5 Easy DIY Cat Toys You Can Make from Cardboard

If you've ever interacted with a cat, or even really heard of them before, you probably know they love cardboard boxes. It's one of their fundamental behaviors, like being hunters and purring. They just love a good box!

You also likely go through a lot of cardboard and might not even think about it. A couple of boxes, a bed or two, that's all you need for your kitty, right? The rest of the boxes are just taking up space, so into the recycling they go.

Well, I'm here to tell you, you can do a lot more with a few boxes than you might think. That's why I put together this list of five DIY cat toys you can make from excess cardboard.

Picking the Right Cardboard for DIY Cat Toys

Before we get into specific toys, let's talk about types of cardboard. Some types of cardboard are distinctly better than others for making cat toys.

Corrugated cardboard is generally the best for most of the toys you could want to make. That's the stuff that is a bit thick and a little squishy. It's a wavy layer sandwiched by flat layers on either side. It's strong and durable, while still being light, insulating, and cheap.

Paperboard is more like thick paper than what you might think of as cardboard. You see it a lot for product packaging and less for shipping. It comes in various thicknesses and can be useful for some cat toys, but it's not as useful generically as corrugated cardboard.

Coated cardboard is a kind of cardboard with a bunch of printing and an almost plastic-like coating on the outside. You see this for display packaging, like the containers that hold display sets of items at the store. I generally avoid this for anything except beds, since you never know if the coating or ink is harmful.

There are a lot of other variations, but they aren't likely to be your go-to choice of cardboard anyway, so I'm ignoring them.

Generally speaking, I would recommend corrugated cardboard. If you're willing, buy fresh cardboard from your local office stores to ensure it's clean and free from chemicals. If you're using boxes that you got in the mail, try to remove all tape, staples, labels, and anything else on the surface. If it looks like something spilled on it and stained it, don't use that box.

Now, real talk: these DIY cardboard toys work great — if your cat sees a box as a playground and not a snack.

Some cats play with cardboard like it’s a jungle gym. Others, like my Luca, treat it like a bizarre chew toy — biting off chunks, spitting them out, and staring at you as if you created the chaos.

Below is a snapshot of his latest “cardboard review.”

Five DIY Cat Toys Made from Cardboard

Now let's get into the five cat toy ideas I've had, made more or less entirely out of cardboard. Your kitty is sure to love at least some of them!

DIY Cat Toy #1: A Box Array for Jumping and Play

This is both the easiest and most elaborate of the toys on this list, because it's basically a whole playground for your kitty. They'll love it, and if you have more than one cat, the play they can get up to in it will be crazy.

What do you need? Just a bunch of boxes and a box cutter! Try to make most of the boxes roughly the same size, but some variation is okay.

The easiest option is just a grid of boxes, all open at the top, for your cat to jump in and out of. To spice things up a bit, cut little doors and holes in the sides of some of them, and make a maze by turning some on their sides or upside down. A larger box can serve as a central tower, and smaller box-tubes can serve as tunnels, if you want to get really elaborate with it.

For an added bonus, scatter treats or a bit of catnip around in a couple of the boxes, as encouragement for your kitty to play.

The best part is, this is all modular! You don't need to make a giant castle; you can rearrange the boxes every time you pull the whole thing out and make it a new, fun experience every time.

DIY Cat Toy #2: An Interactive Whack-a-Mole Box Game

This one is a simple and fun toy to make, though how you use it may vary depending on how frisky your feline is feeling. All you need for this one is a single box, a box cutter, and maybe some non-toxic hot glue.

The concept is super simple. Start with a box that's deep enough to hide a hand under. Think something similar in size to a shoebox, and you're on the right track.

Flip the box over, because the bottom is going to be your working surface. Mark out a grid of spaces; a 3x3 or 4x4 works for most boxes. Cut those marks into holes, aiming for something big enough to stick a finger or two through without getting caught. You're done!

The idea is that this is an interactive toy. You stick your fingers through the holes and entice your kitty to pounce and play. If your cat is prone to biting or scratching, you can wear a thick glove, or you can poke a toy through instead.

If your box is fragile on the bottom side, you can cut the flaps off the top side and glue them down over the bottom to double the thickness, making sure they're oriented in the opposite direction as the bottom flaps. This will make the toy a lot more durable.

For a really elaborate version, you can cut out L-shapes out of another box. Layer a couple and glue them so they're thicker and stronger. In the box, cut a slot along one side. Measure and place the Ls such that the short end sticks up through a hole and the long end out of the slot. Then, secure them in some way (a dowel, a divot in the back of the L, whatever works).

