The 7 Best Wand Toys for Cats of 2023
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Our favorite wand cat toy is the Pet Fit for Life Cat Wand Teaser
The Spruce Pets / Lecia Landis
A wand toy with a lure stimulates your cat’s hunting instincts, allows you to interact with your cat in new ways, and is a fantastic exercise that can channel your cat’s energies away from more mischievous or destructive pursuits. Plus, since a wand toy is just a rod, a line, and a lure, they’re typically affordable and endlessly reusable.
“Wand toys may be simple to us, but to your cat, they resemble prey that they like to hunt,” IABCC certified Cat Behavior Consultant Joey Lusvardi told The Spruce Pets. “Unlike humans, cats don’t typically require fancy playthings to be content.”
Our favorite wand toy is the Pet Fit for Life Cat Wand Teaser and Exerciser, which has an extra-long wand, an easy-to-use clasp, and comes with two feather lures—in our experience a favorite of most cats.
Pet Fit for Life Cat Wand Teaser and Exerciser with 2 Feathers
Best Overall
What We Like
Easy to use lobster claw clasp
Comes with feather lures
Extra-long wand
Comfortable handle
What We Don’t Like
Not many included lures
Have to connect two parts
The Pet Fit for Life Cat Wand is 30 inches long, with a comfortable foam handle that makes it easy to wield. It’s a useful length, enabling you to play with your cat from a seated position, or cast a lure part of the way across the room, or tease out cats that are a little shy and unwilling to get too close.
Too many cat wands are too short, making it so you have to practically stand on top of your cat to play with them. Others extend even longer than the Pet Fit for Life wand, though they are often divided into multiple telescoping components, which can make them too bendy and hard to control, or even prone to break. The Pet Fit for Life finds the best middle ground by dividing its wand rod into two pieces. That means you have to “reassemble” the wand every time you take it out of the drawer, but the process is so easy—sliding the two parts together—that it’s barely an inconvenience. Both halves are flexible polycarbonate, making this wand especially durable, with a reinforced eyelet on the end that makes replacing the line a cinch too.
Some wand toys use metal wire, which is easy to whip around quickly if you’re looking to excite your cat, but can also hurt if they get tangled in the wire line or snapped. This cat wand teaser uses woven nylon, kind of like a shoestring, which is both durable and non-flexible, which makes it easier to maneuver predictably through the air.
While we do wish the Pet Fit for Life wand included more lures, the two feather lures it comes with are excellent, and will quickly grab the attention of most cats. In our experience, feather lures work better than any other type, and with the widest range of cats. If you want to purchase lures separately, they’re easy to attach to the Pet Fit for Life wand’s lobster claw clasp.
Price at time of publish: $10
Wand Length: 30 inches | Line Length: 33 inches | Lures: 2 included feather lures
Cat Dancer Rainbow Cat Charmer
Best Teaser Ribbon for Kittens
What We Like
Extra long, 48-inch ribbon
Allows for gentler play than other wand toys
Made in a solar-powered factory
What We Don’t Like
Too easy to catch for experienced cats
Instead of lures on a line, some wand toys have a thick ribbon, which you can dangle for your cat. This type of wand toy is often called a “teaser.” The Cat Dancer Rainbow Cat Charmer is the ideal teaser, because its ribbon is extra-long, very soft, and surprisingly durable, with a stretchy, rainbow fleece fabric.
With 48 inches of ribbon attached to a flexible, 16-inch wand, the Rainbow Cat Charmer provides a lot of fabric for your cat to swat at, which often results in fun tangles, as your cat or kitten rolls around and paws at the ribbon. The light, broad strip of fabric flows through the air relatively slowly, making the Charmer very easy to catch—look elsewhere if you’d like a wand toy that gratifies your adult cat’s hunting instincts. Instead, the Rainbow Cat Charmer is ideal for kittens and gentler modes of play.
