Homemade Cheap Cat Toys!

We've all been there—going out to buy your cat a new tower or scratching post, and then looking down at the price tag just to find you're looking at over $30 for a piece of wood and some carpet. Or maybe you want a few jingle balls for your kitty, only to look to see you have to spend $5 for just a few!

Well, I'm here to give you my take on the best homemade cat toys you can make your cat or kitten that will keep them entertained for hours! Running a cat rescue, you find a lot out about what simple things keep these fur-babies entertained, and I'm here to share my secrets with you.

1. Paper Towel Roll Toy

For this first DIY cat toy, you will need a piece of rope, preferably thick enough that the cat cannot eat it and get it stuck in their intestines, and a toilet paper roll (a paper towel works just as well!). Slide the toilet paper roll onto the rope and tie the ends of the rope onto two separate areas (like table legs) and show your cat that the paper roll slides back and forth when they bat at it and spins!

For my kittens, this makes them go CRAZY! The momma cats prefer to just bat at it once in awhile and watch the babies play with them, although sometimes they get really into it as well.

2. A Simple Box

You can literally just take a box and throw it down on the ground and your cats will jump on it, in it, sleep in it, play in it, and use it as cover to jump out and attack their friends. If you want to doctor the box up, you can cut off the flaps and cut holes in the box's sides big enough for the cat to fit through!

This entertains cats of all ages. They will all use the box to at least sit in at one time or another.

3. Cat Towers

Here comes where we tackle making your own cat tower. All you will need for this is a few planks of wood and some recycled carpet that you are no longer using, or don't plan to use. If you are interested in doing different types of cat towers, I will link a few videos to watch below that will help you decide which project you want to copy.

Paying up to $200 for a large triple-tiered cat tower is ridiculous when you can buy a few planks of wood and just grab some recycled carpet for less than $50 (much less depending on how much wood you want!).

Here are some super cool cat tree ideas, although they are void of instructions, making it so you can create them any way that you wish.

This is a beautiful cat tower for those of you that are into more aesthetically pleasing things.

A SMALL cat tree for those of you that aren't looking to spend a ton of time on one single project.

This project tackled making an actual cat TREE! A super cool idea.

4. Cat Boxes and Tents

4. Cat boxes and tents can be expensive! If you're looking for a cheap one, they can be anywhere from $10 to $30, which I believe is WAY too expensive! However, luckily for you, t-shirt cat boxes and tents are a thing!

If you're looking to make a cat BOX, here is the tutorial for you.

If you're looking to make a cat TENT, here is your tutorial.

5. Cat Tipis

They're not a box or a house, but cats ADORE them! Quite easy to make, and there are many different ways to create them! There are more tutorials than this one, and if you're looking for something less aesthetically pleasing and less time consuming, there are tutorial videos all over the web!

I will be making a part two to this in the future, so stay tuned!

If you are interested in following our cat rescue page and seeing the things that we do, here is our Facebook page and here is our website!