How to Clean Cat Toys by Material Without Killing the Catnip Scent

Your cat's favorite catnip toy is probably the dirtiest object in your home. Cats drool on it, bite it, drag it through dust, and nap on top of it — and knowing how to clean cat toys without destroying the one thing that makes them interesting is a genuinely awkward problem.

Catnip's appeal comes from volatile oils, and water is very good at carrying those oils away. A toy that gets fully submerged tends to come out smelling like nothing, while whatever actually needs removing — saliva, dander, floor dust, trapped damp — sits on the surface. So the goal isn't to soak the toy clean. It's to deodorize the outside and then dry it completely.

Here at Purromp, we're cat people first. This guide comes from our own experience living with cats, published feline behavior research, and what we hear from cat owners every day. We also make some of the cat toys mentioned below, and we've watched our own designs get drooled on, buried, and loved into rags — which is where most of this comes from.

Tip: If you're not sure which materials survive cleaning best, our guide to how to pick a catnip toy covers what to look for before you buy.

Why Water Can Strip Catnip Scent (and What to Do Instead)

Catnip's scent is a set of volatile oils. Once a toy is fully submerged, those oils dilute into the water and leave with it, and absorbent fillings hold moisture long enough for what's left to fade faster than it otherwise would. That's the whole mechanism — you don't need to know more than that to clean a toy well.

Some materials carry far more risk than others. Jute and burlap, solid beech or silver vine wood, and toys with a 100% catnip filling are the ones most easily ruined by immersion. Plush can be hand-washed, but gently: light squeezing, no scrubbing at the inner pouch, and air-drying only.

Whatever method you use, dry the toy fully before it goes back in the toy bin. A toy that's still damp inside develops a musty smell that cats tend to reject outright, and you'll have traded a saliva problem for a worse one.

How to Clean Catnip Toys by Material (Step-by-Step)

Here's how to clean cat toys by material. Check the label or the filling first — and if you genuinely can't tell what's inside, treat the toy as if it's 100% catnip filled and clean only the surface.

Jute and burlap — Wipe, don't soak. A slightly damp cloth with a little mild soap lifts surface grime, and a second clean cloth removes the residue. Hang it somewhere with airflow and let it dry on its own. Never wring these out; the weave distorts and never quite goes back.

Plush toys — Cool water, a small amount of mild soap, and gentle hands. Squeeze the surface rather than scrubbing at it, and don't work water into the inner pouch. If the toy has a crinkle sheet or a squeaker, keep that part dry. The Catnip Fish Toy is a good example of the type — soft plush outside, filling inside — so it gets a surface wash and a towel blot rather than a bath.

Solid wood and silver vine — Beech and silver vine toys are wiped, not washed. A damp cloth handles the surface, an old toothbrush gets into the grooves, and a dry cloth finishes the job. The thing to avoid is prolonged running water, because wood that stays wet can crack or develop a smell of its own.

100% catnip filled — Surface wipe or spot clean, and that's it. Full immersion soaks the filling, and a dryer bakes off whatever scent is left. When the scent fades, refresh it or replace it — don't wash it harder and hope.

How to Remove Cat Toy Smell (Saliva, Dander, and Stale Catnip)

That sour smell on a well-loved toy usually isn't the catnip. It's saliva and dander worked into the fibers, where bacteria break them down. Which is why scented cleaners backfire: you end up with a toy that smells like lavender and cat spit, and many cats avoid it.

For anything you can wipe: mix white vinegar and water 1:1, wring a cloth until it's barely damp, wipe the toy down, then wipe again with a clean water-dampened cloth. Air-dry in open air. This works well on burlap and jute, and on the outer surfaces of wood and silver vine toys.

For anything that can't get wet: dry-clean with baking soda. Put the toy in a bag with a small amount of baking soda, shake it, let it sit for 15 minutes, then brush or vacuum the powder off. It's a surprisingly effective deodorizer for plush you don't want to hand-wash yet.

