My cousin's cat enjoys play. She has an assortment of fuzzy animals and plastic shapes. Yet, her favorite toy is a thin piece of cloth attached to a twig. It was practically free. This has convinced me that paying a lot for fancy pet toys is a waste of money.
I have 3 dogs but I seldom buy toys for them since they receive toys for their birthdays from our relatives and friends. But sometimes I have to buy that cloth ball that they love so much. That is a round object made of cloth, just a like a pillow. Especially Barbie, my pekingese, she loves to bite that. The imported ones cost about $2 so I would buy when there is a sale that usually is a buy-one, take-one discount.
Yeah, I’ve always found that it’s mostly a waste to buy pet toys. Occasionally my family would buy one or two that the cats would enjoy, usually things like rubber balls. But for the most part, it seems like most of the cats I’ve ever known prefer homemade or improvised toys. Or laser pointers, haha.
Not very much. I'll only spend extra on a pet toy if it's going to wind up lasting longer. I find most pets - dogs, in my case - aren't that choosy about the kind of toy you give them. You could probably give the average puppy an old shoe and they'd be perfectly happy to rip it apart. The fancy stuff you see in pet stores are usually such a waste of money.
I don't buy toys that much. My Pom does do something with the toys but all he really wants to do is tear things up. Most toys are demolished within a week seems like. We bought him an indestructible bone but I barely see him do anything with it. Just a few days ago we bought a rope for both of them to play with. They're usually good at playing together but he got really mean all of a sudden so she no longer wanted to try and take it from him.
I don't pay a lot for pet toys. At first, when I first got my dog, I got several toys for him but he doesn't play with most of them at all. He ended up only playing more with the cheapest plastic ball that I got him. So when we got our cat, I got really cheap toys for him and made some at home. But he's truly happy when you give him a simple straw to play with. That's all.
Absolutely nothing - particularly as I've found that the majority of cats seem to have their own preferences when it comes to what they want to play with and as its rarely anything that has been bought - but generally everyday items that seem to have the most appeal and especially string - which seems to be irresistible to almost all cats, along with cardboard boxes, twigs or even old bits of rag - I can't see much point in buying something that my cats are not going to use or enjoy playing with. In fact as many of the bought toys have absolutely terrified some of my cats - I now prefer to make my own cat toys - which can be anything from scratching posts to cardboard houses - along with covered balls, knotted rag toys, swish sticks and cat nip pillows - all of which cost absolutely nothing to make and more importantly appear to please my cats immensely
One of the favorite cat toys in this house is empty toilet paper rolls. If you visit my home, you're bound to find several lying around. Often, as I walk by, I'll kick one, and if Ryan in particular is around, he goes crazy, chasing it all over the place. I try to keep my yarn, threads, and ribbons put away, because it can be dangerous if they ingest them, as the items can wrap around their intestines. They also will sometimes play with balls that have bells in them. Their favorite toys are ones with feathers and other similar objects that dangle from a fishing pole type device. The replacement parts for that aren't expensive, so I don't spend much on them. One thing I did spend quite a bit of money on is a cat tree. It's about 3 feet high, and has several levels for them to perch on, although, they do sometimes fight over the top. I bought that about 15 years ago, and I vacuum and wipe it down every so often, to keep it looking decent. As far as scratching posts, I re-string them with sisal when they need it, so the ongoing costs are minimal.
There are lots of things at home which anyone can use to make pet toys. Even something as simple as an old sock stuffed with — well, anything — is a good enough toy for cats, kittens or puppies. Since it's very easy to make toys for pets from things you already having lying around at home there's need to spend any money buying toys [for pets].
I agree my cat is pretty similar. She won't play with toys I pay for but she loves my homemade toys. An easy and cheap toy for cats is cutting a toilet paper roll into rings, and crossing the rings over one another to create a ball. It's free and it's a way to recycle what I already have. I just put a couple of her treats into it and she goes nuts.
I am constantly tempted to buy my cat toys. I mean, after all, they are so cutely packaged and displayed, how can you resist? You can, your cat does, so you can too. And I mean that. Your cat would likely walk into the nearest department or pet store, go to the cat toy aisle and promptly walk away in disgust, or even more likely wouldn't even bother showing any emotion at all. I have had success with a couple of bought toys though. One is a bunch of brightly colored feathers attached by a string to a long wand. As simple to make as this sounds, its easier to just buy one in my opinion since you can get them for next to nothing at your nearest dollar store. More expensive toys I have tried that didn't work out are things like: cat nip filled mice or this mouse that was supposed to race across the floor when you pulled the string in its tail. It moved about two feet (when I was lucky) then stopped. Oh ya, there was one other cheap toy my cat loved. It was a mouse that made squeaking noises when it was touched. He loved it; he would chase it and bat it and carry it around in his mouth. I don't know what ever happened to it, but thanks to this forum, I've thought about it again and I will go out and buy him a new one.
Not a lot, because pet toys aren't really in my budget, but if I do see something I think my cat would like, I pick it up. The last thing I got for him is catnip because I though it would perk him up and make him play a little more. We had a rough summer with fleas and what not. You can also make cat toys out of feathers, and just crunched up paper makes a great thing to play with. they like the noise.
We have Nylabone for our dog, and it has been around for many years now and we don't feel the need to buy them again since it's still in a good working condition. As for my cat, he's just content with playing with paper balls and killing anything that moves.
My cats are the same way. They love bottle caps. One of them will play with the same bottle cap for hours. Another one of my cats loves pens. Usually whatever one you are using to write with. I don't understand why some people spend so much money on pet toys or even kids toys. There is so much stuff around already that is fun and interactive.
I might try making some toys for the cats. I wouldn't make anything too fancy, but I might try making a few different styles, and see which they prefer. I know my cats absolutely adore feathers. I occasionally will have them around for my crafts, and they always seem to go missing if I don't secure them. They also love yarn, because I'll sometimes forget to put it up after I've made something, and I'll wake up to see a trail of yarn going across the upstairs, and find the yarn ball at the bottom of the stairs.
I prefer to buy quality because I've read articles how many toys are made overseas and contain lead that is bad for animals. I like to buy my toys are off retailers such as homegoods. I find these stores have good quality products but are a lot cheaper then pet stores such a petco. However, I try to buy more durable toys as my dog easily destroys them.
The most I had to pay for a single dog toy costs a little over $10. I'm not sure if Americans would consider this as too expensive or cheap but if it's going to be based in our currency rate (PHP), it's definitely pricey. It's a branded chew toy I've purchased online when I got my Clio 11 months ago. Back then I didn't think so much about the price because I was so excited having my own dog that giving it anything is a good way to be a pet parent but I've learned my lesson.
Not much. A cheap 1$ rubber chewable dog balls will suffice most of time to keep them entertained. Also I regularly buy them dog treats made of dry sweet wheat dough. These are very cheap, durable and dogs love it, barely cost me around 3$. Rubber balls and treats can be bought in almost any major retailer or even in those "Everything 1$" shops.
I rarely buy toys for my dog. He has a favorite toy, it's a ball and it seems he couldn't care less for the others which is really fine by me, that way i wouldn't have to spend so much on his toys. On special holidays like christmas, i always buy him stuff.
Not more than a few bucks per year. My dog's don't really play with any other toy than a few small and bigger balls, and some times with some old clothes I give them to play with. They don't seem to be really interested in any other kind of toys I buy for them anyway.