Price at time of publish: $10
Wand Length: 16 inches | Line Length: 48 inches | Lure: Rainbow fleece
MeoHui Retractable Cat Wand Toy
Best Kit
What We Like
Comes with two extendible wands
Easy to use clasp
Comes with nine lures
What We Don’t Like
All lures have attached bells—it’s a little much
Feather lures get torn apart quickly
The MeoHui Retractible Cat Wand Toy comes with two telescoping wands, five feather lures, and four wiggle worms. It also comes with replacement lines. Extending from 16 to 39 inches, with over 23 inches of line, the MeoHui gives you a longer overall reach than our favorite lure, though it can get a little flimsy and whippy when fully extended.
The wands include thoughtful features like the lobster clasps and foam handles, but without any way to lock the telescoping sections, your wand will sometimes retract or extend when you'd rather it didn't. We've also found that telescoping wands are likely to be less durable over time.
Price at Publish: $12
Wand Length: Extends 15 to 38.9 inches | Line Length: 23.6 inches | Lures: 5 natural feathers, 4 squiggly worm
Cat Dancer Products Interactive Cat Toy
Best Budget
What We Like
Simple, all-in-one design
Cats love it
Made in a solar-powered factory
What We Don’t Like
A little hard to control
No replacing lures
It’s hard to say exactly why cats love the Cat Dancer so much, but there’s no arguing with results, and Cat Dancer Products has sold 8 million of these things. The Cat Dancer is remarkably simple—there’s no replacement lures to attach, and no separate line and wand. Instead, it’s just a length of springy steel wire and five little rolled up pieces of cardboard fixed to one end. Since the Cat Dancer tends to bounce around everywhere—creating chaotic motions that may partially explain the toy’s enduring appeal—it’s a little harder to control than a traditional wand toy and line. But your cat will be having so much fun you won’t care.
The Cat Dancer may not look like much, but cats go absolutely bonkers for those little bits of cardboard.
Price at time of publish: $4
Wand Length: 36 inches | Lures: Rolled cardboard
Pet Fit For Life 7 Piece Replacement Feather Pack
Best Replacement Lures
What We Like
Lots of multi-feather lures
Mouse toy includes noisemaker
Easy eye hook connector
What We Don’t Like
Feathers come off fast
This set of replacement lures is the best because it includes some fun, gimmicky lures, but primarily features a wealth of the lushly feathered lures that cats find so irresistible. The four feather toys included in the Pet Fit For Life 7 Piece Replacement pack are multi-hued, dense with feathers, and surprisingly large—bigger than most other feather lures we’ve used. The long, stiff feathers make a satisfying whizzing noise when whipped through the air. Cats can’t get enough of them, and these lures have inspired some astounding aerial acrobatics. Unfortunately, cats love feathered lures so much that they quickly start tearing loose feathers, and you can expect the same with these.
The non-feather lures are also a well-considered set. We’ve found that the long furry tail lures are fun to pounce on, but produce a little too much drag for quick course changes. Cats who are experienced with wand toys catch them a little too easily, repeatedly interrupting play—fun once in a while, but you don’t need more than one. The squiggly worm is another fun lure, though our cats don’t seem as satisfied once the lure is caught as they are with a feather. Finally, there’s the furry mouse toy, which has a hard plastic rotundness and something bouncing around inside that creates an irresistible noise. It’s a little harder to play with, but cats love pouncing on it, in part thanks to its more solid presence.
All in all it’s hard to imagine a more useful pack of refill lures, since every lure is a blast to play with, and it includes plenty of the feathered lures that cats seem to love most.
Price at time of publish: $11
Included Lures: 4 feathered, 1 furry tail, 1 squiggly worm, 1 mouse
Fat Cat Tadpole Wand
Best with Catnip
What We Like
Huge lure with multiple attractions
Organic catnip
25-inch line with stretch knit
What We Don’t Like
Catnip is not refillable
Short 10-inch wand
While we prefer wand toys with a lure that can be swapped out for something new, the Fat Cat Tadpole Wand has such a large, well-designed lure that it might be worth supplementing your arsenal. The lure is six inches long and two inches wide, with shimmery streamers that dance when you whirl it around. Plus, it's stuffed with organic catnip, though it's a bummer there's no way to refill it.
