How to Make Free Ring Cat Toys Out of Toilet Paper Rolls

I am an online writer with a love for animals. I love DIY pet projects—here are some of my favorites.

Cats Love Toys

These cat toys are free, easy, safe, and fun for your cat, and you can make them in minutes. Don't spend tons of money on cat toys that are demolished in minutes or ignored altogether. There are lots of free toys your kitty will enjoy that cost nothing and are safer than many of the toys in the pet store.

Cats will play with toilet paper rolls without any special effort, but you can easily make it something they will really, really enjoy and best of all, it only takes a few minutes. After you've made them a few times, it takes even less time, so your cats can get fun toys that cost nothing in moments.

1. Empty Your Toilet Paper Roll

2. Clean Off the Toilet Paper

• Clean the toilet paper roll as much as possible. You don't want pieces of toilet paper sticking to your cats' mouths.
• This is easier to do with some toilet paper brands more than others. Some are nearly impossible to get clean, but try as much as you can.

3. Flatten the TP Tube

• Try to evenly smash the toilet paper roll down.
• Don't worry too much about making it completely flat, you just want to make it easier to cut into. Just smoosh it straight down with your hand.

4. Cut Off the End of the TP Roll

• Using your scissors, cut a slice off the end of the toilet paper roll.
• About 1/2" inward is probably the best, though don't worry too much about the precise measurement.
• Just don't make it much too wide, the cats don't like them as much, so don't go over an inch or so. If the tp roll rings are much too small and the rings won't stay together well enough, so don't go smaller than 1/4" or so. Anything within that range is fine.
• If you aren't good at gauging size, just try to make the cut inward about the width of your scissor blades.

5. Cut the Rest of the TP Roll Into Rings

• Every half-inch or so, cut another piece off the end.
• Finish cutting the entire toilet paper roll into rings.

6. Pop the Rings Into Circles

• The toilet paper roll was flattened to make it easier to cut it, now you can unflatten them and shape the pieces of toilet paper roll into rings.
• I do this by just holding the flattened edges and squeezing a little until it rounds back out.

It's Hard to Keep Your Cat Away From the Toys While Making Them

Perhaps the hardest part of making these free cat toys is keeping my cat William away from them while I'm making them.

Toilet paper roll rings are his special cat toy, and he knows when I'm holding a toilet paper roll and a pair of scissors that he's going to get more of them. He'll come running from wherever he is in the house the moment he hears them start to be made, then he tries to sneak them off before I've even finished.

Finished Free Toilet Paper Cat Toys

You can get a pile of free cat toys in minutes whenever you use up another toilet paper roll.

Playing With Homemade Cat Toy

Questions & Answers

Question: Do outdoor Dutch lop rabbits like this toy like some of the other toys you have made?

Answer: Yep. Rabbits love to pick these up and toss them.

© 2013 Alisha Vargas

Madison Thomas on April 05, 2019:

My cat loves his new toy that he plays with ever day

CherylsArt on June 29, 2013:

I just made some cat toys from the toilet paper roll, and our cats had fun playing with them. Thanks for the tip.

agagata lm on February 20, 2013:

That's so simple and it actually works! My cats loved these! Thanks!

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#1. Shredded Tube Cat Toys

Let’s begin with the simplest of the toilet roll-inspired cat toys. In fact, all you need to create this gift is a few empty toilet rolls, a pen, and some scissors. You can start by dividing the roll into thirds with a pen. Next, cut a row of incisions at either end of the toilet roll that reach the one-third mark. As you see with the top left toilet roll in the image above, your toilet roll will then have fringes. Roll it towards your cat, and voila! They’ll have an item they want to tear to shreds – which, by cat standards, is a wonderful thing. Such a trinket will not only keep them busy – it will also keep them mobile. A mobile kitty is a healthy kitty, so cat toys like this can help hefty felines to lose weight.

Image courtesy of ErinsAnimals

More every day animal crafts (aka, I didn’t know where else to fit these lovely Toilet Paper Roll Animals in) from Pinata Bats, to Doodle Owls, which will you make first?

• Toilet Paper Bat Pinata
• Wonderful Toilet Paper Roll Dragonflies (more wonderful Bug Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for you to browse!)
• Toilet Paper Roll Frogs so fun! (Here is another great TP Roll Frog GAME via Fun Crafts Kids)

• Toilet Paper Roll Snake
• N is for Narwhal com – a super fun and easy Toilet Paper Roll Narwhal Craft. The kids will love this one!
• Creative Me Inspired has a further set of fantastic Toilet Paper Roll Animals

• Make Film Play shows us how to make this easy peasy Toilet Paper Roll Octopus
• TP Roll Mouse – so cute