For a stubborn smell on plush fabric: a pet enzymatic cleaner, spot-tested on a hidden seam first, used only on the outer fabric and kept away from the catnip filling, then rinsed with a damp cloth and dried completely. To be honest, most toys don't need one — vinegar and baking soda handle the large majority of cases, so save the specialty product for the ones that really need it.

Twenty to thirty minutes of fresh air and indirect sun helps with damp smells, but don't leave a toy baking in direct sun, since heat drives off the oils you're trying to protect. And if the scent inside a 100% catnip filled toy has gone flat, topping it up or replacing the inner pouch does more than any cleaning method will. The Catnip Pillow Toy is the type we mean: cleaning keeps it hygienic, but refreshing the catnip is what brings it back to life.

How Often to Clean Cat Toys (and When to Replace Them)

A weekly check takes about a minute: run your hands over the seams, squeeze the body, listen for loose crinkle material, and sniff. If there's a saliva smell or visible dust, spot clean it then. That habit matters more than any deep-clean schedule, because most toys don't need washing so much as they need attention.

There's no single right answer to how often you should clean cat toys, only rough ranges. Jute, burlap, and wooden toys get a wipe every one to two weeks. Plush toys get a hand-wash every two to four weeks, or sooner if they look grimy. Multi-cat homes and cats who carry toys around in their mouths should both move to the shorter end. For 100% catnip filled toys, let the scent set the pace instead of the calendar — most go noticeably flat somewhere between one and three months, and refreshing or replacing the filling at that point makes more sense than washing.

Replace the toy outright when the seams have opened and filling is escaping, when a musty smell survives cleaning, when the fabric has gone dark and greasy, when your cat has stopped responding even after a catnip refresh, or when any plastic or metal part has come loose.

Note: if your cat tends to chew pieces off toys and swallow them, cleaning is the smaller concern. In a case-control study of cats with pica, the items most often targeted were shoelaces and string, followed by plastic, fabric, and other materials — and some cats swallowed what they chewed while others only mouthed it (Demontigny-Bédard et al., 2016). That study relied on owner questionnaires and the authors are explicit that a causal link between pica and the vomiting they recorded has not been established, so treat it as a pattern to watch rather than a prediction. Any toy shedding fibers or filler should come out of rotation.

Rotating two or three toys at a time, rather than leaving everything out, does two useful things: it cuts how much saliva any one toy collects, and it keeps each toy novel enough to be worth investigating again. A survey of 591 cat owners across 55 countries found that cats who played more, and played a wider variety of games, scored higher on quality-of-life measures (Henning et al., 2023). The authors note this is a correlation, not proof that more play causes a better life, and that the survey relied on owner self-reporting, which is prone to recall bias, with a sample skewed toward people who are already unusually engaged with their cats.

How to Keep Catnip Scent Alive Between Cleanings

Storage matters more than most people expect. Once a toy is completely dry, seal it in a zip bag or a dark jar and keep it somewhere cool and dry. Don't store clean toys next to dirty ones, and never put one away damp.

Rotate instead of leaving everything out. Pull out one or two toys at a time and keep the rest sealed. Cats tend to respond more strongly to a scent they haven't smelled in a week than to one that's been lying on the floor all month. If your cat has gone quiet on a toy for a while, clean it to remove competing smells before you assume the toy is finished — there's no point washing it over and over when the real issue is a stale filling.

To top up the scent, work a small pinch of dried catnip or silver vine into the surface with your fingers, or swap the inner pouch if the toy is designed that way. Dried plant material isn't a compromise here: research on silver vine found that dried leaves produced a stronger response in cats than fresh ones, with no rise in stress or organ-damage markers in the cats studied (Uenoyama et al., 2023). Worth keeping in perspective — that was a laboratory study from the same research group that has championed silver vine as an enrichment tool, and "no markers went up" isn't the same as "proven safe for every cat in every situation." It also says nothing about the risk of a cat swallowing fabric.

