Cat Party

Toys are important to your cats development, they provide them with an opportunity to learn skills and practice natural behaviour.  If you haven’t done already, you may want to read our other articles on cat toys.  This article will list our top 5 favourite cat toys that will teach your cat skills and satisfy their natural hunting urges.

Cat Toy # 1 - Cat Scratching Posts

Cats like to scratch, it helps them maintain health claws.  Cats just like humans are irritated by dirt and jagged edges to their claws like we are with our nails.  I’ve listed the cat scratching post as out number 1 cat toy as not only does it provide your cat with hours of entertainment, especially deluxe versions, but they have the beneficial addition of maintaining your cats claws and hopefully preventing them from scratching your furniture too.

Cat Toy # 2 - Balls

No I’m not talking about footballs, but small balls slightly bigger than your cats paws.  Cats are happy to bat a ball around for a few hours, well until they are lost underneath the sofa.  There are a wide range of cat balls available, some flash, others make noises, they have different textures and weights.  This type of cat toy helps to develop your cats speed, response times to stimuli and their precision.  Cat balls are also fantastic for those cats who are overweight and need some exercise.

Cat Toy # 3 - Mechanical Mouse

What more fun for a cat than chasing a mouse? Hunting is a natural instinct in a cat and it’s probably better to satisfy that urge with a toy mouse.  Hopefully it might stop them bring home real mice for breakfast.

Cat Toy # 4 - A Cardboard Box

Yes you read the heading right, cat toys don’t need to be expensive, they don’t even need to be bought.  Find a big box and fill it with shredded newspaper.  Your cat will be entertained by diving in and out of the box.  If you cut holes in the sides, this will give your cat peep holes to look out of.   You might find that your cat scatters bits of newspaper around the house though.

Cat Toy # 5 - Da Bird and other Rod Cat Toys

These types of cat toys are perfect if you want to join in the fun too.  There are many different types of cat rod toys, usually a piece of elastic is attached to the end of the rod and a ball, mouse, spider or feathers is fastened to the other end of the elastic.  With a flick of your wrist you can make the object move in a variety of exciting ways for your cat to enjoy.

Above is a short selection of toys for your cat that are available.  Playing with your cat will help create a  loving bond between you and as will all relationships the more effort you put in, the more enjoyment you’ll get out of it.

View all our cat toys by clicking the link below

Cat Toys

Just like babies kittens grow extremely quickly, in a blink of an eye your kitten will turn into a young cat and when you look again, they’ll be a full grown adult cat.  Below are the major milestones in your cats life.

New Born Kittens

Kitten like most newborns are completely dependant on their mothers, they are born blind, at this stage they learn how to feed. After kitten’s eyes have opened they will be keen to explore, by 4 weeks old they will be play fighting with the other kittens in the litter.  Four weeks is a suitable age to teach the kitten how to use a litter box, if you’re lucky you may find that the mother does this for you. It is at this age that the mother would supplement her kittens diet with small wild animals so begin weaning the kittens on to kitten food.

A Six Week Old Kitten

Your kitten will be egar to explore by this age, if your kitten had been reared in the wild then their mother would still bring back small animals, but these would no longer be dead.  This allows the kitten to develop important skills.  You may find it beneficial to give your kitten toys that would mimic their natural environment such as wind up mice. At 8 weeks old the kitten should be fully weaned onto kitten food and litter trained, see our article on training cats to use a human toilet. It is at this age that kittens are ready to go to a new home, any earlier than this can cause serious health problems.

The Next Months in your Cats Life

Over the next few months, you’ll notice that your cat goes through a huge growth spurt just like babies do.  They will need their vaccinations which prevent them from some of the most deadliest threats to your cats life.  You will need to teach them what is acceptable behaviour and that plucking on the sofa is not allowed.  You may want to teach them how to use a cat scratching post if you haven’t already done so. If you have a long haired cat then you should get your cat used to grooming, if you make it a regular and positive experience both you and your cat will enjoy it.

