Make Your Own Cat Toys 101:Turn a Toilet Paper Roll Into a Ball of Fun

How to make cat toys from a toilet paper roll

I’ve been making cat toys for Furball since he was a wee kitten, almost 10 years ago.  I can’t believe my cat is almost a decade old.  He’s considered a senior, but he still loves to play and runs around like a nut in the house.  He was super high-energy as a kitten, way beyond “normal” and insisted on playing with toys 24/7.  That’s what got me into homemade cat toys in the first place.

While it’s not the most durable cat toy you can make, it is certainly one of the fastest and easiest.  And Furball loves it!  This cat toy is a great alternative to the plastic balls that you normally find in the cat toy section at the store.  And, it’s free and only takes a few seconds to make yourself.

What You’ll Need:

• One clean empty toilet paper roll
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Flatten the toilet paper roll and cut it into 8 equal-sized rings, about 1/4″ to 1/3″ thick.
2. After cutting the flattened roll into rings, pop the rings back into shape.  You’ll now have a pile of toilet paper roll rings.  If you stop here, you’ll have created the “Ring Toss” cat toy — a bunch of rings that you can toss in the air for your cat to catch.
3. Or, you can continue to make a ball of fun.  Take three of the rings and loop them around each other to form a sphere.
4. Continue wrapping the remaining rings around each other until you have formed a ball.

Voila!  Your homemade toilet paper roll cat toy ball is now ready to toss and roll.

I had so many ideas on how to make cat toys that as a pet project (ha ha, bad pun intended), I wrote, illustrated and published a book, Make Your Own Cat Toys: Saving The Planet One Cat Toy At A Time. The cat toy described above isn’t in the book, but it was inspired as a result of the “Ring Toss”, which is in the cat toy book. There’s also a “Sweep Away” toy that transforms a toilet paper roll into a broom-like homemade cat toy.