It's got a 25-inch long stretchy knit tether. Very stretchy lines have both strengths and weaknesses—the lure will bounce around on its own, but you'll have less control of where it goes.
Price at time of publish: $5
Wand Length: 10 inches | Line Length: 25 inches | Lure: Tadpole with catnip
OurPets Play-N-Squeak Tethered & Feathered Play Wand
Best Mouse
What We Like
Durable, braided cord
Well-sized, grabbable lure
The mouse makes squeaking noises
Includes catnip
What We Don’t Like
Squeaker battery is not replaceable
Catnip is not replaceable
Feathers get ripped off quickly
If Tom and Jerry have taught us anything, it’s that cats love to chase mice. The OurPets Play-N-Squeak has the best mouse lure we've seen, which not only incorporates feathers and catnip, but also has a battery-operated squeak!
The wand itself is relatively short, with a braided line that doesn't leave you much slack to do much more than dangle the mouse toy, but your cat will still have a lot of fun for as long as the batteries inside last. It's just too bad there's no way to replace them.
Price at time of publish: $13
Lure: Mouse with squeaking module and catnip
Our favorite wand toy for cats is the Pet Fit for Life Cat Wand, which is durable, the perfect length, and can work with any lure. If you’re looking for a starter wand teaser toy for a kitten, try the Cat Dancer Rainbow Cat Charmer—it features an extra long ribbon of soft, stretchy fleece—instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are wand toys good for cats?
“Wand toys are some of the best toys out there for cats,” Joey Lusvardi, a certified cat behavior consultant, told The Spruce Pets. “They allow you to manipulate the toy in a way that imitates hunting and satisfies your cat’s natural urge to hunt. For cats, hunting is play and play is hunting.”
In addition to stimulating your cat's hunting instincts, wand toys offer a way to bond with your cat that doesn't involve food. Unlike other toys, a wand requires your active involvement, so that your cat is interacting with you as much as the toy.
How do I get my cat to play with a wand toy?
“The first thing you want to make sure is that the toy is actually one that your specific cat enjoys,” Lusvardi said. “Move the toy parallel or away from the cat. You want to vary the speed of the toy similar to how actual prey may move. Think of going faster at first but slowing down or pausing. It may move faster again later or it might begin to move erratically.”
Enticing your cat with a wand toy can sometimes take a little patience too. Place the lure close by and sit it still until your cat comes into explore, then pull it away—your cat's curiosity can only ignore it for so long.
We've also found that cats respond as much to you as to the wand, watching you for cues about what you're going to do next with their new toy. Wand toys will be less effective if you're merely jiggling it while watching TV or otherwise distracted.
Are feathers safe for cats?
"Feathers can be safe as long as your cat doesn’t eat them,” Lusvardi said.
Feather lures are particularly susceptible to wear-and-tear, and you can expect feathers to come loose over time. Wand toys aren't meant to be left out, and instead are best for closely supervised play sessions.
Your cat may occasionally "catch" the lure and pull the whole toy out of your hand—a fitting reward for a successful hunt—but you'll want to take it away before they have a chance to chew a lure apart. Similarly, you should always pick up and dispose of feathers or other pieces of the lure that break off during play.
Why Trust The Spruce
This article was written by Steven Asarch, a freelance writer for The Spruce Pets. He has firsthand experience working with different feline products and taking care of two rambunctious felines.
To gain a better understanding of what cats are looking for, we spoke with certified cat behavior consultant Joey Lusvardi. We looked for wand toys that offered enough enrichment and excitement to keep your cat engaged. We prioritized durability, style of lures, and price.
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