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we live on a boat and we just got a cat.. he's pretty entertained with anything but would like to spoil him with some awesome cat toys for sure!!!!! so, if you know of any cool ones please share, thanks.
Honestly I found the simpler the better. Our cat loved hair elastics (obviously not ones with bobbles or something), large pom poms, fuzzy balls, and these furry mice from the dollar store.
yeah, honestly it really depends on the cat. no point buying a fancy automated $50 cat toy only for them to prefer the box it comes in. try a variety of even just $1 toys and see what they like; cats don't know what their toys cost lol. to them, it's just something that moves.
my kitten, for example, adores a broken toy. it used to be a mouse with a bell on the end of a stick. one of them pulled the mouse off, so now it's just a piece of string on a stick, and she's obsessed. she also doesn't mind the plumes of feathers on a stick, but her sister's a bigger fan. they usually lose interest in any kind of ball as soon as it stops moving. generally, they ignore their toys and prefer kicking at the rug or (when they were younger especially) going crazy with sickness bands of all things.
honestly, anything catnip scented or with catnip inside will do the job no matter the cost. if you want to spoil your cat, i would personally recommend spending the money on a grander/taller cat tower instead so it has somewhere to climb, scratch and perch; they'll generally appreciate that much more.
living on a boat sounds pretty cool, feel free to tell us more about that
my cats love those noisy balls with the catnip inside, anything they can scratch on is good too.
Those little soft toy mice. All the cats I've had loved batting them around and getting them lost underneath the furniture.
Also, those fishing-rod toys with a plush fish on the end of the string, cats go crazy for it when you hold it and move it around!
She didn't care for bells so other toys with bells on the feathers didn't fly with her. She loved the rustling sounds of the feathers. I think she enjoyed it when I tried to make the feathers part act like a bird, and occasionally yanked it here and there to mimic how birds move. She also loved hunting for it when I hid the feather part under a rug or blankets.
She also really liked a streamer wand toy we got at a local pet supplies store. The idea was kinda like this:
She liked to laze on the couch and bat at the streamers.
Another good one for her was a treat ball like this:
From my experience, plush items on a string and a stick are the only actual toys that cats will play with. Those are fairly easy to make yourself if you have the materials, but they're also pretty cheap. As stated, I would advise against spending too much money on any toy for an animal, because they always find more amusement in the things they know they're not supposed to have anyway.
It's a tad more expensive, but a cat tree might also be a good investment. Supposedly it gives them a self place to kneed their claws without doing it on the furniture, but I don't feel it actually stops them from doing that. Regardless, it gives them something they can climb up and make their own. Also, you might consider getting them a dog bed. Cats seem to like those things more than dogs do. Give them a small blanket or towel to curl up in and they'll be quite happy.
My cats love a taco and hot sauce plush toy I bought from the Dollar Tree. I always see them batting it around and playing with it. So, as other people have said, don't waste money on expensive cat toys. I recommend just going to a cheap place like the Dollar Tree and browsing the selection. Hair ties are also my cats' favorite toy. Mine always come up missing and I never have any.
I also recommend trying different varieties of toys. Some cats love toys with strings, some do not. It really just depends on what the cat favors.
Not sure if this counts, but maybe a small plush. Not a plush animal per se, I have this small purple heart plush from a keychain I bought at Ardene. I ripped the chain off and gave it to my cat Caramel, she fricking loves that thing.
honestly, it’s hard to tell what sorts of toys your cat might like as every cat is different. some cats will prefer wand toys, others will prefer toys they can chase (ex. a ball), etc. my 9-month-old kitten personally prefers a mixture of toys she can whack at (ex. wand toys) and toys one can throw and she can chase after. she’s not fond of toys that can move on their own, though, but your cat might be! we got this walking glow-in-the-dark bug toy for alize for christmas, and she seemed to enjoy whacking at it... whenever she couldn’t actually see it lmao. she was afraid of it if it was out in the open where she could see it move, but she liked whacking at it from under a blanket or tissue paper or something. speaking of tissue paper!! while it’s definitely not a toy, cats seem to really like playing with/in it for some reason. my kitten does, at least, and my late kitty did as well. i would definitely recommend picking up a pack of it from the dollar store or something, laying a sheet or two of it out on the floor, and see how your kitty reacts. maybe try throwing a toy into it, like a ball, or hiding a toy that can move underneath it as well.
