Toys, Cheap Bengal Entertainment

Bengals make up their own fun and you don't need to invest in a bunch of fancy toys.

WARNING: Let me tell you from experience, that removal of a small rabbit furred toy from your Bengals intestines on a weekend night, will cost you $729.42.  Watch those toys carefully ! ! !

1. Try an ice cube in the sink. Great fun. Be prepared to mop up the floor though. Hehe.
   
2. Anything left on the fireplace mantel that can be shoved off including Freckles (beanie baby), dad's baseball hat (yeah) and dad's $700 camera lens (oops!).
   
3. Running taps, bathtubs and the fish pond.
   
4. Pipe cleaners are a fantastic toy! Add a bit of Contortion efforts to the pipe cleaner, shaping it into a spring by wrapping it around a pencil and PRESTO a fantastic Bengal toy!
   
5. Ping Pong ball in the water is a fun toy.
   
6. My guys love feathers, fake mice the little fuzzy balls on a spring attached to a wood base ( the kind they can swat and it bounces too and fro) little spongy balls that the can fetch, They also love to watch my expression as they hang from pictures on the wall or slide across the coffee table and knock off everything on it , the more horrified I look the more excited they are to have done it! :-) 
   
7. My girls adore playing fetch with (1) wadded up post-it notes and(2) their favorite of all---not just for fetch but for all kinds of fun---those plastic drinking straws that have the accordion section.  I get one, bend it into a mild crook, and the cats will play with it for days until it is nothing but a twisted, mashed, flat length of plastic. Indestructable, brightly colored, and very cheap (a package of  40, which will last months, costs about a dollar).
   
8. Also a window---any window---as long as they can see out of it. Also the TV---especially nature programs and ball games. Maybe that's not exactly playing, but it can sure keep them engaged for long periods of time!
   
9. Paper balls! These are the ultimate toys for our "kids" I really wouldn't need to buy any others if I wanted my floors to look like the bottom of a trash basket
   
10. One of my Bengals' most favorite toys is a helium balloon with a long, thin ribbon almost reaching the floor. Take two straws, tie them together and tie them onto the end of the ribbon. The balloon floats at the ceiling level and the toy dangles at their level and is mobile and keeps their interest. Watch your kitty have great fun with the "toy" at the bottom of the ribbon. My guys run with it, bat it, jump at it, play with the ribbon - all in all have a wonderful time. One word of warning!! This is not something I would allow my cats to have unattended.
    
11. I got all the "cheap" toys ;) my kittens destroy everything so I am always trying to find something new. This years invention was the "plastic coke bottle with rice" and the "hanging pieces of pallet". The coke bottle one is just that.. an empty plastic coke bottle filled with dry rice.. they LOVE it! they roll it around and roll on it and try to unscrew the top (which you superglue so they cant!!). At first some are a bit worried by it.. then they decide the noise is to be attacked. Hours of fun.. but must take it away at night or you'll NEVER sleep.
    
12. Shoestrings!
    
13. Empty sewing thread spools, FULL rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, Bathrobe belts, bare toes, stuffed animals to kick (no pulloff eyes, etc)  Small Aby kittens, Aby adults with a sense of humor.  Any size Bengal.  Dog tails, ears or backs. Don't use plastic rings from bottle tops (They will eat them) ALL TIME FAVORITE:  CRAFT POM POMS - ONE LIKE AN IMAGINARY MOUSE WITHOUT EYES or TAIL TO SWALLOW.  I send at least one home with each kitten.
    
14. Floating toys - key rings (ooops, they don't float), plastic thread spools. 
    
15. One of my favorite toys that the cats play with is a catnip filled Bill Clinton doll.  
    
16. Screw up some cellophane wrapping from a grocery item. It makes a great toy!
    
17. Totem robs my husband's hard candy bowl (with crackly cellophane) and brings them to me for a game of fetch.  Over and over and over and ov..........
    
18. The best toys my cats and kittens love to play with, are the small plastic Easter eggs.  I break them in half, and they have a great time!  They are small enough for the kittens to pick up in their mouths.  They can go in the tub, but mostly under the couch or fridge.  I buy bags of them and they last a long time.  I include a few in my going to a new home kitten package.  At 99 cents for a package of 12 whole eggs, or 24 halfs, it is a great bargain!
    
    Also the empty soda cubes (the 24 pack is best for a litter of kittens). You see feet, tails and heads out of all the little possible holes.  The kittens on the outside of the cube think it is great.
    
    Has any one tried putting a bean or rice inside empty film canisters?  The Fuji canisters close the best, and the cats can't resist the rattle.
    
    How many of you have lost pens or pencils?  Nothing like trying to write some thing down, and you can't find anything!
    
19. A Paper bag. There is no other toy that they like better. Sometimes the bagboy will put the human items in one of those plastic bags with the built in handle... several of the cats have discovered that if they stick their necks through this handle and run blindly through the house at full speed that it makes for a neat supercat cape and the others will chase them.
    
20. The little blue strip that pulls of the milk jug is also a big favorite and often fought over.
    
21. Socks and Barbie dolls (I think its the hair) are often dragged about with some other cat in full chase.
    
22. Laundry piles and laundry baskets are obviously fun for a great game of hide-n-seek -- so I try to do laundry on a regular basis so that these critters can enjoy their game. And any cupboard that is left open (seemingly especially the Tupperware cupboard or the linen closet) provides for a good game of hide-n-seek on a non laundry day.
    
23. Oh yes, you're right the toilet paper roll is fun -- but so much better when it is not empty and can be unrolled from the spool and then the bathroom can be "tp'd" as though they were highschoolers vandalizing the other school before a big game.
    
24. Yes, I have a laser toy, and I have feather/tinsel wands (which I purchase mostly for show training but one cat insists on grabbing it by the tossle end and running it into the wall where it then boings across the room -- he learned the hard way that you don't do this trick by grabbing it from the stick end as it just jams the back of the throat a good one). And I buy a stuffed mouse every once in a while that is skinned and knocked under the refrigerator or hidden in my shoes before 24 hours has even passed.
    
25. Ice cubes in their water dish.
    
26. I feel sooooo ashamed----all this time I've been yelling at my daughter to put her barbie dolls away, only to find them strewn all
    over her room--thinking she didn't do as I said, when in fact---it's the cats that are doing it :>} 
    
27. Tupperware--rubbermaid---especially on top of the counters where they can be knocked onto the floor to make LOUD noises so that the Humans sit upright in their beds at 2am.  Or frying pans in the dish rack-- that's even louder!
    
28. Tin foil balls---very cheap---wad up left over tin foil and don't toss in trash--toss to the cats!  
    When you think of it---the cats are actually like children.  We (well me) spend lots of money for toys and they end up liking the empty boxes whatever---yes my two legged children also!  I buy nice little cat beds and my kids end up playing in those vs their bean bag chairs!  So what to do--buy your childrens toys for your cats and vice versa--they end up being shared down the line somewhere!
    
    Oh---and it's a game in the morning when I getting dressed.  Who can get into the closet quickest while the human gets her clothes out!  Then I have to take and extra fifteen minutes chasing them out of the closet. 
29. Ping-pong balls in the water dish (or anywhere else), penny in the bottom of the water dish (they can't seem to pick it up, but make a huge mess trying - should be done under supervision in case they succeed).
    
30. Stuffed animals about half the size of the cat;
    
31. any cardboard box too small for the cat to actually fit in.
    
32. A favorite home-made 'toy' is the trash-can tunnel - take a sturdy kitchen-size plastic trash can and cut the closed end off.

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Last Updated: 7 July 2001