Cat Toy Hunting

Hi Guys,

So my cats are completely spoilt, they have hundreds of toys & Tilly will play with most things, but the ONLY toy my Taji boy will play (apart from DaBird which doesn’t count as a human is required for that game) are from the Spotnips Under the Sea range - which I can no longer get in Aus :(

We have 3 spotnips under the sea toys, his absolute fave is a purple starfish, but we have had it for about 4 years & it has been loved to death – look at it:

& that’s after I washed it to try & give it a new life, lol…

We have 2 seahorses from the range as well, but he will only occasionally play with them, whereas with the starfish if he sees it the game is on – sometimes he’ll play fetch with me with it, sometimes he’ll play soccer by himself, sometimes he’ll just wander around with it in his mouth making lil growling noises, just in case Tilly & I didn’t know that it’s HIS toy :) & I’ve tried so many other toys with him, with no interest at all

Anyhoo, I have hunted & hunted & not been able to find either the starfish or the seahorses anywhere – not in any pet stores & not on any online stores either, until I found it here: http://www.petdiscounters.com/Spot-Under-the-Sea-Starfish-Wand-with-Catnip_p_163...

But my problem is – they don’t ship to Aus! I looked into getting a company to ship to me, but that would cost around $80 on top of the order & as much as my boy loves these toys, I cant quite justify that…

So I’m wondering if any of my LT friends who are in the US would be willing to help me out? I’m hoping to be able to buy 3 of these & get them shipped to someone in the US, then pay that someone the cost to get them shipped to me. The wands can be taken off to make a smaller package & make shipping easier/cheaper, so I’m hoping that it shouldn’t be more than $15 to ship from the US to Aus - does that sound about right & would anyone be able to help? I know it’s a big ask so I understand if not but thought I’d throw it out there :)

I looked into getting a company to ship to me, but that would cost around $80

Yep, priority mail flat rate box that would fit these guys (they're 18" long) would be about that. It is, apparently, not possible to ship to Australia other than by Priority Mail or Global Express. I guess-timated a box size (hard to figure unless you know how the items are packaged) and weight for other than flat rate, and it still ran over $50 (which doesn't include the cost of the box).

What about without the wand - its the toy bit we really want & the toy clips off the wand easily?

> 3

That could probably be done for about $15, + the cost of the mailer. (Again, I just guessed at a weight; I can't imagine it would be more than a pound, if that!)

I could do it, Seanie. I am at my Dad's farm until the end of next week, but if you let me know what to do, I'll do it.

LTers are awesome! So quickly I got good advice & 2 people offering to help! Thanx a bunch :)

By the way - does anyone else have a cat who is soooo specific in their taste for toys? & without any obvious reason?

> 6

My late cat, Lilith, pretty much ignored all cat toys except this snake:



She would hunt it in the middle of the night, and I'd hear the plastic handle going "clunk, clunk, clunk" on the floor, and she'd be meowing, announcing her catch.

I've had cats, and my friends have had cats, who had special toys. One of them had a special sex object (a small blanket) even though he was neutered.

You know, I think someone could sew a reasonable facsimile of your starfish. It might not smell the same, but you could give it to the other cat if it's ignored.

Da Bird is definitely the best cat toy.

You can ship packages to Australia by First Class International. That's what I use for books.

I too had thought of getting some USA friends to send me stuff. Specifically books say, books Amazon wouldn't send me to Aussie. But what can I repay them with?

My cats have totally ignored 'Da Boid". I imported it at great cost and effort a few years ago.

"...Oh yeah...great fun...next..."

The only toy Lizzy likes is me. Human. Squeeks when scratched/clawed.

Guido.

7: RIP, what a gorgeous cat.

My cat Quigley looked over the toys in a bag that I had gotten for my previous cat, and picked himself out a multi-colored pom-pom like ball. It is just about the only toy he ever plays with and it's the only one that holds his interest for more than a few seconds. But…we took it to my parents at Christmas, and he lost it somewhere, and we can't find it. Accckk! My parents are still looking. Woe is Quigley. He still like to play with his second favorite toy though, our second cat Illyria!

> 10

Thank you. She was a love!

