A milk jug ring.
A cardboard box.
A bug.
A ping pong ball.

Anything but the $$$ worth of store bought stuff :)

If I were to buy only one thing I would have to say a good teaser like Da Bird, because it is easy to replace the 'birds'.

My 5 month old LOVES these toys from PetCo. We have the Chew Mice and the Dental Health Chews. They are brightly colored and have a tight mesh over them. He sits and chews on them and also bring them to us to throw for him to fetch. He loves them so much that he brings them to me in bed - he has to go downstairs and walk a total of about 100 feet there and back, and back upstairs, to bring them to me. He has a basket full of tools and these are his favorites.

He also likes the furry mice if they have a bell or rice grains inside. The only use he has for the furry mice without sound are if you put them in your shoes for him to dig out (he loves that).

Here is a link that might be useful: Pet Stages

I have tons of toys bought at Petsmart or Pet Co..or Foster/Smith. From the latter I bought a rolling ball where tiny mice peek out and squeek. All six cats sat and watched me roll the ball around and then all went in different directions. My grandson plays with it. Ping pong balls and boxes , but the most favorite toy in the entire world for Henry is plastic rings from water bottles. We used to have 100's when we got glass bottles delivered to the house .Now we refill those glass bottles and have no more rings. So I bought plastic cat toy rings and Henry just looked at them. They were in different colors and the same size but just NOT the same. Out milk now has been bottled differently so I'm getting rings again but they still aren't the kind he likes. I have four blue rings left and I keep them in a drawer when he's done playing. The deal is I go on the computer and give him a ring and I have to throw it about 30 times and he runs and brings it back and drops it in my hand. Last night I couldn't find it and he stood on his back feet and touched my face w/ his paw and then pawed the wheel of my computer chair and it was wedged under there. He is the smartest cat I have ever had.

Paper balls. I crumple up one of the postcard inserts from a magazine and try to make it as round as possible. I throw, Pogo chases.

Twisty ties. Fabric scraps cut from old socks tied into knots.

She does love fake stuffed mice. I buy the ones not made of real fur.

laser pointer, but you have to be careful NOT to shine it directly into the cat's eyes

long pheasant feathers - I bought 50 of these very cheaply in an eBay auction, and the cat's LOVE them

turbo scratcher - dual purpose scratching pad with a ball they can chase around the track

My cat is 8yrs old and has been around. Here is what still gets her excited:

1) Real fur 'mice'...I tried the fake fur ones, and my cat can tell the difference (not interested in the fakes). She can even tell the difference between the fur mice with felt eyes and nose (loves them) and plastic eyes and nose (no interest). She also prefers grey mice to white ones. One tip...these toys come with leather 'tails' that I pull off before letting Odessa have her way with them...I don't want her chewing the tails off and swallowing them as she would if left to her own devices.

2) Feline Flyer. The best for interactive (cat to human) play. Its a flexible rod with a string to which is attached a replaceable feather gadget that makes a very realistic whooshing sound when you swing it over head. You just have to be careful not to let puss tug on it too hard when she catches the 'bird'.

the old milk jug ring is a definite favorite, and those little mice made with real rabbit fur, though I don't like to buy them for moral reasons. No rabbit should lose his life for the sake of cat toys.

My daughter bought a laser pointer and plays with her 2 cats every day.

I forgot about the laser pointer. They all do like that and I have two turbo scratchers they use and I was upset that Walmart no longer carries the corragated refills..But for Henry, bottle rings are the best toy in the world. Others care less. Mine like real fur mice too but I won't buy them since I don't want rabbits to die to make a toy for my cat.

A crumpled of piece of paper, one of those cheap "cat dancer" thingys...it's basically a long piece of wire with little cardboard type twisties attached to it- and any of those little toy cars in which you pull them back on the floor and they propel for many feet on their own.

Wow, thank you everyone. Great ideas. Definitely will try the milk jug ring. Also got out a box for Daisy. I'll pick some other things up from the pet store.

I have two cats with two different toy favoites. One likes the rabbit fur mice, the other super balls on the kitchen floor so they roll and bounce...neither one cares for the other ones toys at all.

The only things my cat has played with are:
*twisty ties
*twisty ties
*twisty ties
:-)

Oh, and crumpled up paper.

My Emma (about 7-8 years old) can have fun for a good 20 minutes with her favorite toy, one of those hard plastic "connectors" that holds the tag on a new item of clothing from the store. For safety, I only give her the really large ones- the ones that hold a pair of shoes together are perfect. If it doesn't have a little curl in it, I put one in using the edge of a knife like for curling ribbon. It hilarious - it'll hook onto her paw and she'll flip it off then watch it as it has a little quiver, spring action to it, before she pounces again!
Don't laugh too hard, but I even once scoured the whole store looking for one that was just laying around and then asked the clerk if I could have it..... should've seen the look I got!!

Funny, Cheryl. I would do that.

Lilly loves her little mice that I got her from PetSmart. She's loves twist ties and the milk jug ring too. The new puppy is also a fun new toy for her.