How to Make Homemade Catnip Filled Cat Toys

This shop to create homemade cat toys and discover cat approved natural nutrition, grain free, cat food has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MyCatMyMuse #CollectiveBias

I love my cat. Anyone who really knows me, knows this to be true. He’s an extremely important part of my life and one of my best friends. He’s by my side pretty much the entire time I’m at home and we have our own snuggle routine at bedtime. He loves me so much he wants to be as close to me as possible, once even going so far as to lay on my face! Because he is so special to me, I want only the best for him. Lucky for his adopted sister, Bagheera, she gets in on the special love and quality products too.

This is Arthur, my lazy, snuggly, attitude driven feline. He’s loud, opinionated, and doesn’t take pestering from the dog. Well, at least not without giving her an earful. He’s my buddy and I wouldn’t want him any other way.

Food and play are two big parts of Arthur’s life, and as I mentioned I want what’s best for him. Recently I discovered Purina Muse at PetSmart, and found out it’s sold there exclusively, so I picked some up for the cats to try. Ok, I picked up a lot of it for them to try. There are so many different varieties and flavors and they’re all grain free! Purina Muse really does make it easy to decide which food to buy, it’s not a hard choice.

You can get them in gravy, as pate, in broth, or in chowder (which I didn’t picture in the photo below.) I know my cats, but I never know what they’re going to like, so I let them become the judge of it.

I cracked open the Natural Salmon Pate and called for the cats. Ok, I didn’t make them eat it out of the can. I served it to them on the plate, out of the can. I just wanted you to see what it looked like in the can.

Bagheera took no time to check out her new food. She loved it! In not time she cleaned her plate. It’s a quality product with great flavor (according to the clean plate Bagheera left behind). With Muse you don’t have to choose between natural nutrition and food that tastes great. Your cat can have both when you choose Muse.

Arthur didn’t want to get up for food. He looked at me from his perch on the back of the couch next to where I usually sit, squinted his eyes, then went back to sleep. Ok, I know cats need a lot of sleep, but I wasn’t having it. If he wasn’t going to eat, then he was going to play! Unfortunately between the two cats they’ve hidden or lost all of their toys and I wasn’t ready to run to the store for more, so I decided I was going to make some simple, homemade catnip filled cat toys.

Lucky you, I’m I’m going to show you how easy they are to make!

Homemade Catnip Filled Cat Toys

First gather the supplies you’ll need for the first part. That will be two pieces of felt in your choice of color, cut to the same shape. Don’t make them too big because these are cat toys after all. And, don’t make them too small, we want to be able to sew and stuff them easily. You’ll also need a needle and thread. I used three strands from a six strand embroidery floss skein.

For this project I used the blanket stitch. I’ll show you step by step how it’s done, so there will be a lot of pictures, but I promise it’s easy once you master this stitch. It only takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to complete one entire cat toy.

Start off with a knot at the end of your thread, then run it down through the bottom piece of felt, in between both pieces. In other words, the knot will be hidden between the two pieces of felt, and your needle and thread will be coming out from the bottom piece of felt when you’re done.

Next bring your needle back up to the top and go down through both pieces of felt so you come out in the exact same spot where you initially pulled your needle through on the bottom.

Now run your needle through the stitch between the two pieces of felt. This sound confusing, but it’s simple. Just take a look at the next picture to see what I mean. Go ahead and pull the needle through.

Once the needle is pulled through, you have your starting stitch, but it’s not the first true blanket stitch yet. We’re going to make the first true blanket stitch next. This is what your work should look like before we move on.

To make the blanket stitch first (1) take your needle and go straight down through both pieces of felt and pull your thread almost all the way through. Second (2) put your needle through the loop the thread has made and pull it through. Don’t pull too tight because we don’t want it to bunch up the felt, but just tight enough to have it all the way through. That’s your first blanket stitch.

Repeat and just keep moving around your cat toy.

When you get to a corner, just keep moving around the piece as you have been. I usually stick with a three stitch corner. So one leading up to it, one going around the corner, and one leading away from the corner.

After you get about 3/4 of the way around your project, stop and add the filling in.

I first use a couple of cotton balls fluffed out to make them more pliable.

Next add in the dried catnip. I use the cotton balls because they give a little more volume to the toy without using up a lot of catnip.

Now stitch it closed by continuing around with the blanket stitch.  On your last blanket stitch there will be a little gap between your last blanket stitch and your starter stitch.

To close this gap run your needle under the starter stitch again just like you did at the beginning.

That’s it, now just create a quick overhand knot to hold your stitching in place, then run the needle between the two pieces of felt and poke it out through the center of the felt shape. You can cut it off from here and it will go back inside the toy and your ends will then be hidden.

Now that you know the basics get creative! Try different shapes and materials you think would entertain your cats, just make sure you’re using things they won’t choke on. We all know cats use their mouths to play and explore quite a bit and we want to keep them safe.

I whipped up a few of these cat toys while Arthur napped beside me, then I woke him up and took him up to my bed to see what he thought of the toys.

It was hard to snag a picture of him playing because he’s fast and half the time he was either one big blur or leaping out of the picture. No matter what, he loved his new toys! The catnip really mellowed him out. When he was done playing he did his best to hide his new toys. I’m guessing he didn’t want the other cat or the dog to find them. He claimed them as his own, so I say my mission was accomplished!

Now I have great food the cats love and some new toys to nurture their curiosity and playfulness.

Don’t forget to pick up your own packages of Purina Muse for your cat at PetSmart. Natural has never been so delicious. Put Muse to the test with our clean plate guarantee.

Oh, and be sure to create some new handmade cat toys with your cat’s interests in mind, they’re so easy to make!

Do you give your cats delicious, grain free meals, such as Purina Muse or pamper them when homemade toys? How do you make your cat feel special? Tell me in the comments, I’d love to know more!