How To Select The Best Interactive Cat Toys For Your Fur Babies

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Just as play is the serious work of human children, play is an equally complex learning activity for all kittens and cats. Kittens develop their personalities and hone their social interaction skills through play activities. They also develop their mental and physical skills, toning their muscles and learning to stalk and capture prey.

They also have a lot of fun, which is why cats continue to play behaviors well into adulthood. There are three basic forms of feline play although the lines between the different activities are often blurred as several types occur together.

Three Forms of Cat Play

There are three basic categories or forms of feline fun and frolic. The first is social play. Through social play, kittens learn how they should interact with their mother, littermates, other cats and family pets, and their human caregivers. Through social play, kittens test the world and discover their place in it as well as develop personality traits they will have as adult cats. The second is object play.

As kittens learn how to stalk, pounce upon and deal with prey, they develop survival skills that assure they could provide for themselves should they ever have the need. Object play teaches kittens whether things in their environment are animate or inanimate. Stalking, stomping, flipping, and circling toys mimic the overpowering and killing of prey for food.

The third form is locomotor play which builds flexibility, strength, and coordination as kittens grow and develop. It serves to stimulate the appetite as well, assuring the kitten will eat and grow properly. It also eliminates boredom. Overall, active play sessions for kittens and cats teach them physical as well as emotional lessons. Finally, play feels good. Running, jumping, and cavorting alone or with other cats or their human is just plain fun.

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Keep Cat Toys Interactive

The quickest way to engage your cat or kitten’s interest in the toys you provide for them is to supply them with the best interactive cat toys. When choosing these, keep in mind the three things cats love most:

• Spaces into which they can run that are enclosed
• Objects that create rustling and crinkling noises
• Dangling “bat and swat” ball and fabric toys to knock around

Tunnels, interactive treats, interactive prey, and interactive ball toys; dangling, pouncing, and swatting toys; play mats with multiple activities, and laser activities are all educational plus a great deal of fun for cats and the humans who watch them. The best interactive cat toys are durable, non-toxic, can be used in multi-cat homes, and offer a combination of the activities cats love the most, providing your feline with hours of daily entertainment and exercise.

Choose Cat Interactive Toys to Suit Your Pet’s Needs and Personality

Watch your cat play and you’ll observe spontaneity and whimsy. A cat’s capacity for fun and enjoyment is boundless. Though cat games have no rules they do teach your pet life lessons you can identify if you analyze what you are watching. Does your cat chase imaginary prey or playmates? Provide an interactive toy that provides something for your cat to stalk and chase.

Does the feline “fetch” you pieces of paper or other objects, making up a personal game? He or she will love crinkly-sounding balls that make noise as they roll around. Keep them small enough that a cat’s paw can give them a fast send-off. Does your pet ambush you as you pass and “play pat” your leg with claws-in paws? Get a rod with a hanging ball, feather or other toy that Kitty can swat and grab without clawing you.

Throw toys allow you to put the interactive in the toy for your cat. Paper sacks and boxes with holes cut into them in strategic places allow cats to invent their own hide and seek as well as stalk and pounce games. Placing a motorized toy under a cloth, blanket or some other type of cover will mesmerize them by imitating the erratic movements hidden prey animals make.

When you aren’t home or can’t stop to play with your cat, you can hang dangling toys from a door knob for your cat’s delight. Homemade toys will do in a pinch but there are many more choices of entertainment available through shopping for interactive cat toys online. Other recommendations can be sought by reading Best New Product and Editor’s Choice sections of Cat Fancy Magazine.

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Examples of Commercially Available Interactive Cat Toys

Cat or pet mats are a popular item because they offer multiple activities for hours of pet entertainment. Your cat can scratch on them, crawl through them, hide and sleep inside parts of them, and hunt for small toys you insert in them. Mats are washable and portable so they can be moved from room to room so your cat can play where you are.

Interactive food and toy dispensers can be supplied with treats and even meals to dole out, providing a fun source of exercise, play, and food. You can set the adjustable amount of food that is distributed when the cat plays with the trigger.

Collapsible pet tubes and tunnels can be found with crinkle peepholes and dangling toys. Cats have a great time running in the tunnels and swatting at the balls and toys. They can stick their paws through holes in the tunnels, swat at you as you pass by. The crinkling noise adds interest and excitement. Some other great advantages to commercial cat toys are their warranties and money-back guarantees.

Where to Buy Interactive Cat Toys

When shopping for interactive toys for your pets, the best selection and prices regardless of where you live are undoubtedly found on the Internet. Whether you are searching for Interactive Cat Toys UK or Interactive Cat Toys Australia, you will find all the product choices manufacturers have to offer when shopping on the web. No local store could ever have the room needed to stock the entire available selection.

Cats need to be active and you need to channel that activity from destructive behaviors (clawing the furniture) to constructive ones (practice/play behaviors). Interactive cat toys can be moved from room to room so your cat can remain near you while playing, may be stored away, and are usually constructed for both indoor and outdoor use. You and your cat will love playing with interactive toys for cats.