Safe Homemade Toys for Pets

Many people like to make homemade toys for their children and pets. There are some very serious pros and cons to this idea.

For the pros, yes, they are much less expensive than buying toys. Especially if you are sure to buy only toys that are safe for the child or pet. Plus, there's nothing like our imagination for coming up with some fantastic new ideas! And how many of us have spent our hard earned money on a toy only to have the child or the pet toss the toy aside to play with the packaging?

As for the cons though, you have to use a lot of common sense when making these toys. Here are some examples:

• DON'T give your pet the rings from milk jugs, soda six-packs, or twist ties from anything. They are too small and the pet, like your child, could choke on it.

• NEVER, EVER, EVER give your child or your pet plastic bags or even plastic wrappings to play with. They can get wrapped up in it and can easily suffocate before you know what happened.

• Pompoms made from pieces of yarn are great toys, but you must be careful how you make them. You must make sure each and every strand is tied together with the rest of the strands. Otherwise the strands will come apart and can choke the cat. As long as they are tied together properly these pompoms can make great toys.

One toy I made for my cat was a plastic cup with a screw on lid (I used a sippy cup I got from the dollar store, but a hollow ball would work just as well, maybe even better). I cut out some small holes around the sides, then put a few pieces of cat treats inside. He has a ball chasing the cup around the house. Once in a while a treat will escape from a hole and he'll get to munch on it before tackling it again!

One rule of thumb that is best to follow when making toys for pets is that if you would not give it to your infant baby, don't give it to the pets. This goes also for plastic eyes or other pieces that can be chewed off and choked on or pieces inside the toy that can be ripped or chewed out. So please use some common sense when making homemade toys, for not just your babies but also for your pets. Remember that they, like babies, put everything in their mouths and chew on everything.

By Cricket from Parkton, NC