>9 guido47: I've sent books to other continents thru BookMooch.

7 - she was gorgeous!

9 - Really? No interest in DaBird? I think you might be only the 2nd person I've heard that from! Everyone else (except 1) I know who's got it has had even the laziest cats get up & have a go! I think its the noise it makes while spinning, sounds like a real bird flying past! Unfortunately Tilly is too accomplished a hunter & she destroys the rather expensive attachments regularly :( But if I don't let her catch it sometimes she just looks at me in disgust - why would she bother playing a game I'm obviously not letting her win, lol... So it only comes out occasionally here but it is definitely a big hit when its out!

11 - Poor Quigley!

Last weekend, Chris' kids bought a laser pointer at the Humane Society and brought it home and tortured our cats with it. My 12 year old cat Samantha went totally nuts over it, and she is a completely sedentary, rather overweight cat so it was hilarious. Buzz, the playful 2 year old who you would expect to go nuts over it, merely stared at it and gave us this look like "I don't get this."

I know someone who bought live mice for a cat she was caring for. I would never do that, although I like it when my cats catch the critters that live out back. So far three rats and uncounted mice.

My cat's favorite toy is a leather string tied to the end of a stick. When she wants to play, she lies belly-up in the middle of the living room floor. I have to drag it around in circles and figure eights for her until she gets tired of running and keels over on her back, expecting the leather "snake" to come to her.

True Seanie, #14, Lizzie had a few half hearted swipes and then lost interest. I have seen her more interested in one of my broken leather shoe laces. Max on the other hand loved it for about half a dozen plays and then lost interest. Every now and then, if I swirl it around he is interested...
But he does bring me a 'Rattling' every other day in season. Which is now :-(

PS. I finally found out Lizzy's birthdate. I had previously looked through Dads carefully filed records under L for Lizzy & E for Elizabeth. Didn't think of looking under C for Cat :-)
She is over 18.

ETA. When I bought 'Da Boid' I also got 3 extra heads. Max has killed one, but that's it.

We have one cat, Amaya, who has adopted one of my daughter's old plush dolls and carries it around by holding it between the legs. We call it "Crotch Baby" :) . I had never had a cat that had a special toy before Amaya. She doesn't fight or chase or kick it, just carries it around from one place to another like a mama cat moving kittens.

Our other cat, Smokey, disdains any toy except the PetStages Boomerang Buddy. It must have some super awesome catnip. We are on our fourth one of these toys. They last for a year or more before they get lost or destroyed. (http://www.petstages.com/product-details/green-magic-boomerang-buddy) We used to be able to buy them at the local PetsMart but they don't carry them and I had to order the last ones from Amazon. Sigh...

>18 guido47: What's a "rattling"?

Young RAT. Not sure if it's a real word...

>21 guido47: Oh, right. Duh. I thought you were referring to something that rattled.

Rats are BAD. (I'm assuming your rats are Norway rats, and not some native marsupial rats.) Rats are destructive, disease-carrying buggers.

Smart, though, and they are supposed to make good pets, but I like it when my cat kills them because I don't want them around.

>8 IreneF: You know, I think someone could sew a reasonable facsimile of your starfish.

I thought the same thing as soon as I saw it. Should take less than 15 minutes.

I did consider that - but I doubt that a home made one would have the same appeal to Taji boy... I've tried so many toys with him & some quite similar but got no reaction.

Oh well, order has been placed :)

#24 It is nice to know that there are people who are prepared to go that extra mile for their cats. :)

I've a question difficult to Google. Years ago I used to buy small toy mice for the cat. I didn't pay attention to the brands or what exactly the mice looked, beyond preferring the white or greyish or brownish kind, mimicking natural hair. The salient feature were the tails, about three-four times the length of the body.

My parents noticed that the cat would go completely, ridiculously bonkers over one type of mouse, whose tails seemed to be made out of--I don't know what, rabbit skin? Apparently something natural, because she'd chew them up (sometimes swallowing them whole--don't ask how we know). Leather or hide of some kind. That was her ritual: the six feet jump into air on seeing a new mouse, the lunge and grab, then first the tail would come off, ingested not digested, and then she'd play with these tailless cripples until complete ruination.

