DIY toy guide

Upturned Colander Batting Dome

A cheap plastic colander flipped into a dome of wobbling, swattable sticks

Turn a plastic colander upside down, thread a few pipe cleaners or drinking straws up through its holes, and you have a dome bristling with springy sticks that bend, rattle and spring back every time a paw connects — hours of solo batting for the price of nothing much.

Difficulty
Easy
Time
15 minutes
Cost
£0–£3

🧺 You will need

  • A plastic colander with plenty of holes
  • A handful of pipe cleaners, paper drinking straws or lengths of soft plastic tubing
  • Optional: a few small bells or crinkly foil balls to fix to the tips
  • Optional: a pinch of dried catnip or silvervine to tuck under the dome

🔧 How to make it

  1. Wash and dry the colander and turn it upside down so it forms a low dome.
  2. Poke a pipe cleaner or straw up through a hole from underneath and bend the bottom end over so it cannot pull out.
  3. Repeat across the dome so a cluster of sticks stands up at slightly different angles and heights.
  4. If you like, twist a small bell or a scrunched foil ball onto a few of the tips so they rattle when batted.
  5. Tuck a pinch of catnip under the dome or scatter a couple of treats around the base to draw the cat in.
  6. Set it on a hard floor where it can slide and wobble, and let the cat discover it.

💡 Tips

Vary the heights so some sticks are easy paw-height and others make the cat stretch up. A smooth floor lets the whole dome skitter when whacked, which most cats find far more exciting than a toy that stays put. Move it to a new spot every few days to keep it novel.

Safety: Use pipe cleaners with the wire ends folded well under the dome and check them regularly — an exposed wire tip is sharp and a chewed-off piece could be swallowed. Choose bells too big to swallow and fix them firmly, and if your cat is a chewer rather than a batter, use soft straws instead of wire and supervise play. Retire the toy if any part starts to come loose.

📝 Notes

Solo, self-resetting toys are gold for indoor cats that need to burn energy when no one is free to wave a wand. The springy sticks give the satisfying 'it fights back' feedback of a real prey item — resistance, movement and a little noise — from junk that would otherwise sit in a drawer.

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