Keep your pets busy with these cool 3D-printed toys

There are a ton of functional accessories and tools you can 3D print for yourself. Whether it's for organizing stuff in your house or improving your home office setup with accessories, 3D printing is an excellent way to get a lot of utility while saving money. While you can print various types of objects for yourself, your 3D printer can save you more money by letting you print some cool and engaging toys for your little furry friends! You won't have to spend money on pet toys anymore if you can simply print them at home!

The best part is that there are a variety of toys you can print for your pets depending on their size, breed, and interests. Moreover, each type of toy has multiple different models by several designers, so you can pick whether you want the same toy in a circle, oval, or a different shape. You could also try printing multiple variations to see which one your pets like the most, and you can then base your future prints on this information. With that out of the way, here's how you can impress your cute little buddies with homemade surprises every now and then.

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Modular maze for mental stimulation

Make your pets smarter

This is an extremely fun toy that you may not be able to find in pet stores, but thanks to the power of 3D printing, all you need is the pet maze design file and a couple of minutes! Essentially, it's a maze to stimulate your pet's mind and urge them to use logic. The way it works is, there's a pipe in which you add a treat for your pet. Now, the treat is deep inside the pipe, so your pet can't reach it. To free the treat, your pet has to drag the pipe to the end of the maze.

Successfully doing so will release the treat and make it accessible to your dog/cat. In fact, you can use the maze irrespective of any pet you have. Since the design is modular, you can print multiple types of mazes with difficulty levels ranging from easy to hard, in order to make the task more challenging for your pet. This is an excellent way to keep your pets' brains stimulated and reward them for being sharp.

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Wobble egg

Simple yet engaging

If you're looking for a simple toy for your pet that can be pushed around, the wobble egg is an excellent choice. It keeps your pet busy, almost replicating a soccer-like experience. My cat loves to kick toys around and then go fetch them, and the wobble egg serves that purpose well. What makes this version more enticing is the shape. Unlike a perfectly round sphere that travels along a certain specific trajectory when kicked, this toy is shaped like an egg so it wobbles and goes in random directions.

This makes it more fun since your pet can't really predict where it's going. Additionally, this print is split into two parts. You print them separately, add a bell into one hemisphere, and snap them together to shut the contraption. The bell also provides an extra means of fun for your pet, since it makes a noise every time it is moving around. You can also add some treats to the top half of the toy that can keep falling off occasionally whenever the toy is wobbled, thanks to the slots in the model. This also makes for an excellent toy if you have multiple pets since they can keep passing it around to stay occupied.

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Turntable starfish

Trick and treat

Just like the maze, this turntable starfish toy also aims to stimulate your pets' brains by making them perform a task before they can get their hands on a treat. While it can be used with any type of pet, the original designer has made it specifically for small-sized animals like rats, guinea pigs, or even parrots. If you plan on using it with cats or dogs, ensure you scale up the design in your slicer.

The idea is to put treats for your pet in the cavities included in the toy. It is then covered with a starfish-like cap that hides the treats. Your pet has to figure out how to turn the top in the right way to reveal the treats. There are models with multiple sliders and spinners that determine the difficulty level. Once your pets crack the easiest one, you can print the next one to sharpen their brains further. If you have multiple pets, this toy can also let them compete against each other to see who can get to the treat first!

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Cat corner scratcher

Save your furniture

If you have a cat, you know how those tiny little kittens love scratching all over your furniture. If you don't want your cats to ruin your furniture but still keep them busy, print a few of these cat corner scratchers and stick them onto walls, pillars, and the edges of your furniture. Every time your cat wants to scratch, it can do so on one of these 3D-printed scratching pads now instead of ruining your expensive furniture.

The designer is kind enough to have made available nine different sizes to choose from depending on where you want to stick them. Additionally, the designs are stackable, so you can have multiple of them on top of each other. If you're worried about your cat's safety — the pyramid-like design has flat ends that do not harm your cat in any way when scratching.

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Dog bone

Play fetch

One of the most popular games that one can play with their dog is fetch. Plus, it's no secret that dogs love bones. Well, you can put them both together using a simple 3D-printed bone for your puppy. Once you print it, head outdoors and play fetch with your dog to your heart's content! You can vary the size of the bone in your slicer depending on how big your dog is.

One extremely important point to note here is that you must print the bone in TPU and not PLA, PETG, or any other material. This is because TPU makes the bone bouncy and flexible, and it's also a safe material for your pets.

Treat your pets with 3D-printed toys

Along with keeping your pets occupied, there are several 3D-printed toys that can help stimulate your pets' brains and make them more mentally active. The fact that such toys also give access to treats once your pets solve the puzzle is a bonus!