eco-friendly cat toys – Green Little Cat

5 Eco-Friendly Tips for Playing With Cats

Here are five simple tips for playing with cats that will make your kitty’s playtime eco-friendly and lots of fun.

1. Channel Your Inner Cat

Let’s face the truth. When choosing cat toys, you tend to buy the ones that appeal to you. The toys are bright, colorful and awfully darned cute. Don’t think this applies to you? Well, here’s the litmus test. Ask yourself when was the last time you sniffed a catnip toy and pontificated on its herbaceous bouquet?

Instead of choosing toys that appeal to you as a human being, think like a cat. Your cat already gives you lots of clues on what she enjoys playing with. Cats let you know in an instant whether a toy is a hit or a miss.

Take an inventory of the toys that your cat loves to play with and notice what characteristics they have in common. And, do this from a cat’s perspective. Maybe your cat’s favorite toys all make a rattling sound or are stuffed with catnip. The next time you’re looking for new toys to play with your cat, choose ones that have similar characteristics.

You’ll help save the planet by choosing toys that your cat will actually play with instead of ones that she’ll never use. Buying fewer toys is not only greener, it’s also great for your wallet.

2. Buy Locally Made Cat Toys

Transportation emissions are a significant source of greenhouse gases. When a cat toy is made on the other side of the world, it needs to travel a very long distance in order to arrive at your local pet store. Reduce your carbon footprint by buying toys made closer to home.

Ask your favorite retailer to carry locally made pet products. And if you need more inspiration for playing with cats, search online for cat toys made by local businesses and craftspeople. An added bonus will be that you’ll be helping to support the local economy.

3. Examine Cat Toys for Quality and Durability

Before buying a bag of cheap mice for a few dollars, stop and consider how long these cat toys will last. Are they the kind of toy that your cat will chew up within seconds? Will your cat tear through it in a matter of minutes?

While quality cat toys might cost a bit more initially, you’ll end up saving money in the long run because they’ll last longer. Check fabrics for durability and tug at attachments to see if they’ll stay attached when playing with your cat.

4. Upcycle When Playing With Cats

Your recycling bin is a delightful source of inspiration. When playing with your cat, you don’t need to be fancy. Something that you might consider to be garbage is probably the cat’s meow to your kitty. Get creative and turn that trash into an eco-friendly cat toy.

Scrap paper crumples nicely into paw-sized balls to chase. Toilet paper rolls can easily be morphed into a multitude of cat toys and plastic rings on a string are cat heaven. For even more homemade cat toys, check out the eco-friendly book, Make Your Own Cat Toys: Saving the Planet One Cat Toy at a Time.

5. Go Organic

A 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group found that pets had much higher concentrations of chemicals in their bodies than humans do. Given that cats spend a lot of time licking and gnawing on their toys, it makes sense to reduce your cat’s exposure to potentially hazardous toxins.

Choose organic cat toys made from organic fibres and filled with organic catnip. Organic products are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides. Your cat and the planet will both benefit.

Going green when playing with your cat is easy and fun to do. Your cat and the planet will appreciate your efforts.

What are your favorite green ideas for playing with cats? Share them below.

The Great Green Cat Toy

Furball’s pals, Brooke and Tim, were kind enough to send Furball a Great Green Cat Toy to play with. When it arrived, Furball was ever the curious cat and immediately came over to investigate.

Who wouldn’t be interested? The Great Green Cat Toy is not your typical cat toy stuffed full of catnip. Instead, it’s an imaginative structure that challenges your cat’s natural instincts to explore, stalk and pounce.

In a nutshell, this cat toy consists of a large tube with a paw-sized window to reach three wooden balls inside. What makes it different from other “peek and paw” toys is that the entire toy moves when your cat plays with it.

So, instead of sitting still on the floor, when your cat interacts with the Great Green Cat Toy, it rolls and rotates, causing the wooden balls to come in and out of view. Purrfect for a cat’s hunting instincts.

The Great Green Cat Toy is also eco-friendly. It’s made from recycled and reusable materials, is completely recyclable and is 90{456796300b989ac2391159a2df073ed1ad38074dfcdb28494d5d1df8ab5972d8} biodegradable. As well, the labels are printed on 100{456796300b989ac2391159a2df073ed1ad38074dfcdb28494d5d1df8ab5972d8} recycled paper with soy based inks. And, to top it off, it’s made in the USA, crafted with love from Brooke and Tim.

As with all cat toys, you never know what your cat is going to like and unfortunately, Furball was not a gracious receiver of Brooke and Tim’s gift. He gave the Great Green Cat Toy an inspection and then creeped away from it.

Furball tends to be a little intimidated by cat toys that are bigger than a small rodent, so maybe this cat toy was just too big for him. Given some time, I’m pretty sure he would have had warmed up to it, especially when he gets into his crazy play mode. However, what makes the Great Green Cat Toy look like fun for a cat also makes it fun for a toddler, so I had to put the toy away.

If your cat’s not a fraidy cat and you don’t have a curious toddler, it’s worth checking out this toy because I’ve seen other cats really enjoy playing and wrestling with it. Here’s a video of a cat having fun with the Great Green Cat Toy.

Furball Reviews the Amazing Treat Machine Rollers

Just what on earth is an Amazing Treat Machine Roller, you may ask? Well, it’s an interactive cat toy that automatically rewards your cat with treats or the smell of catnip. This cat toy is also eco-friendly. It’s made from cardboard that contains 30% post-consumer recycled content, comes with an organic catnip “teabag” and once your cat has completely destroyed the roller (which will take some time, since it’s quite durable), you can simply toss it into the recycling anticonvulsant bin.

It’s too difficult to adequately describe with words what the Amazing Treat Machine Roller looks like, so here’s a video review by Furball. From the human perspective, the rollers were amazing fun to put together, beautifully designed and quite a delight. In the video below, Furball is reviewing an Amazing Treat Machine Roller with the enclosed catnip “teabag” inside.

Thanks to our friends at Amazing Treat Machine for sending us this cat toy to review.

The end of a journey is really the beginning

On August 2, 2008, I decided I was going to get serious about publishing my eco-friendly cat toy book. See www.makeyourowncattoys.com.

Now, about four months later, I can proudly say that my book, MY book, is now available for sale on Amazon.com. I really can’t describe the feeling of seeing my book cover and my name up there on the list of book results on Amazon. It was quite thrilling.

This book is in alignment with my beliefs and my passion to save the environment. I chose a print-on-demand service so that the books would only be printed when requested unlike the typical print runs in the industry. I didn’t want my book ending up in the bargain bin at the bookstore. There was even one book publisher I worked for that readily admitted it was cheaper for them to print excess books and throw them away than to print what they projected would sell.

Print-on-demand (POD) also enabled my book to be printed in the United States where most of my readers reside, as opposed to China or Singapore. I would have other liked to print it on recycled paper, but decided local POD was more environmentally-friendly until the book outgrows POD. Then, I’ll be looking for a local eco-friendly printer.

I realized that my journey doesn’t end with the listing of my book on Amazon. This is only the beginning. My mission for this book is to save the planet one cat toy at a time by raising awareness of conscious consumption and introducing millions of people to greener options for their pets and themselves. Imagine if people thought before they bought low quality toys made overseas. What would the world be like if we supported local businesses that used natural materials and made quality products and sustainable choices? And, I’m not just talking about cat toys.

Now, I have to figure out how to tell millions of people about my book…

P.S. This book is a fabulous gift for the cat lovers in your life. Since it was just published days ago, you can be pretty sure that no one you know will have it yet :). Please visit: www.makeyourowncattoys.com