I ended up just tying the thread directly to the headless feathery toy. That way it doesn’t have enough weight to throw around effectively (which is a good thing, since it means there’s not enough weight for it to bother Talore if I throw it at her), but it’s still interesting enough to chase.
Also with it that light, I can hang it from the ceiling fan (clothes pinned to the outside edge) and not only is it too light to damage anything it hits, but it mostly hangs toward the center of the fan since it has so much drag for its weight. If Talore actually catches it well enough it comes unclipped (that’s happened once) and the clothespin flies off somewhere, but she almost never manages to grab it.