The idea is to have a set of almost "piano keys" you can press down on that pop a bit of cardboard up through a hole for your cat to bop at. It's a DIY cardboard version of a product like this. It's pretty complex and can be tricky to get working right, though, so don't sweat it if you want the simpler version!

Alternative idea: tilt the box on its side and string puff ball toys from the inside so they hang in the holes. Your cat can bat at them, and they'll swing in and out and turn into a fun game. Just make sure to keep it supervised so if one comes loose, they don't start eating the string!

DIY Cat Toy #3: A Cardboard Cat Ball Toy

This one is pretty simple to make and endless fun for your kitty to play with.

Basically, you want a bunch of shapes of varying sizes, with the largest about as big as a tennis ball, and the smallest about the size of a golf ball. You want one of the biggest and two of each other shape for a symmetrical toy.

The shapes can be basically anything, with circles being the easiest. Try to avoid something like sharp-pointed stars, but rounded nubs are fine.

What you're doing here is making a "ball" by stacking these shapes and securing them together. It becomes a toy your cat can bat around and chase.

You can poke a hole through each shape in the middle, and secure them by tying a bit of elastic, like a hair tie, through it. Or, you can glue them together. The elastic version has a bit of springiness and can, sometimes, launch itself in unpredictable ways as your cat plays, but it's more prone to falling apart more easily.

DIY Cat Toy #4: A Homemade Puzzle Feeder

You've probably seen a puzzle feeder before. The simplest are just something like an egg carton with kibble in each divot, which becomes a fun challenge to get the food out. A more complex one can be made out of cardboard!

Take a shallow box (think the kind of thing cans of soup come in at the store) and a bunch of paper towels or toilet paper tubes. Cut the tubes down to about the same height as the box, and glue them around the box's surface. You can then sprinkle kibble or other treats around and let your cat have fun foraging for them!

Pro tip for this one: find a way to secure it so your cat can't just tip the whole thing over and get all the food out.

DIY Cat Toy #5: A Cardboard Wand Toy

This one might need a little more than just cardboard, but it's fun to make. You'll need a wooden dowel, strips of thin, flexible cardboard, glue, and possibly something like yarn and ribbon to spice it all up.

All you're really doing is securing the strips of cardboard or yarn to the end of the dowel. If you take a few of the cardboard strips and wrap them to the end of the dowel with a bit of yarn, you can then glue them all in place; repeat with a few layers to have a mop-head of cardboard ribbons, and your toy is ready!

For a more elaborate version of this toy, use yarn and ribbons as part of the mop head as well. Varying textures, noises, and visual appeal all make it a more interesting toy for your kitty.

This is also very much an "only when supervised" toy, since it's very likely that some of the cardboard will break or come loose, and you want to prevent your fur baby from swallowing any of those strands.

Common Questions About DIY Cardboard Cat Toys

As we wrap up for the day, let's talk about a couple of other questions I've gotten about using cardboard to make DIY cat toys.

Can cardboard be dangerous to your cat?

Most of the time, no, cardboard won't be overly dangerous for your cat. At least, not more than any other standard household object.

There are, however, a few potential hazards you need to be aware of.

• Eating cardboard isn't healthy. If your cat is chewing their cardboard toys to pieces, they risk swallowing some of that cardboard. And, since they can't digest the cardboard, it can cause an intestinal blockage, which can be very dangerous. Chewing is fine, as long as they aren't also swallowing.

• While cardboard itself isn't toxic to your cat, you never know what a box has been exposed to. That Amazon box could have had all sorts of chemicals spilled on it in the warehouse, and you'd never know.

• The cardboard itself might be fine, but if the box you're using still has packaging tape, staples, string, or other materials as part of it, those can be dangerous.

As long as you're keeping track of the cardboard being used and abused by your feline friend, you should be fine, but it's worth being aware of the potential risks.

What else can you make out of cardboard for your cat?

Cardboard is great for more than just toys. Some other items you can make for your fuzzy friend that aren't toys include:

Beds. A blanket they like (infused with your scent) tucked into the bottom of a box is a nice bed for any cat. If you cut a divot out of one side for an entrance and tuck it away somewhere, like under your bed, it becomes a perfect hidey-hole.

Scratchers. Layers of cardboard secured together, with the corrugated edges exposed, make for a great cat scratching pad. Just cut a box into strips, secure them with a non-toxic glue, and set it out for scratching. That's really all these things are when you get them online or at the store, so why not make one yourself?

Cat Traps. If you've ever had to work and dealt with a cat that wants to be simultaneously in your face and on your keyboard, this one is for you. Just cut a shallow box, put a shirt or blanket in the bottom, and set it on the desk next to you where they can see you. Your cat will love it.

This only scratches the surface of what you can do with cardboard, so send me your ideas in the comments!