Lately I’ve been having trouble finding untreated Willow Balls at the Dollar Stores around here.  I also seem to have an abundance of toilet paper rolls sitting around.  My friends and family were all too eager to save their rolls for me!  So I got playing around with them, trying to come up with some new ideas that would interest bunnies everywhere but also serve the purpose that a willow ball would in some upcoming projects.

I came up with two new and cool toys that take just minutes to make and are guaranteed boredom busters for Mr. & Mrs. Buns!  Best of all they’re free!

Materials:

• Toilet Paper Rolls
• Scissors
• Twine or Sisal Rope (Optional)
• Hay (Optional)

Cost: Free!

The Whirligig!

Use a pair of scissors to cut 1/2″ sections diagonally around one end of the toilet paper roll.  Repeat on the other side.  Cut deeper sections if you want to play around and change the height of the roll.  Bend strips outwards and you’ve created a fun new toy that looks weird (adding intrigue) and gives your rabbit lots of edges to grip.

T.P. Balls

Begin by cutting the t.p. roll in 1/4″ sections, creating multiple mini rings.  Once you have your mini rings cut, start layering them on top of one another at different angles to create a ball.  After about 5 rings or so, it will start to stiffen up.  The ball is fun as it is or modify it by adding some hay inside when you’ve got about 4 rings put together, then continue adding the final rings to keep everything in place.  After making a few singles, with and without hay, I also chose to join two together with some twine for our rabbits to toss around!