GoCat Da Bird Rod and Feather Cat Toy, Handmade in The USA (1 Bird)

I'll preface this review by saying that I just used this product for the first time and cannot accurately comment on its long-term durability. However, I'm very impressed by what I've seen so far. Da Bird is sturdy, it's flexible, and it makes my cats crazy. I have three indoor cats who are needy as heck. I buy them new toys and catnip all the time, but they often get bored with them. They really like fishing rod type toys, but the handles are often short and rigid, limiting mobility, and the strings get tangled around the rod. The toys that dangle from the end can be clunky and unnatural. A few years back, I got them a toy called the "kitty tickler" at an independent pet shop. It was a long springy rod with lots of feathers and streamers at the end. It had great reach and twitched convincingly. I liked it because it was easy to use, and the kitties were obsessed. Fast forward to the present, the kitty tickler has been thoroughly de-feathered and does not allow for replacement of the fun bits. Unfortunately, searching "kitty tickler" online turns up A LOT of toys that are not appropriate for cats, unless your cats like vibrating silicone. (I don't cat shame.) So, I decided to search for the next best thing. Enter Da Bird! It's springy! It's easy to manipulate! It looks like a real freakin' bird flapping through the skies of my kitchen! The cats are obsessed. My oldest cat Lily is very play resistant. When she was a kitten she would jump 5 feet in the air to catch moths in our crappy starter apartment; now her butt doesn't leave the ground. If she stands on her hind legs, we consider her excited. With Da Bird, I got multiple jumps out of her! She was, dare I say, gallivanting. She was excited! I was excited! The other two cats were excited! It's basically a small miracle. Also, Da Bird has a mechanism by which I can easily reattach a lure once the cats inevitably destroy this one. We'll see how long that takes. TLDR This toy is spectacular and seems really well made. Even my laziest lump of a cat is nuts for it. Highly recommend!

All four of my cats, from 4 months to 9 years old, love this toy! My 4-month-old Maine Coon kitten did rip two feathers off (he’s a beast), so just be careful with kittens. Even my 9-year-old plays with it enthusiastically. It looks like a real bird in motion, and they have so much fun chasing it. I would HIGHLY recommend for hours of entertainment at an affordable price, no matter your cat’s age.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Our cats are about 3 years old and they're strictly indoor cats, so excercise and entertainment is really important. Unfortunately they're very picky about their toys and get bored easily with most them. But THIS toy - Da' Bird - is AMAZING. The cats absolutely love it and they'll chase it around for 10 - 15 minutes, then they start to get a little tired and lay down. This is a good thing! It means they're getting needed excercise, and on busy days when we don't have much time to spend with the cats we can just break out "Da' Bird" for 15 minutes or so and the kities are happy. PROS: - Cats LOVE it and never get bored with it. I would be amazed if anyone ever found a cat that didn't love this toy. - Gives indoor cats great excercise and fun! - Replaceable attachment feather kits are easy to buy here and stock up for when they start to get too chewed up - GREAT way to spend quality time with your cat "quickly", and it's time that will bring you closer to your furry friend(s) CONS: - One of our cats loves it SO much they he YOWLS at us EVERY NIGHT until we give him his 15 minutes of Da' Bird chasing time! (not really a "con", but I have to admit his persitent mewing can be annoying when the timing for play is not good). - While the replaceable / refill feather attachments are a convenience, I can see that this could get very expesive if you let your cat get too agressive with it. Some other reviewers havee mentioned their cats go through the attachments quickly. Our cats aren't quite as agressive I guess, because we only have to replace about once every 2 months. But in the end, no matter what toys you get for you cats you're going to spend ongoing money. So this isn't truly a "con" but I'm just trying to be objective for sake of this review. - The string seems like it could be a bit stronger. It's starting to fray at the attachment end. - I don't like the metal "fishing lurec clip" style of clips for the attachment - it makes me nervous that the cats might damage their teeth, so we're pretty careful by watching how they get ahold of it, and never yank on the string hard when a kitty has the lure in his mouth. But aside from this "picky" review, SUMMARY: AWESOME CAT TOY! OUR CATS LOVE IT AND NEVER LOSE INTEREST! MAKES US FEEL GOOD SPENDING TIME WITH THEM AND GETTING THEM HEALTHY EXCERCISE! HIGLY RECOMMEND!

My super energetic cat love, love, loves this toy. I had to keep it in the closet to stop him from getting at it. And the feathers had to be hidden too since he thinks they are a chew toy when they aren't flying through the air. And my lazy, barely plays with anything at all, older cat actually runs after this and sometimes even jumps! But as you can tell from all the other reviews, this is no surprise. So I will move onto the meat of the review. The feathers I got did pop out of the rubber/plastic attachment after a couple play sessions. I stuck them back in but they would still come out. So I used a little bit of glue and the problem is solved. The rod, string, and swivel hook are all very high quality and though show some minor signs of wear and tear, Da Bird is holding up very well. But one of the other reasons I love this toy is that the toy on the end of the line is interchangeable. There are toys you can buy here on amazon. Feathers, sparkly tassels, furry things and more. But since it is interchangeable you can make your own parts too. When my cats seemed to get tired of the feathers, I crumpled up a ball of paper and put that on. The loud noise of the paper was a surefire hit. I also used a safety pin and a catnip mouse to make a fun "Da Mouse" toy. But what surprised me the most was when I had taken off the toy and was working on making a new one while still holding it. My cat started playing and going after the hook on the end. He really liked it, but couldn't seem to see it all the time. So I hooked on a paper clip. And it was his favorite thing for a whole week. So GoCat has really perfected the wand and line part of a wand cat toy. The wand and line are slim enough that they blend into the background and the cat focuses on the toy on the end. And even though it's slim, it is also very, very durable and has withstood chewing, bending, hitting surfaces and being dragged around.