I'd love to track these magical mice down. I have since spent silly money on small mice of all kinds; nothing doing. The woolly things in neon colours with bells and whistles are not it. The catnip-soaked things are not it. The bonded-leather fancy shmancy mice for the ultimate spoiled pet are not it. I'm becoming obsessed. I'm seeing toy mice in my sleep.

Anyone HAZ IDEEZ? I used to buy the mice in pet shops in New Orleans and New York. They might have been US-made. Not sure. They weren't crazy expensive, maybe 6-7 dollars per pack.

Another piece of info is that the cat might have had a leather fetish. There was this one pair of sandals I had she went monkey-barrel mad over--never seen anything like that in my life. First time I put them on she threw herself on my sandalled feet and started flopping all over like a seizing fish, or a breakdancer, producing sounds unrecorded in nature. When I took the things off she jammed herself into one and started rolling about like that. Heck if I know what she smelled, to me there was but the faintest whiff of leather (cowhide?), but it must have been treated too, so who knows.

Lots of cats love shoes. Also sweaty t-shirts.

We call those toys RFMs (real fur mice). There are still a few under the furniture. When my daughter moved out she took the cat who played with them with her. (He also liked to play with REAL mice.)

We got them from PetsMart, but if you google "real fur mice" you can find them at other outlets.

Some "animal lover" types seem to be objecting to them because they are made out of rabbit fur. That's kind of a head-scratcher.

Thank you very much! It didn't occur to me the hair might have been real too, I thought it was tails only.

The mad-making sandals were brand new, that's the thing. I had taken them out of the box and put them on in front of the hallway mirror when the cat jumped on them/my feet. This was extra-extraordinary because the cat tolerated only my parents, nobody else could touch her.

I had a cat who was always sitting on my shoes (though not when my feet were in them). She liked shoe boxes as well.

These look closest to what I recall, but somehow seem to have shorter tails:



This

#29

Oh, Krazy loved boxes and cartons and anything crinkly crispy cardboardy too! But never showed any affection for shoes except for those sandals... she'd claw at the shoe cupboard to get at them. I barely wore them, since they always seemed to be freshly-licked-by-cat.

P.S. Love that chin with chocolate smudge!

26> Laughed at your shoes story. My sister was visiting once with her dog, and the dog suddenly seemed to develop a fear of my son's work boots. He barked at them and ran from them and (I think) growled at them. It was hilarious and totally mysterious. Eventually we decided the most likely explanation (aside from monumentally stinky feet, which I think even humans would have noticed) was that my son had treated the boots with mink oil, and for whatever reason the dog really hated/feared that smell. The cat, on the other hand, didn't care at all.

I had a cat who would stick his whole head into my extremely smelly tennis shoes (I wore them without socks and practically every day). He would periodically come up for air and then go back in for another extended whiff.

Flattering in a kind of smelly way . . .

I used to buy toy mice like you have pictured and I think that they were made out of kangaroo skins (I live in Australia). My boy cat used to put them in his water bowl until the whole thing softened and then he would eat them. The bodies were also made of skin, btw. I haven't seen them around for years and the bodies are now usually made of plastic.

The problem was that he used to put real mice in his water bowl too, and I once had to rescue one from the swimming pool.

Kangaroo! I'm guessing such exoticism would set me back more than rabbit mice!

My parents got a new cat after Krazy's much-regretted demise (she may have treated me like a particularly repellent leper for fifteen years, but STILL I loved the mad bitch, precisely because she was impossible. There was never a cat like her.) The new cat is a six-month old boy, by all reports a sweet, pettable, holdable absolute darling. The other day he fished out from somewhere one of Krazy's tailless wonders and won't leave it, so that's what spurred renewed efforts to find the magic toy.

>34 pinkozcat:

I would love to have seen a video of your cat putting a mouse in the swimming pool - it sounds hilarious! :)

I guess todays observation is 'sort of' related to the spirit of this thread.

MAX just bought in a RATling, showed it to me (got the praise) and ate it.
All good and normal.

