How to find a replacement for my cat's favorite toy
Discontinued or hard-to-find pet toys leave owners unable to locate backups when the original wears out. Without a way to track down exact duplicates or suitable replacements, cats lose their favorite source of enrichment and owners are left searching everywhere with zero success.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Buying packs of similar puff toys with tinsel from Petco
- 2Purchasing pom pom balls from a local craft store
- 3Finding similar items at Walmart
- 4lacrosse balls
- 5racquetballs
- 6small and medium chuckit tennis balls
- 7Searching for alternative plush toys from other stores like Dollar Tree to modify or substitute.
- 8Asking online communities if anyone has an unused spare they are willing to part with.
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Chewy does not have it anymore and it hasn’t come back in stock for a while now. Does anyone have one their cat ignores and is willing to part with it?”source ↗
“I haven’t been able to find a replacement (in case he ever loses it!) since.”source ↗
“Can anyone help me find this toy? I’ve looked all over the place and have had zero success.”source ↗
“Would love to find dupes!”source ↗
“i don't want her playing with either due to potential health concerns (teeth/toxins from unknown nuts), but she LOVES them. she'll throw them around for herself 😭”source ↗
“does anyone have recommendations for alternatives? she's not huge on standard-size balls like tennis or chuckit balls.”source ↗
“A 50# dog shouldn't be given something golf ball sized to play with. Should at least be tennis ball sized to avoid the choking hazard(tennis balls aren't good either and act as sandpaper on the teeth).”source ↗
Where this came up
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