Happy Cat Day to all the crafty cats and cool kitties out there, from mane man, cat brother Tiger! Former skinny flea bitten rescue kitty Tiger was a very spoiled senior cat when this post was shared. From rough start to jet setting international moagie of mystery. Meowvelous! In honour of Cat Day (every day in a cat’s opinion) here are nine fun creative ideas and cat crafts.
Nine Creative Cat Day Ideas
In celebration of Cat Day, we’ve rounded up nine (of course!) pawesome project ideas to inspire creative cat lovers. From the kitchen to the craft room to the garden, let’s have some fun. Meow!
- Bake up something stinky and delicious! See our cat treat notes below for tempting treat recipes. Tiger is a picky fellow, but he does enjoy the occasional nibble of homemade fish treats or jerky.
- Make an indoor cat grass snack bar. Health Starts in the Kitchen’s dirt-free cat grass planter uses an attractive low mess approach.
- You can take the idea above even further for an outdoor cat or a cat with outdoor access. Create a pet-friendly garden with a special area of cat favourites. It can be a simple cat-themed planter or you can go wild with a whole area for nibbling, sunning, and rolling.
- Get a little crazy and paint your cat’s portrait on rocks. You can stash them in the new cat garden or hide them around town, if your area permits hide-and-seek rocks. Not sure how to paint your cat? Where Your Treasure Is has an awesome tutorial on painting cat rocks.
- Create a new cat-friendly hideaway for purrfect nesting and resting. Check out the Palm Springs scratch house from A Beautiful Mess or the suitcase bed by Camille Styles for inspiration.
- Already have a favourite napping spot? Renovate you cat’s existing comfy places by making custom fitted basket cushions, re-covering their existing bed, or making a cosy new blanket.
- Like to exercise the claws? Make a new scratching post, like So Fancy’s teaser-topped traffic cones, Kaylee Eylander’s cactus scratching post, or the colour blocked post by A Beautiful Mess.
- Love to tease? Create something fun for play! Check out Hallmark’s jellyfish jiggler wand or Martha Stewart’s felt feather cat teasers.
- Last but definitely not least, Tiger has his own special collection of easy to sew DIY felt cat toys, including the ones pictured below.
Making Homemade Cat Treats
I am the first to admit that our dogs get a lot more of my time in the kitchen than the cat. It is not for lack of kitty love. It’s a combination of Tiger’s particularly picky tastes and general feline nutrition.
Cat Nutrition
Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning that eating a meat and protein based diet is a biological necessity for our kitties. They don’t need to eat other foods, such as carbohydrates or vegetables and their bodies aren’t built to digest them with full nutritional benefit. That doesn’t mean they can’t eat any non-meat foods, but careful moderation is best – especially for kitties with sensitive tummies.
Tiger’s Taste Testing
I’ve been keen to come up with something that Tiger will really enjoy ever since he went wild over the smell of the dog’s tuna treats while they were cooking and cooling. So far, most baked treats will only warrant a passing sniff or small nibble. There are two notable exceptions: cooled bone broth and homemade jerky treats. The latter he prefers plain (no marinade or seasoning) and happily nibbles meat or fish. Pawfect! They’re easy to make and plain meat-based foods are well-suited to his diet, when the dogs are willing to share.
Homemade Cat Treat Recipe Ideas
Here is a round up of inspirational cat treat recipe ideas. If you have one that your cat loves, please share it with us so that Tiger can give it a taste test! Check out the homemade jerky dog treat recipes here on the blog, too. As noted above, Tiger’s very picky and won’t eat most of the homemade baked cat treats we’ve tried, but will happily steal his dog brother’s jerky treats.
- Tuna Cat Treats (The Cookie Rookie)
- Green Tuna Cat Treats (Meows’n’Paws)
- Homemade Salmon and Oat Treats (Joy the Baker)
- Organic Chicken and Spinach Treats (Pop Sugar)
- Quinoa Catnip Treats (Offbeat Home & Life)
- Chewy Chicken and Brown Rice Treats (Joy the Baker)
- Tuna and Catnip Croutons (The Cookie Rookie)
Other Creative Cat Projects
Looking for more purrfect ideas for crafty fun? You can explore our cat brother Tiger’s creative cat project posts in our archives. We also let him keep his own special DIY cat board with our other doggone great Dalmatian DIY Pinterest boards. Many of the DIY projects here on the blog can be adapted from dog DIYs into cat crafts by swapping the text, images, or resizing to suit your creative cat ideas. From our crazy fun filled fur family to yours, have a great Cat Day! Meow, cat friends!