When you're choosing what to buy next, toys you can wipe down or open up will always be easier to live with than ones that have to go in the water. The Catnip & Silver Vine Toys collection is a reasonable place to start if you'd rather wipe than wash.

Catnip Toy Cleaning FAQs

Can I wash catnip toys in the washing machine?

Generally no. A machine wash soaks and agitates the entire toy, which strips the volatile oils behind the catnip scent and can distort jute or burlap. If a plush toy's care label allows it, use a mesh bag on a cold, gentle cycle, and remove any crinkle sheet or squeaker first. Toys with a 100% catnip filling are better surface-wiped or refilled, and anything washed should air-dry rather than go in the dryer.

How do I clean cat toys without losing the catnip scent?

Clean the surface rather than the whole toy. Wipe with a barely damp cloth and a little mild soap, or a 1:1 white vinegar and water solution, then wipe again with a clean damp cloth and air-dry. Jute, burlap, wood, silver vine, and 100% catnip filled toys should never be submerged. Plush can be hand-washed gently, but squeeze instead of wringing, and seal the toy in a bag or jar once it's completely dry.

Why does my cat's toy smell like saliva?

Saliva and dander work their way into the fibers when your cat licks and bites a toy, and bacteria breaking those down is what creates the smell — not the catnip itself. Wipe wipeable toys with diluted white vinegar, dry-clean plush with a baking-soda shake, or spot-treat the outer fabric with a pet enzymatic cleaner kept away from the filling. Then dry the toy completely, because a damp interior develops a musty odor of its own.

How often should I clean cat toys?

Check them weekly for loose seams, escaping filling, and smell. Wipe jute, burlap, and wooden toys every one to two weeks, and hand-wash plush toys every two to four weeks or whenever they look grimy. Homes with several cats, or cats that carry toys in their mouths, should clean more often. Toys filled with 100% catnip are best judged by scent rather than a schedule — refresh or replace them when the smell goes flat.

When should I replace a catnip toy?

Replace it when seams have opened and filling is escaping, when a musty smell survives cleaning, when the fabric has gone dark and greasy, when any plastic or metal part has come loose, or when your cat has stopped reacting even after you've refreshed the catnip. Catnip filled toys usually lose most of their scent within one to three months, and replacing them at that point is often simpler than cleaning them.

Can I dry a catnip toy in the dryer?

No — heat drives off the volatile oils that make catnip interesting, and it can also clump the filling and shrink fabric. Blot the toy with a towel, then leave it in a well-ventilated spot to air-dry, using a fan if the toy is thick. It should be dry all the way through before it goes back in the toy bin or a storage bag, since trapped moisture leads to mildew.

Conclusion

Cleaning a catnip toy is a small chore with a small margin for error: wipe what you can, dry everything completely, and don't fight the scent when it fades. Your cat won't notice a perfectly sanitized toy, but they will notice a damp one. When in doubt, replace it — and if your cat is still ignoring a freshly cleaned toy, they may simply have moved on.

Sources

• Demontigny-Bédard, I., Beauchamp, G., Bélanger, M. C., & Frank, D. (2016). Characterization of pica and chewing behaviors in privately owned cats: a case-control study. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. link
• Henning, J., Nielsen, T., Fernandez, E., & Hazel, S. (2023). Cats just want to have fun: Associations between play and welfare in domestic cats. Animal Welfare. link
• Uenoyama, R., Ooka, S., Miyazaki, T., Mizumoto, H., Nishikawa, T., & Hurst, J. L. (2023). Assessing the safety and suitability of using silver vine as an olfactory enrichment for cats. iScience. link

Suggested Reading

• What's Inside Silvervine Cat Toys? Catnip, Jute, Burlap, and Filler
• Jute vs Burlap vs Cotton vs Silvervine Wood: Which Wooden Cat Toy Lasts?
• Cat Pica: Why Your Cat Eats Plastic, String, and Fabric