Comments on: The Ultimate Recycled Cat Toy: Customized Hairballs

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:36:13 +0000

I’m sorry but that is when recycling has gone way to far,discusting!

By: Audrey Yane

Audrey Yane — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:11:15 +0000

I’ve made these for may cats for years, but I make them into modern mice by piercing the ball and knotting cord through the whole leaving a tail on one end and a knot nose on the other.

By: beau

beau — Sat, 08 May 2010 00:20:38 +0000

I was thinking about this earlier and wondered if working the furball with a felting needle might not make it an even better cat-toy. I plan to try. As for worry about them eating the resulting ball, I plan to just keep collecting hair until I can make a sizable one for them.

By: Gwen

Gwen — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:23:33 +0000

I make little balls for my cats, too, but I felt the fur to keep the balls solid. Just take the wad of fur, add a tiny bit of dish soap and hot water, and start rolling in the palm of your hand. Add more fur as you go, keep it soapy, run hot water over it, and it will turn into a very hard ball of felt! The cats love them because they’re very fast on wood floors, and I think they’re funny because they match the cats perfectly

By: Elly

Elly — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:55:56 +0000

I saw this idea on another site when I was looking for ideas on how to make homemade cat toys and I can’t wait to make them for my cats, I just need a furminator tool, they look cool and would eliminate some of the floating hair

By: michelle

michelle — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:47:58 +0000

I have also been making these balls for a while too. I will say, when I first discovered that I could make a ball out of their hair, I was very watchful when I let them play with them. However, the cats loved them and did not try to swollen the balls.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:27:05 +0000

I’ve been doing this with my cats’ fur for ages. It’s their absolute favorite toy and they’ve never eaten them. Stashed a handful under various pieces of furniture, yes. Lick or eat, no.

By: Kuroneko 4

Kuroneko 4 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:22:49 +0000

We are 4 black cats. and we have a lot of hair to share. So our humin always rolls the hair-balls after brushing us. But greedy as humins are: used it herself.
For her art work. http://katrinpaul.com/new-work/katrin-paul-solo-show-youkobo.html
And before we where her model for her art photography as well. http://katrinpaul.com/new-work/100-100-100-0-or-0-0-0-100.html
Nobody talks about illegal underaged kitty-work.
But still, we are proud that we give so good and plenty insparation to our humin. Here we talk more about OUR life:
http://kuroneko-4.blogspot.com/
We hope to inspaire more.

By: Reesie

Reesie — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:49:44 +0000

Wow. Maybe I’ll roll my hair up and let the cats play with it.

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:18:44 +0000

This is so neat, I’ll definitely have to give it a try. I usually use Fur-Zoff to collect all of my cat Mister’s hair from the furniture. It works really great though, I like it because it’s a “green” product made of recycled materials and lasts forever. You can find it at http://www.FurZoff.net for about $10. Afterwards ill have to roll it up and see if he likes it just as much now! Thanks again

By: Missive Maven

Missive Maven — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:00:59 +0000

We did this yesterday with 2 out of 3 cats… they went NUTS over these, especially when I added a bit-o-nip.

By: Lionesse

Lionesse — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:59:01 +0000

We have a furminator, but the cats try to eat the fur! So I put the fur outside, and the birds steal it for nests =) Do the same thing when I clean my own hairbrushes.

Just stick hair or fur in the crook of a tree, and watch the birdies go crazy for it.

By: Fluffy

Fluffy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:00:49 +0000

Just an FYI for Furminators, in case people don’t know. The Furminator doesn’t just groom loose fur, it also cuts the fur and thins the underlayer. My vet hates the product, and she could tell instantly that I used one just by touching my cat’s fur. If you have an outdoor kitty, you might want to cut back on using it so that you don’t inadvertantly cause your kitty to sunburn through her thinned out fur. In the winter, she might be too cold. I still use mine. I have an indoor kitty, and these days, I think she is happy to have a thinner coat. Just trying to help folks keep their kitties happy and comfortable!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:49:24 +0000

So far…Miko and Rodney don’t seem to be having any problem with ingesting hair from the ball. They mostly just bite, gnaw and bat it around the house. No licking…which is strange because you’d think they would want to seeing how they are so hygienic and all!

Oh and Teresa is right….I am starting to acquire quite the collection of fur balls. Perhaps some hairball kitty art is in order

Thanks for the feedback everyone….happy hairball-ing!

By: Luciano Truzzi

Luciano Truzzi — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:47:12 +0000

Oh my!
I want a FURminator!!!
But I’m in Brazil!!!

By: Elaine

Elaine — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:42:08 +0000

It’s so funny to see this because my vet’s wife does the exact same thing with her cats!

By: jmuhj

jmuhj — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:55:25 +0000

I can see by the posts that a lot of us out here in cyberspace are probably scratching our heads and wondering why WE didn’t come up with such an incredible idea. And those who did, have mixed results…and yes, how about that lady who knits kit fur into handbags and such?

By: Adriana

Adriana — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:29:06 +0000

LOL! How funny, that happens with my cats also. The other day I was grooming one of the cats out on the porch and as I formed a ball with Sasha’s fur so it wouldn’t fly all over the place, Shakespeare started to play with it, graved it and run with it like it was it’s pray. I only let him play with it while I finished grooming Sasha because I didn’t want him to swallow it.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:50:58 +0000

I was doing this for a while until I noticed that they were throwing up more hairballs. Really great concept, but it may not work for every cat.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:58:26 +0000

I would have more toys then I do cats after one brushing!

By: Uma

Uma — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:29:08 +0000

Yes, I’d worry too that they’d eat them! I guess these (like a “fishing rod” toy that our Sam loves) are only for supervised play. Now if I could only persuade my little darlings that the Furminator is not a toy. The moment I bring it out they get ready to play so I’m lucky if I get a couple of good strokes each.

By: Ingrid King

Ingrid King — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:04:53 +0000

Now that’s creative!

By: fmc

fmc — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:58:52 +0000

What an ingenious idea, now I know what to do with the results of Furminating my Magnolia, and she’ll get to enjoy it!

By: Courtney

Courtney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:24:18 +0000

It’s an entertaining idea, but I like bright fun kitty toys. I guess I could dye my cats’ hair to get some bright furballs. Just kidding!

By: NancyB

NancyB — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:23:34 +0000

My cats seem to like their Furminator toys rolled into cigar shapes. I do have to watch and re-roll the toys if they get to ragged, or the cats will switch over to ‘groom the fur’ mode and start ingesting the loose stuff. Which defeats the purpose, of course!