties toys to discard whenever I see them.

 

Even my Shadow who was very hard on toys (he would chew just the tails off of those little toy mice) and yes, would try to eat small feathers, only played with the big feathers (about a foot long from a pheasant or goose). I agree with Fran on the Wubba - I got Miss Mavis one (she is gentle with her toys) and she likes it (Shadow would have loved it) - perhaps your kitty would like it (they are sturdy) - you could try putting it at the base of the cat tree. Of course, there is always the cat videos, now probably dvds. It's a twenty minute show of birds, squirrels, out in the woods. The instructions said to put a chair in fron to the TV. At the time, I had 3 cats - they watched for all of 2 seconds, but my dog (an Aussie) sat right in front of the TV and watched it all

 

My boy loves plastic pull ties off frozen juice containers, spiral plastic thingies, or just wires or twist ties bent up. Hubby builds some electronic stuff and my boy is always finding some kind of wires or components with wire attached on hubby's workbench. He loves me to throw them and retrives them. The only plushy toy he really likes is a stuffed butterfly that has crinkling-sounding wings. On the other hand my girl only likes stuffed mousies or foil balls. Neither one likes toys with bells on or those balls with bells inside them. Both love it when someone walks around with a toy or feathers attached to a loong string. But if a moth or insect gets into the house, that's the best toy ever! There are some insects tho that they avoid, like bees, wasps, hornets or squash bugs. They seem to know to leave these alone.