Another inexpensive toy is what we called a
pizza hat--it's those little
plastic three-legged table-like structures often put in
pizza boxes to prevent the
box from
crushing and
smudging the cheese.
These have the perfect cat toy bounce dynamics, plenty of surfaces for the cat to grab, and the legs can be bitten by the cat and they can carry it around the house like a dead mouse. Our hyperactive cat will actually play fetch with the thing like some sort of dog.