This stage is the adolescent stage for cats, they tend to get moody just like your average teenager.  This teenage like cat behaviors usually starts around 5 months and lasts until your cat is a year old.  You’ll discover that they are more aggressive when they play.   Your cat should be neutered at 6 months to prevent any further kittens, this will also help with their stroppy tendencies.   At six months, your cat will look like a perfect miniature of a fully grown adult cat.

Adulthood Stage in Cats

Your adult care will continue to go through various stage, just like adults but you will find these stages quite subtle and may go unnoticed.  Ensure your cat is getting all their nutritional requirements by purchasing cat food which meets their needs such as cat food for nursing queens or senior cats.

Until about 2 hours ago when I stumbled across a video on You Tube about the Litter Kwitter the toilet training system for cats, the thought of cats using human toilets never crossed my mind.  My cats use a litter tray and it’s not something I look forward to dealing with, but it has to be done. But if I knew where to begin with toilet training cats then surely it would be worth a try.

Then I started to think of the benefits of not having to clean out a litter tray, no smelly surprises to clean up, no cat litter flicked across the floor, no big bag of cat litter taking up space in a kitchen cupboard.  So if I could train my cats to use the toilet like the rest of the family would it be worth it?  I reckon it would. So where to begin with toilet training my cats.

So I did a bit more research and found the following video which explains how to use Litter Quitter to make toilet training cats easy, apparently in only 3 simple steps.

Litter Quitter Toilet Training

Before watching the video on how to train your cat to use the toilet with Litter Kwitter, I was worrying about how small kittens would cope with toilet training, maybe they would lose their balance and fall into the toilet.  But I think even smallish cats could use this system with ease.

You can buy the Litter Kwitter Toilet training system with instructions from our cat supplies shop by clicking the link below.

Buy Kwitter Litter Cat Toilet Training System

I’ve been busy creating a Funny Cat Videos page.  You can watch the cat videos by clicking the link below

Funny Cat Videos

I’m going to be adding more videos each week and if you have any video of your own cats behaving amusingly, the let me know and I’d add them to the page.

If you’re a regular visitor to cat party, you will have noticed that we’ve had some difficulties recently when i moved the site over to a new server.  We completely lost the cat supplies shop and therefore the front page of the site.  I’m please to say the cat supplies shop is now open and functioning fully.  I’m still in the process of update the front page of the Cat Party site, so please be paitient with me.

For ease I’ve listed the categories below.

• Cat Beds
• Cat Boxes
• Cat Collars
• Cat Dishes / Feeders
• Cat Flaps
• Cat Flea Remedies
• Cat Grooming
• Cat Litter Supplies
• Cat Scratching Posts
• Cat Toys
• Other Cat Supplies
• Outdoor Cat Houses

I’m going to be adding more products to the cat supplies shop over the commings weeks so if you have any suggestions of what you want to see, then please leave a comment below and I’ll try to add it.

Cats have particular behaviour traits and the more time you spend with your cat, the quicker you’ll learn what your cat is trying to tell you via their behaviour. For example on of my cats craves attention, she’s not fussy who gives it as long as someone does. However if she’s deemed that you actually have 2 spare hands and your only using one to stroke her, she will demand that you use both hands. She has a certain meow to get your attention and she makes it very clear what she wants. If you’re reading she’ll sit on your book and when I’m on the laptop my cat will sit on my knee so I can’t see the keys.

Each cat will have their own specific behaviours to communicate their needs, whether they’re pawing at your face to make you get out of bed in the morning, or using something else as a toilet when they’ve deemed their litter tray isn’t clean enough. The more you pay attention to this type of communicative cat behaviour the more you will understand your cat and your relationship with grow with this understanding.

Like humans cats have different personalities which impact on their behaviour. I have 2 cats, one is very communicative, and I know by her behaviour whether she wants food, her belly stroked or whether she just wants peace and quiet. The other is very hyper, she has a very short attention span and it’s far more difficult to understand what she wants. However I have discovered that she only likes her head been stroked and she’s very indecisive.