Best feather wand toy. I bought this for my cats because they were bored of my wand toy. They are crazy for this one. They both try to get it. I am so happy I found this. I have high energy savannahs, this is perfect for burning up some of their energy.

Okay, so I have mixed feelings about this toy, which is why I have not rated it 5 stars. First off, please SUPERVISE cats with this toy at all times. When you are out of the house, do NOT leave this toy lying around, it could be dangerous. When we received it, we played with our 3 male cats, and they LOVED it!!! The feathers sound/look real, and the it actually mimics real bird motions as you sway the toy through the air. My boys loved it so much that they were panting from exhaustion, and still wanted to keep playing- the toy almost did not wear them out. One day, I was at home **thankfully**, and all of the sudden I heard my cat frantically running back and forth through the living room. I have a high shelf, where I kept the toy. My cat, Ashton wanted the toy soo bad, that he jumped up and knocked it off the shelf. It was then, that he started bee lining back and forth -- scared to death-- and tangled in the toy, the string is really long. Thankfully, I was home, I was able to corner him and untangle him, luckily he was alright. I was so nervous that I almost cut the string to let him loose, my cat also has long hair so at first I couldn't notice if the string was wrapped around his neck. In conclusion, the toy is now inaccessible/no where in sight for my cats (its locked tight in a drawer) UNLESS I take it out to play with them. Mixed Feelings: Most of our cat toys are the wand and string toys, my boyfriend and I get annoyed with most of the strings, because they are soo short that it's hard to interact with the cats, however, it is probably designed like that for safety issues. That said, we were excited to finally find a toy with longer string (where the cats could try to jump and catch the bird). This is a great toy for cats, it's hard to keep them away from it!! However, if you get this toy, PLEASE supervise and please keep this toy hidden when you are not home. You really have to watch them, or your cat could easily get tangled.

Ok, so my lazy, lazy bubble of a cat who will play with nothing went apesh*t over Da Bird! My other two loved it as well, but after I had to rebuild the toy placing each feather back in place, and after several replacement heads, one day, I found myself with three bored cats who were ready to murder each other. Yes, they have other toys. They have all the toys. They want this toy. Exasperated and out of hope, I flung the featherless toy onto the ground with absolutely zero expectations. Well, the cats were flying across the house after this thing. All three of them (don't judge me. The third showed up mangy and freezing, so he gave me no choice, ok? Sometimes a third cat just happens and there's nothing you can do about it) seemed possessed by some sort of entity that even made them tolerate the other cats playing with that nub of red plastic at the end of the string. They waited for their turn with it then mauled it. I know, you're probably worried that it's a choking hazard. No. There's nothing in the wild that resembles and tastes like that stupid plastic piece. They just wanted to scramble after it while I laughed my a** off. Why didn't I have a backup? I did! That's what really encouraged me to write this review. My sister has a super energetic kitten and when the brand new luster of Da Bird had worn off for my cats, I made a sacrifice. I gave my sister my second wand with two replacement birds. That kitten murdered all three birds. Within a day or so. Her two cats proceeded to go just as crazy over that red plastic nub as mine did. It's been over a week and they're all still playing with it! The father piece is nice, don't get me wrong. It's just not constructed for natural murderers. So, when your cat tears the feathers out and you're frustrated and annoyed--don't be! Just fling that dumb plastic piece across the floor and you've got a brand new toy!! For Da Bird, I would give maybe four stars because the cats do love it. But it doesn't last. That plastic piece, though, that has staying power. Seriously. Five stars. Five stars for the piece of plastic and yeah, it was worth all the money I spent.

Yep, my 2 cats go nuts for this feather cat toy since imitates prey very well. I basically run back and forth across my home, and my cats will SPRINT after it until they're out of breath. If I fly the cat toy over furniture and obstacles, my cats will do PARKOUR just to grab the toy in mid air. It's exercise for both the cats and the human. They tear that thing apart, so refills are mandatory. Re-filling is easy because there's a custom safety pin that latches onto each "feather bait". The safety pin is designed such that a cat's tooth cannot disengage it due to the short length, roundness, and tight force. You need to push on it with your fingernail, slowly, at a certain angle in order to disengage it. The value is a double edge sword. It's definitely a 5-star good toy because my cats get lots of love, fun, and attention. However, it's also a high wear item since it's so AGGRESSIVELY loved.