We just welcomed in a new member to the family. She’s a beautiful British Shorthair kitten. So we set about making as many eco-friendly cat toys for her as possible!

Like many of us today, we have been actively been trying to reduce the amount of plastic that we consume. From the plastic our food comes in, to the cloths we wear. Even, as we quickly discovered, the toys our cats and kittens play with.

One of the best ways to reduce plastic consumption is to simply refuse it. Simply stopping it entering our lives at source. This does though mean thinking differently about the products we buy. However it also means we get to be creative in making products that aren’t available on the market.

With this ethos in mind, combined with our creativity, we decided to make our kitten some Eco-friendly Cat Toys instead.

Eco-Friendly Cat Scratching Post

The first step is to source good quality materials. Think about using natural fibres, that have undergone very little treatment. We used Sisal rope for our DIY scratching post which we wrapped around a large diameter cardboard tube. This was then mounted on a base of marine ply and topped with the same.

As a finishing detail we used Baize offcuts made from British Wool to top and tail the tube. Most importantly this covers up where the rope ends.

An Up-Cycled Cat Toy

An up-cycled cardboard tube makes a versatile base for many an eco-friendly cat accessory or toy. Using a thinner diameter tube, we simply made a few small holes around each end. We then tied some more British wool Baize offcut ribbons to one end. To the other end we used a longer length of Baize ribbon to make the door hanger.

Don’t Forget An Old Sock

A very quick and environmentally friendly cat toy can be found in your sock drawer. We found an old sock with a knot tied in one end to be hugely exciting for our kitten. Due to her penchant for the washing basket, we wonder if we needed to wash it first!

Ideas for Eco Cat Toys

We’d love to hear your ideas for eco cat toys so that we can give them a try. If you’d like to share them with us, please leave a comment below!