The following video is an animation of a cat and its owner that I was sent on Facebook. It shows how demanding and stubborn cat’s can really be. I thought it was very typical cat behaviour, something most cat owners can relate to and incredibly funny. Let me know what you think.

Cats as a rule like to be able to go outside play in the trees investigation tiny spaces and generally experience new things. However there are many cat owners who do not let their cat outside and this is for a variety of reasons which are listed below.

Why you might perfer to have an indoor cat:

• You worry about your cat being knocked over
• You think your cat might get stolen, this doesn’t just apply to pedigree cats but also to your every day moggy, there are people who enjoy torchering animals, for some it could be a way to pass the time on a school night.
• You’ve not had your cat neutured and don’t want it fathering and kittens or becoming pregnant.
• Your Cat is over due it’s injections and don’t want to risk infection.
• You’ve just moved house and are still keeping the cat in so it doesn’t lose it bearings.
• You just don’t have a suitable place for your cat to access outside such as a 2 story flat or apartment.
• Some cats just prefer being inside.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding whether cats should be kept indoors or allowed to roam and many cat owners have strong view points. Your likely to find that some owners who have previously lost their cat in an accident or had it stolen are much more reluctant to let their new cat play out. So it is important that the cat receives some kind of stimulation and exercise, cat toys would be extremely beneficial to indoor cats.

For pedigree cat owners, not only have they become very attached to their cats but they also cost them a considerable amount of money and unfortunatly pedigree cats are more likely to be stolen for profit, then your regular cat.

I have 2 cats, they both can come and go as they please but it is their own personality which dictates how much time they spend outdoors. Firstly neither of them go further than about 20 meters from the house. My youngest cat (3 years) tends to like to be outside, she likes to sniff the rain. My other cat who is a year older, tends to go for little prowls and stays in the yard if it’s sunny , but she prefers to have company and lots of attention so she generally stays inside where they are people to constantly stroke her.

Checklist for outdoor cats

• Make sure they have a collar which supplies your contact details or get them microchipped.
• Try to keep them away from busy roads by letting them out of the back of the house and not the front.
• If your cat is new to outside get them a harnass and let them sniff around so they know where home is.

Outdoor cat houses are available from the cat party shop, you can see our selection by clicking the link below

Outdoor Cat Houses

It would be interesting to hear your view on whether you let your cat roam free or not and the reasons behind it.

Cat toys are an easy and fun way to interact with your cat. Especially for those cats do prefer their own company compared to humans. Sharing some quality time with your cat playing with their favourite cat toys will definitely bring a smile to your face too.

Cats also need a variety in their toys, they need different toys to develop skills such as catching, pouncing, leaping and balancing. All the skills they would have learned if they were born in the wild.

Cat toys that hang from a door handle or any other means can encourage your cat to jump to catch things. Hanging cat toys tend to be either those toys supplied with a small plastic hoop which can be pushed over a door handle or plastic sticks (like mini fishing rods) with bells and feathers hanging from a elastic line. Fishing rod cat toys are usually supplied with a suction cups and can generally be attached to any surface.

Cats toys such as little balls are great for teaching your cat agility and speed. You can have a lot of fun, watching how focused you cat can become waiting for you to throw that ball again. However unlike with dogs, cats are unlikely to bring you the ball back, they’ll be chasing it while they bat it around the room, until it gets lost under the sofa. There are so many different types of balls available for your cat, the cheapest are plastic with a little metal bell instead. You can get balls filled with capnip, it’s a drug for cats and they go crazy for it. You can even get luxury cat balls.

Of course your if you can buy your cats toys that closely resemble something that they would come across outside such as a jumping spiders or a toy mouse, it will help to satisfy their natural desires.

View our cat toys

There are many benefits of having a cat collar, some of these are listed below.