DaBird: Maybe not such a good toy?

We got DaBird a few weeks ago for our cats. One of them just likes to watch it, the other one wants to kill it. Gus catches DaBird and puts this death grip on it, teeth and claws. He won't let go, and he carries on biting and scratching after it when you try to take it away. The last time we had it out he caught it, then crunched up in a ball growling at us if we went near him to take it away. Should we not allow him to play with DaBird anymore?

He has had aggressive "prey mode" tendencies before. He'll attack and pretend kill one particular blanket we have then parade it through the house. He has bitten DH before where we had to pry his mouth open because he wouldn't let go.

Frankie reacts the same way to anything with rabbit fur on it except instead of carrying it around, she eats it! I've tried twice.. once when she was a kitten and again several (5+) years later and got the same reaction. I don't get her toys with fur on them anymore.

Jack can be the same way. Things with fur he eats... things with feathers he destroys, although occasionally I have encountered things that are not furry that he tries to utterly devastate and then eat. I have noticed he is more likely to do so if there is a person around other than me.

I am very picky about the toys he gets now as a result, and the only thing that works for us daBird wise are the refills that look like hard little mice (after I remove the tail and ears myself.. those he would eat).

Here is what that one looks like...

http://www.amazon.com/Da-Bird-Catche.../dp/B000S120H2

But the furry ends definitely not, for Jack.

We had a similar incident with Da Bird. Scratchez gets very possessive of it when he catches it. One night Bear pounced on it after Scratchez had caught it and claimed it. Normally Scratchez is a big ole love bug but this time growled and lunged for Bear grabbing Da Bird and Bear by the neck at the same time and tried to drag them both away. Scared me silly and then we had one heck of a time trying to pry Scratchez off Bear and Da Bird.

Luckily no one was hurt and we now split them up into groups to play with Da Bird to avoid any major chaos.

Riley does the same thing with Da Bird and the Cat Dancer. Once he "catches" them, he locks on with teeth and claws and won't let go and hunkers down growling. Which is why he doesn't get to play with them very often. Its so hard to get them away from him.

Unfortunately, he stands outside the closet where they are kept EVERY evening after dinner, crying and crying for about 2 hours for them. Its driving me insane

Stimpy gets like that with the Cat Catcher and those fleece wands. We don't use the wand toys much because of his behavior. He doesn't get that way with the Bamboo CatFisher so we have one of those on hand. I keep all of those put away in a cabinet when not in use.

We've only had DaBird 2 weeks now and he's literally destroyed 2 of the attachments already.

Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

Unfortunately, he stands outside the closet where they are kept EVERY evening after dinner, crying and crying for about 2 hours for them. Its driving me insane

Click to expand...

Gus does this too! He spent the whole 2 days after first getting DaBird trying to figure out how to get into the cabinet. Whenever I walk past it he jumps up like "is it coming out?!".

I find the laser pointer much better for me because it gets him equally as good of a work out, but I don't have to pry it out of his teeth.

My oldest, Rocky, got way too wound up and I had to put DaBird away for good. He thinks it's real prey and stalks away with it in his mouth growling the whole time, getting aggressive with anyone that is near him.

Is everyone taking away the toy that makes their cats growl and act agressive?

I just posted about the same thing with a toy here...http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196280

Should I not let Poppy play with it anymore? It is his favorite toy though.