Sometime he brings in a treat and just displays it (in my hallway) and doesn't eat it
This has included a Strange Australian Marsupian Mouse which dies after its once off 12+ hours of
sex and a baby ring tailed possum (which are known to fall out of nests and be unable to get back )

My hypothesis is that "...if Max doesn't eat it, he just found it and only bought it in to show off :-)
And thus possibly didn't kill it. This has only happened 4 times in almost 4+ years.

Your thoughts?

Guido.

I'm thinking that cats are killers. Perhaps put a camera on Max? ;)

>37 guido47: He wants you to eat it.

Or he's just not hungry.

Or it smells funny.

>38 LolaWalser: Yes, of course CATS are killers. That is one of the reasons we like/love them. Intelligence etc. They have time left over to devote themselves to things other than just feeding on low energy food. I have known a few sheep in my life (not that many!) and although 'Lambs" are cute...
I prefer a predator as a Pet. Although Mice/Rats are also cute and smart. As are goats.

Max has a curfew (around Dusk) but I do like the idea of a 'Head Cam' on a Cat. I guess when they become really small I might think about one. You might know Max has a Bandoleer wound under an arm pit. 4+ years old. Still raw. Thus I am loath to even consider a collar for him.

>39 IreneF: True Max always has food availible in a bowl. Thus is never hungry, but does enjoy the fresh protein of a fresh Ratling. I had a sniff of the ones he didn't eat and they seemed fresh to my weak human nose :-)

Guido.

ETA. I always thought that only female cats bought in "Practice Prey" for their pathetic owners to practice on.

I don't know whether there's a gender divide in bringing home prey for the Big Cats. Our last male (neutered) brought in plenty of mice, but he would just leave them around in a half-eaten state. The current indoor-outdoor female (spayed) makes a lot of noise about it, and leaves some of them alive. She even presented me with a pair of nestlings for my birthday! (Not something I want to encourage, but rats also prey on birds, so I figure she's doing good overall.)

What I don't know is whether she catches rodents or birds and doesn't bring them inside. I instituted a "no rodents in the house rule" but people get lazy about leaving the window open. I've found the occasional mouse under the window.

KittyCam project:
http://www.kittycams.uga.edu

I once foolishly bought myself a fancy pair of leather gloves with rabbit fur cuffs. I ended up hiding them in the refrigerator to keep the damn cat from attacking the gloves, the coats/boxes/drawers I put them in, and me when I tried to get them away from her.

Fur. The ultimate cat addiction.

I've always thought my cats were sharing their prey with me, perhaps since I am the one who usually provides food for them. (I am mighty hunter armed with can opener! Chest beating, etc.)

It's possible, too, that they are showing off - kind of a cat version of the macaroni necklace that toddlers are prone to present to every relative in sight. I've read that cats behave toward the human who feeds them in much the same way kittens behave toward their mothers.

It's clear when Brigid brings in a rat she's presenting it to us, since she calls loudly and often lets it run around for us to chase. (We enjoy this so much. Yours truly wants to run in the opposite direction.)

If the Other Cat starts paying attention she gets possessive.

42: We have a couple of old rabbit fur "muffs" that my partner's sister used to have as a kid. Our young cat Buzz carries them around in his mouth, hides them in various places, then drags them back out and carries them somewhere else.

I don't have my good camera atm, so these aren't very good photos, but as a series I think they show just how much my boy loves his new replacement starfish so I had to share here :)


He really is just so cute, I followed him around for ages taking these, sometimes he wanders with it in his mouth making lil growly noises & sometimes stopping for a quick game by himself, sometimes he drops it at my feet so I throw it for him :)

A huge thank you to debavp for being my postage middleman & making this possible :)

But - the blue one has already gone missing! It's not in the usual spots of under the couch or fridge, so I'm not sure where he's put it! But I'm resisting getting one of the other 2 out, I'm sure I'll find it when I next do a proper clean & I mean to make these 3 last us a long time :)

LOL he is a beautiful cat:)

Ahhhh it's Taji and his toy! Yay!

Nice shots Seanie - Taji is so handsome, and obviously loves his toy!

Glad to have helped Seanie--those are great pics!