Hey everyone I'm here with Kate Benjamin from house Panther. I get a lot of
Questions from kids about how they can help cats so today we are going to teach you 5
DIY cat toys that you can make at home with stuff that you have lying around
these are really fun cat toys that you can use for your cats at home if you give them as gifts lovers and
most importantly you can donate them to shelters
The first toy we are going to make is the easiest it is a pipe cleaner
corkscrew toy it's a bouncy...squiggly pipe cleaner toy
you can call it whatever you want so you want to grab a pencil or a marker
We've got chopsticks here. Things of different thicknesses will have a different impact on how big the pipe cleaner
Corkscrew will be so you can make a whole variety of sizes. So you're gonna make one with like a magic marker
I'll do a tiny one on a pencil. Perfect. I'll do pink. So just wrap it around like that
that's gonna give it its shape this looks like a little piglet tail.
Then you want to bend the ends under just a little bit because they're kind of sharp
and you don't want kittens to get hurt so just fold that end over and
tuck it in.
Safe for kids and cats
Yes
Cute! One of the cool things about using something like this is it's such an affordable,
but genuinely really fun toy for cats. so if you're a shelter kitty you might get bored really easily
maybe there's not a lot of stuff for you to do and
even just one little tiny pipe cleaner corkscrew could make your day.
What these really mimic are bugs, right?
Yeah, cause you touch it and you're like, ooh
it's creepy! And that's what the kitties are gonna think right
So they're gonna say ooh
There's this fun thing in my room now and they just lose their minds. They kind of see it like oh
It's prey. whoa! I'm always thinking about the different to pray when designing toys. Cause you want a variety
cats are just like kids where like you don't just want one toy you want to have a bunch of different things that you can
play with and
Every cat has like a different way that they like to hunt some cats really like things that fly through the air like a bird
some cats really like things that slink on the ground like a snake. And some of them like these icky bugs like
There's something for everyone
Yay! Toys!
oh my gosh we made a lot of these!
the next toy we're going to make is a ping pong shaker toy. I wish I could juggle
Andrew knows how to juggle I don't know the first thing of it
Oh, okay
So I came up with this idea because it's a nice soft little sound that
Intrigues the kiddies and what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a ping pong ball and you need a sharp tool. Parental supervision
required for this toy you need something sharp
So grab a parent or guardian or an adult of some kind to help you do this step
So a pair of sharp scissors with an end and you want to just poke a hole
in your ping pong ball and then to get that really nice rattle I like to use rice.
just some store, regular rice.
Uncooked? uncooked. unseasoned. don't add any vegetables
So okay so how many pieces of rice do you put oh it sounds good it's 10 to 15
okay because I like it to kind of have a good little shake all right let's see
so
I poked my hole. Stick a couple pieces of rice in there
That's so cute! See! isn't that a nice noise? That's awesome!
So now to make it colorful
Durable and to keep the rice in there you want to get some good looking tape start tearing off
little pieces because that will make it easier than one big piece and
you want to cover the hole and then just cover the whole ball with little pieces
and just overlap them and kind of smooth them out to make a cute little
shaky ball. Where did you get the ping-pong balls? um... these I got online on Amazon but you can get them at Target or any
toy store
Yeah there's always a section with like the sporting goods yeah
I think it's cool because these are things you can buy for really cheap in like large
Quantities so you can make so many of these so easily
yeah I think the fun thing about the shaker balls is that it sounds really cool and
it moves really fast so it gives
kitten that like
practice of actually going after
prey really fast. yep. I think this would be a good gift to like kids could make these for people in their lives
who have cats and so you can make a little gift set yes like a little... a litttle set
Pick colors that look nice. cat toys set! we did it!
Look how pretty they are! I know they look like something that you get at the store but it's something you can make at home
Whether you're a kid or an adult and listen to how good they sound
It's awesome okay our next toy we are going to make is a fleece spider
You are going to just need fleece scraps and some scissors and rings of different sizes. You can buy this at any craft store
they come in wooden rings and plastic rings
So I have a variety of different sizes here and we're going to make the legs of the spider using the fleece
So you need to cut strips that are about 10 inches long 9 or 10 inches and about a half an inch wide.
cause fleece is nice and stretchy. How many do I need? 4?
probably we'll make a lot more than 4. oh.
what we want to do is hide the ring so you're just gonna tie each one through the ring and
then put a knot in it and then tie another knot so it's double knot and
So now that piece of fleece is just hanging off your ring. that's already a pretty cool cat toy. that is a cool cat toy.
So tie a knot
Yep and then tie another knot yep. it's just like tying your shoes. And so you can do all the same color you can mix different colors
make them look really cool and
If you already made some other project with this fabric now you have matching toys.
