A Fun but Flawed Toy for My Feline Friend
I'm absolutely crazy about my cat Bonnie, and I love spoiling her with new toys. So, I picked up some squeaky mice from the pet store Four Paws.
The official name on the website is Petmax Cat Toy Colorful Velvet Squeaky Mouse 17cm.
I was a bit confused by the name on the website - it says 17cm, but I was expecting something around 10cm long. I actually measured the mouse with its tail extended, and it's 11cm long.
The pack comes with 2 mice of different colors. The ones I got were the pink and grey ones, as shown on the product card.
Now you can easily find these mice on marketplaces by searching for Squeaky Velvet Mouse or Squeaky Mouse.
The toy is a mouse that makes a squeaking sound when you press it, thanks to this little hole.
The pink mouse is super vibrant.
The mouse itself is made of rubber, with a velvet cover on top.
It feels super soft to the touch, like velvet.
My cat loves playing with these mice, and she carries them around in her mouth.
I love watching my cat sit on top of her complex, and I'll tease her with a laser pointer, and she'll swat at it and knock it off.
Why are these laser pointers not safe?
The laser pointers have a major drawback that makes them not safe - the details: eyes and whiskers.
The whiskers are made of string.
The eyes are made of plastic.
These tiny parts are super easy to dislodge and can be swallowed by my cat.
When she plays with it on her own, she might end up swallowing them.
But then you're left with extra holes, and the sound doesn't work because the air just escapes through those holes.
The laser pointer itself is pretty bouncy, and it quickly springs back into shape after being pressed.
Without the small parts, the laser pointer is safe, but it doesn't make a sound.
My cat plays with them a lot, so over time, the velvet covering starts to peel off in big chunks. But that takes a really long time and a lot of intense play.
The laser pointers tend to collect dust really easily, so if they're stuck in hard-to-reach places under the furniture, they'll end up looking all grey.
I've tried washing them, but then the velvet covering comes off really quickly.
I've noticed my cat loves playing hide-and-seek with those little mice toys. She'll often stash them under the couch or behind a bookshelf, only to retrieve them later.
It's hilarious watching her dig through the box to find them.
I also got a similar box from Royal Canin, and my cat loves pulling out those mice too.
But sometimes these toys go missing, only to turn up in weird places during cleaning. I've found entire 'mouse cemeteries' under the furniture!
So, I decided to stock up and ordered a set of 5 mice from Ozon instead of just two.
They look identical to the ones I bought at the pet store, and I'm guessing they're probably made by the same manufacturer. The only difference is the packaging.
And the best part? They're just as good in quality, but cheaper!
I paid 169 rubles for two mice at the pet store.
On Ozon, I got five mice for 176 rubles.
I showed off my collection of mice to Bonnie.
Grey, dark green, and burgundy mice aren't great because they're hard to spot under the furniture. And Bonnie loves to bat them around just out of reach.
Bright mice are the way to go: pink, red, and orange. They're easy to spot under the furniture so you can grab them.
I noticed that when Bonnie plays with the box, she always picks the bright mice.
I guess they're just more visible to her.
I dug into online articles about color perception in cats, and it turns out nobody really knows for sure because the first article I found said one thing, and the next one said the opposite. One article claimed cats can see blue, yellow, and grey colors just fine, but another said they can only see green, blue, and grey, but not orange, yellow, or red.
I had to dig up some official studies to back up my claims, but honestly, articles on the topic seem to contradict each other.
That being said, I've noticed that my cat plays more often with the bright-colored mice.
The sound of the mouse really gets her attention, even if I'm calling her from another room.
However, the fact that I have to remove the eyes and whiskers creates additional holes, and the mouse's sound effect is no longer audible.
It's probably possible to cover up the holes where the eyes are with something, so the mouse can still make sound when pressed. I chose not to do that, and my cat still plays with them just the same.
When I play with her, I leave a few of the mice with eyes intact, so I can call her with the mouse sound effect.
I ended up collecting a pretty cool collection of mice.
I put a few in the toy boxes and hide the rest, and I pull them out when the ones in the boxes get lost under the furniture or become too worn out to play with.
Petmax Interactive Cat Toy Colorful Velvet Mouse with Sound:
❤️ It's a really fun toy for my cat;
❤️ The bright colors are a great touch;
❤️ The velvety mice are super soft;
❤️ I was able to find it in both pet stores and online marketplaces;
❤️ Just a heads up, you'll want to remove the whiskers and eyes for safety reasons.
The best part is that my cat loves it and actually plays with it!
Some other great cat toys worth checking out:
A cat agility kit;
Cat bowls with a wooden base;
A cat litter box;;
A window guard.