I've been making catnip toys for years, and started selling them at CreativeCritters a few years ago. You can find a fun assortment of knit and felt catnip toys, along with bags of the dried catnip, in my Organic Catnip and Catnip Toys category. I grow my own catnip in my garden and use no chemicals or pesticides. My organic catnip is very strong and I've yet to find a cat that doesn't love it. For Christmas I made a huge catnip pillow/ kick toy for my own cats, Calcifer and Cedric. Cedric is a very big cat (about 20 pounds), so he needs a big toy!
Sometimes if Calcifer asks nicely Cedric will let him play with the toy ;-)
I shared a picture of my boys with their big toy on Facebook, and one of my friends asked me to make one for her cat. Of course I was more than happy to make Marley his own toy! I made Marley's toy a little different (and better) than the original. It's a little smaller (about 9" long), and was knit using two strands of red acrylic yarn.
You can see Marley's toy has a much tighter weave, and I closed the ends with white string. I sewed the toy securely shut and sewed the white ties to the toy. Angelique said Marley likes to destroy strings, so I wanted to be sure he couldn't pull these out. In the center of the toy is a sock stuffed with fabric scraps, and both ends have been absolutely packed with handfuls of dried catnip leaves and flowers. Calcifer was climbing my leg to get at this one! My catnip has a very strong scent that cats just can't resist! I store all the catnip toys I have for sale in tightly sealed Ziploc bags to keep the scent as fresh as possible. When I ship my catnip toys to their new owners I put them in a plastic bag so the scent remains fresh and strong. The cats can smell it even before the box is opened.
Now I'm knitting another toy for my friend Andrea and her handsome Maine Coone, Bertie. If anyone wants a toy like this for their own cat, you can contact me from my Facebook Fan Page or through CreativeCritters. I really enjoy making catnip toys in all shapes and sizes. Every cat is different , and they all have their own style of play. These large toys are perfect for cats that like to grab and kick their "prey". My own cats have tested all the designs before I made the toys for sale, so I know what cats like!
-Michelle of CreativeCritters
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