I think one of the really fun things about making
cat toys is you can kind of reduce reuse recycle
All the stuff in your house so when you're thinking about getting rid of something
try to think, "could this be a cat toy"? cause maybe it could be I mean these are literally just
scraps. yep. scraps and simple tools you got laying around so you don't just spend a lot of money
and you can still be cute it doesn't have to look like trash that's the thing
it can be trash and not look like trash yeah
we are
transforming trash into
something beautiful and the most fun thing is to
watch the cats when you give them their new toys and they just go berserk you know when I think about like how
Much a cat in a shelter would really love to have something like this and that it can be made out of something that you
have laying around in your house or maybe that you were gonna throw away anyway turn it into something really cool
bring it to the shelter give it to a cat
That's gonna be a very very kind thing to do for the animals in your community.
I think this is so cute
you can trim it you can make short legs long legs. ooh that's pretty. yeah!
This is like a tarantula. yeah.
Okay and so then you trim the legs to make it a little bit less? Yeah. I think depends on what you want a little
haircut
I think they will love this cause the legs are kind of creepy they're gonna like move all around and the cats gonna be so
excited about this
tada!
Okay our next toy we are going to make is an easy DIY
chopstick wand toy this is going to mimic a bird in flight for the cat
Okay, so you need some shoelaces
because they have these good little ends on them that makes it easier to work with
some chopsticks so you can get those from a restaurant next time I'll grab an extra pair and
some scraps of felt the only other thing ours are scissors and
A hole puncher we're gonna choose some colorful felt and we're just gonna take our scissors and cut it up into
Random pieces you can cut out cool shapes you can have stars or hearts or flowers or whatever so doesn't any kind of shape it
doesn't have to be perfect just like chop. yep. chop. chop.
Then you just need to take your hole puncher and put a hole right in the middle of each piece
So I'm just using scraps again so leftovers from another project
So the reason I like to use the
Shoestring is because it has the little plastic end on it so it makes it really easy
To thread the pieces on.
so tie a knot in the end of the shoestring and I usually do a double knot
so the pieces won't fall off and then just thread five or six of the colorful pieces on
So it kind of gives the cat something they can grab onto and bite
that makes it sort of interesting
And then you want to tie another knot on the top
so it keeps all the pieces together at the end of the string take out all of your pieces on
Your string and then tie a knot to keep it all together there right on the end
So there's my knot and then I'm pushing it down
so it keeps everything down there and then tie a second knot too.. probably? yeah
Just so it doesn't come off alright so there's my knot and just push it down
Fun!
then grab your chopstick
the reason I like chopsticks is they have this little nub at the end so that gives this shoelace
something to hold on to who so it doesn't just fly off like it was just a regular dowel so give it a nice double knot
super cute
you know my cats destroy things like this so when you buy them and then they destroy them you're like
ah
like I spent
$5.00 on that but this is almost free you get the chopsticks from a local restaurant
you get your little felt scraps and then really the only thing you have to buy it
shoelaces yeah and maybe you've got extras like Oh
transform your old shoes into a cat toy
Super fun so cute. So this one's more like a bird flying through the air
Right? yeah. or you can drag it across the floor and then they chase it.. More like a lizard or a snake
so one thing about this toy though is this is
supervision only
especially if you're working with little kittens a kitten can definitely get this string tangled up around a limb or around their neck so
with supervision only but that makes this an even more special toy because this is something you can put it somewhere where to catch can't
Get it and then when you take it out it's gonna be so exciting to them. Because this is a toy that's best played with
you playing with them
you can just kinda wrap it up
Alright this one is going to be like a little rodent of some kind.
maybe like a hedgehog.
for those cats that like to have hedgehogs
So what we have here is a
simple toilet paper roll and
a paper towel roll these are things that people have in their homes that they're getting rid of so you want to just have regular
Pair of scissors. You might need to cut down the paper towel. yeah, just cut it in half tube here
Woo!
Exciting
I'm gonna take my scissors and I'm gonna cut about one inch up
On the edge and then we're gonna keep cutting all the way around basically making fringe
So about a quarter of an inch away from each other and you can do both sides
So it kind of makes like a broom sort of
spread them out and now it has legs
To think this is something that people throw away
every day and it could be a great cat toy and they're gonna destroy this like you know great first hour
That's really light I could toss it around
And its face because it's just a paper. yeah. so even for kittens this is something that can be safe for them
Yeah. fun! you can also decorate these I'm gonna put this tape around mine... cute!
I know there's no end to what you can do
yeah combine all your materials be creative
Make it match your other toys and there's like not a right way to do this you just do whatever you want that
You like how it looks that you think your cat might like or that a cat at the shelter might like
Tada!
My gosh we made so many toys, okay, so let's see what we have...
pipe cleaner spirals
ping-pong ball shakers
fuzzy fleece spiders
the paper tube chasers
and... chopstick wand toy
Yay!
There are so many cats at the shelter who will love having toys these cats might not
Have anything to play with so you and your friends can make toys bring them to your local shelter or rescue
Organization and they're gonna be so thankful for you
ahh! he's running with it in his mouth!!
Thank you guys for making cat toys with us!
which one was your favorite one to make? if you made them, tell us in the
comments below
what you liked about it and what shelter did you take it to