i don’t really have any wand toy suggestions, but with certain ones, you might be able to attach them to or wrap them around things like chairs, so i would maybe look for one or two that you think might work so that they can whack at and play with them themselves during times where nobody is available to play with them. we currently have two mouse wand toys attached to things for alize to whack at and bite.
this one is attached to a chair, and the other is wrapped around the pole of her cat tower.
in terms of toys that can be thrown, anything can do, really— tiny balls (ex. we have these small squishy soccer balls that come in different colours), tiny mice toys, etc. alize personally likes these springy/spiral toys that my mom buys at the dollar store. we throw them, and she’ll zoom after them almost every time. she’ll also occasionally play fetch with us with them; we throw one, she chases after it, picks it up with her mouth, and brings it back to us. my mom also likes to make tiny balls for her out of candy foil wrappers (the balls are never tiny enough for her to get into her mouth or eat, though. they take quite a few wrappers to make. ), and she’ll chase after those and whack them around as well. plush toys that can be bit, kicked around or in general, and uh, essentially beaten to all hell lmao, might also be a good idea! alize’s personal favourite is this hand-knit mouse that my mom bought for her from our city’s animal shelter. plush toys with catnip in them (or any toys with catnip in them) or that can be rolled in catnip will also make for a great time. i literally can’t recommend catnip enough; that stuff’s crazy lmao.
lastly, i would really recommend getting your cat a cat tower, as well as maybe a tunnel of sorts for them to play in. we have this multicoloured tunnel for alize that she loves to slide into (we usually throw a toy into it like one of her springys, and she’ll just,, crash into it lmao). there’s also a hole on the top of it, so sometimes when she’s in it, we’ll dangle one of her mice wand toys into it and she just goes wild. we call it “fishing”. the cat tower will also be great for them to scratch their nails on, perch in, and sleep. i would maybe place one in front of a window so that your kitty can look outside; both my kitten and my late kitty loved looking outside.
i’m not sure if you’re even still looking for recommendations, but i figured i’d respond anyways haha. congrats on your new kitty!! <3
my cat mayday loves the flippity fish we got her, there's tons of generics you can get online. it's just a battery operated moving fish. mayday also loves wand toys to bits.
those little self play ball tower things are nice, or the ones with the scratchies in the middle. dunno what its called.
minmo, on the other hand, hates toys. she does not like them at all. until, laser pointer is out! she goes HAM on that thing. if you dont want to manually use a laser pointer, they have little automatic ones now. my grandparents have one for their cats
One of my cats personally loves those plush mice with feathers for tails. She'll carry them all through the house and lay them at my feet. The feathers don't tend to last long though because she likes to pluck them out if unsupervised. Both her and my male cat (who is lazier) enjoy batting around empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls around on occasion as well. Other toys like balls with bells in them or toy wands are good too. I think the key is variety. If they get bored of something I just rotate it out for a while for something else. When I bring out an "old" toy after an absence it's new to them again, lol.
my mom also likes to make tiny balls for her out of candy foil wrappers (the balls are never tiny enough for her to get into her mouth or eat, though. they take quite a few wrappers to make. 
), and she’ll chase after those and whack them around as well. plush toys that can be bit, kicked around or in general, and uh, essentially beaten to all hell lmao, might also be a good idea! alize’s personal favourite is this hand-knit mouse that my mom bought for her from our city’s animal shelter. plush toys with catnip in them (or any toys with catnip in them) or that can be rolled in catnip will also make for a great time. i literally can’t recommend catnip enough; that stuff’s crazy lmao. 
