3 DIY Cat Toys That'll Look Great in the Living Room

Cats are some of the easiest pets to look after. Once you’ve fed them and cleaned up their litter, they’re hardly any trouble at all – until they get bored, that is. Keeping your indoor cat entertained is crucial for the health of both your pet and your soft furnishings. Buying cat toys can be fraught, too: it’s a lot of money to spend on something that may be coldly ignored.

If you have a furniture-shredding cat on your hands, don’t despair. Here’s how to make cat toys with materials you probably have lying around. They’re customisable, and you can get your kids to help, too.

Recycled ring ball | Tissue box threat den

3 Homemade Cat Toys for Fussy Felines

1. Recycled ring ball

To make these sleek and elegant DIY cat toys, you just need a pair of scissors and the inner tube from a finished roll of Cushelle toilet roll. We recommend that a responsible adult does the cutting, and any little assistants can take care of the assembly.

1. Cut the toilet roll tube into four equal rings, about the width of an adult’s finger.
2. Decorate the rings with patterns, using pet-safe paint (more on this below). Leave to dry.
3. Carefully place the rings inside one another and move them around until they’ve formed a ball, and the gaps between them are about equal.
4. If you like, add a second set of rings from another cardboard tube, and secure them with a staple in the centre.

By themselves, these balls can be great homemade cat toys for indoor cats with a lot of time on their paws. If you want to add a little extra fun for your pet, you could also pop a little bell inside yours, or even use it as a treat dispenser.

2. Tissue box threat den

If you want to make your own cat toys and you have about 9-12 toilet paper tubes to use up, you can add an empty Cushelle tissue box into the mix to make this fun puzzle.

1. Cut the front of the tissue box away (again, make sure an adult uses the scissors).
2. Fit the toilet roll tubes into the box standing up, stacking them together so that the whole box is filled.
3. Fix the rolls in place. You could do this with twine and a blunt tapestry needle, or a responsible adult can use a hot glue gun to stick them together. Decorate with pet-safe paint if you like.
4. Once your treat den is finished and dry, pop some treats or some catnip mice inside the tubes for the cats to find. The idea behind these homemade cat toys is for your cat to figure out how to get the treats out of the tubes.

3. Cardboard cat house

Every cat loves an empty cardboard box. Not every human enjoys staring at an empty cardboard box on their living room floor, though. If you’re looking for toys to make for cats – or projects to make with kids, for that matter – why not turn that cardboard box into a cute cat house?

Making a cat house is the perfect project for you and your little ones: boys and girls alike love a good crafting session, and you can really let your imaginations run wild.

If the box has a lid, maybe your cat house can have a roof with a chimney made from a kitchen roll core. Maybe it can be a bus or train instead of a house. As any child knows, an empty cardboard box can become anything you want it to be.

Cats find floaty objects irresistible, so tempt them out of their new cat house with a soft length of Cushelle toilet paper. It’ll keep them entertained for hours and, luckily, Cushelle is strong enough to hold its own against those claws.

Decorating your DIY cat toys

Be careful about using paints on your homemade cat toys – remember, your furry friends will try to eat at least part of your construction at some point. If you want to add a little decoration, make sure you’re using non-toxic pet-safe paint. You could also try sticking on some other cat-friendly bits and pieces, like feathers or gardening string.

With these simple-yet-stylish playthings around, your furniture should be safe(r) from bored claws. And now that you know how to make cat toys using recycled materials, why not create something for your smaller pets?