Da Bird Cat Toy, Thoughts?

I am getting my (soon to be) one year old kitten a "Da Bird" Cat toy for her birthday.  I have heard good things and seen it at work and wanted to know what people on here thought of it.  

Thanks!

Byron LOVES it. I bought it just on a whim and he was immediately chasing after it, even leaping very high for it. He loves to "catch" it and go around the room with it in his mouth, holding it triumphantly. He gets a lot of his exercise from it!

I do tend to put it up and out of the way when he's unsupervised; I worry about him choking on the feather while I'm not there (even though he doesn't tend to chew on objects like that, you never know).

Awesome! Thank you so much. She is a very active little one and I think she will love it. I plan on ordering it tonight!

Hi lalaleylee - it's the best toy!  If you have a look at my blog (address in my signature), you will see the many, many 'variations' I have made to 'da bird' (homemade as well as the various attachments the company now makes) - it truely is great, especially if you change it up.  I have two very active and intelligent cats, so I started my blog to help other active cat owners, as our needs are different.  Hope you get some ideas!

Great!

You may have to do some experimenting to see what she responds best to with the toy. I tried to think about how a bird takes off and lands.Then once he starts to pounce I'll move it a bit quicker and higher so he jumps after it. I picked that up because I used to watch my grandmother's barn cats when they caught and ate birds--they'd wait until the bird was about to take off or land to pounce, almost never while a bird was midflight.

My mom and sister tried playing with him with the Da Bird and would just circle it above their heads like a lasso, that does not get him interested at all. lol. I had to do some gentle coaching.

They are difficult to find here in Australia, so I asked for one from my TCS Secret Santa, and my two just love it!

  It's a simple enough idea, but it works very well.

Great choice. Alaina's so enthusiastic about her toy and looks relaxed and happy after her DaBird play sessions. She'll leap, pounce, head roll, and run herself ragged until she's lying on the floor panting for breath, then minutes later she'll be back up running again. I guess you could call it addictive, but not catnip-addictive. 

I've heard some reviews saying that their cat only bats at the toy for a minute or two, and then loses interest - don't be discouraged if your cat does this. There are millions of cat toys out there. 

Wow thank you all so much. Made me feel twenty times better about my purchase. I'm sure she will love it!

Hey Mani - that's exactly why I started my blog! To find sources of good stuff for us Aussies.  The good news is....we can get them here, and loads of other awesome options from http://www.pamperedcatsplayground.com.au/contents/en-us/d382.html

(If anyone else knows of good product sites for Aussies, let me know!)

I volunteer for our local no-kill cat shelter, Purrfect Pals. We've partnered with several Petsmarts and Petcos to adopt our kitties. The stores provide the food and litter, etc. but no toys. I introduced the DaBird to the adoption room almost three years ago and it was a great success. It really provides a lot of exercise. We do watch that the cats don't try to eat the feathers. They get mauled pretty quickly so I bring in replacements. They can be ordered online from Amazon. Petsmart does not carry them. We have a number of independent pet stores that do carry them. Another wand to try is made by Metpet. It uses a strong fishing line with a little feathery thing on the end that holds up better than the DaBird refills.

Those of you who've tried Da Bird, don't forget to add your review here - 

http://www.thecatsite.com/products/da-bird-cat-toy-easy-store-2-part-pole

Don't they rip it apart? We have bought these kinds of things in the past at the stores. And they pull the feathers off in no time. Do you keep them from getting it?

I got one for the first time recently and I've never seen my cat go so nuts over a toy - I can't recommend it enough.

I hide it when I'm not playing with him too though.

I got my kitten a Da Bird Go Cat Rod for Christmas.  I broke it out early.  hehe  He loves it.  He leaps and twists in the air like an acrobat.  I swear he has wings.  I've never seen the little guy get so excited before.  He plays until he's pooped, panting with a silly cat grin on his face. When he catches it, he waddles down the hall with it in his mouth and tries to crawl under the dresser with it.  hehe  It's so cute. 

I've even managed to get my sedentary elderly female cat chasing it.  I think this is the best cat toy ever invented, because it moves and sounds like a bird. 

The positive side effect of this toy is that my kitten is losing interest in chasing and ambushing my older cat, which was stressful for her.  He's getting his predatory needs met with the toy. In fact, they seem to be bonding over the toy.  

I can't recommend this toy enough.   It's worth every penny.  Make sure you get a feather refill for it.  Although the feather attachment seems to be holding up well, I know it will only last so long with this kind of abuse being heaped on it.  hehe 

Why don't you write a review for it here in our review section? My kitties got Da Bird from our Secret Santa one year. They love it, too, but actually prefer the tiny little mouse attachment that came with it over the feathers.

I wrote the review, GoldyCat. 

I can only echo the great things people have said about da bird.

It's great because it gets my really lazy declawed kitty up to play, and this about the only toy he plays with. Also my blind cat likes it because she can hear it and stalks it.

Declawed kitty going crazy.


Foster kitty want to grab it bad


Blind kitty trying to grab it (atleast she tries!)

It really is a great toy.  My cats love it, although I have to rotate it with other fishing pole toys to keep them interested.  There's a mouse attachment that they go CRAZY for.  It really looks like a mouse, and the best part is that unlike the feathers it's almost indestructible.

Be careful with it if you have a cat who is a chewer, like my Charlie.  I only buy the real guinea hen feather attachment, so no worries about those, but that plastic cap that holds the feathers in place is an abdominal obstruction waiting to happen.  Once I brought out da Bird after having stored it away for a while, and Charlie went absolutely wild over it, growling and hissing etc.  I was afraid he would swallow the feathers (this was before I discovered the guinea hen feathers), so I pulled it away from him.  It came apart and I realized the plastic cap was missing.  So at 11pm the night before I was due to travel to Europe, off I went to the emergency room.  Sure enough, they induced vomiting and up came that cap.  The vet said it almost certainly would have caused an obstruction.

If any of you find yourselves in that situation:  scruff your cat and gently take the toy away.  Don't yank on it.

I've been thinking of getting the mouse, too. I want a ground toy as well as an air one.  My cat goes through the feather refills so quickly, too.  It's expensive to buy refills. I actually ordered a bag of Guinea feathers to make my own.  Hope I can pull that off.  hehe

Too bad Amazon won't let me order the add on toys separately.  I have to buy $25.00 worth of merchandise before I tack on any addons. 

By the way, Kittenzilla managed to pull apart the leader.  I had to tie it back on, and the string is shorter now/.  Still does the trick, though.

 

I did order the guinea fowl feathers and softer feathers on Amazon.  Very cheap. I'm going to get some swivel leaders and heat shrink tubing to make my own refills.  I found a DIY video on youtube that suggested the heat shrink tubing.  It's quite cheap in your local automotive department.  Just heat it with a lighter and it shrinks, keeping the feathers tightly together.