DIY toy guide

Shoebox Peekaboo Swat Station

A lidded shoebox with paw-holes that turns solo play into a guessing game

A simple shoebox with a few paw-sized holes cut in the lid, hiding balls, toys or a few treats inside — a homemade “whack-a-mole” that rewards your cat for fishing and swatting through the openings.

Difficulty
Easy
Time
15 minutes
Cost
Free

🧺 You will need

  • A sturdy shoebox with a lid
  • Scissors or a craft knife (for the adult to use)
  • A few lightweight balls, small toys or treats
  • Optional: a pinch of catnip

🔧 How to make it

  1. Cut several round holes in the shoebox lid, each a little wider than your cat’s paw, spaced out across the top.
  2. Smooth or fold over any rough cardboard edges around the holes so they are comfortable on paws.
  3. Drop a few balls, small toys or treats into the box and put the lid firmly back on.
  4. Sprinkle a little catnip inside or beside a hole to spark that first investigation.
  5. Set it on the floor and let your cat paw, peer and fish the contents out through the holes.

💡 Tips

This taps straight into a cat’s hunting instinct — the reaching, hooking paw movement that mimics fishing prey out of a burrow. Keep it interesting by changing what is inside, and rotate between quiet toys and the occasional treat so your cat never quite knows what it will find. A wand toy poked up through a hole from below turns it into a game you can play together.

Safety: Make sure the holes are smooth and large enough that a paw cannot get stuck, and use only toys too big to swallow. Supervise a cat that likes to chew cardboard, and replace the box once it becomes chewed, soggy or tatty. If you hide treats inside, count them as part of the daily food allowance.

📝 Notes

Almost free to make from a box you already have, and endlessly renewable. Make a deluxe version by taping two boxes together for a bigger “burrow”, or cut holes in the sides as well as the top for a trickier challenge.

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