D.Y. TOY - The Original Weasel Ball, Interactive Motion Toy

Well, first I bought one years ago for my cat. It paid no attention, oh well. Then it broke somehow, and weazel off it - and then it was just a ball. I now have a 3-4 lb chihuahua. I pulled it out, hoping I could get it to work. No luck, it was very old and broken. But, he loves to run that old ball around and around, chasing it, rolling on it, trying to stand on it, growling as he goes. So I purchased another one - weazel & working action, brand new. The dog is beside himself! He loves this toy SO much (both, the old non-working, and the new - but especially the new working one). We have a raised porch where I keep him most of the time and all his toys, so I have a tub where I keep this, and only bring it out when I'm out there and/or playing with him, since it would eventually roll off the porch, and he's too tiny to jump down to get it. Great thing is, I can turn it on then sit on the porch and watch, get out my tablet and do my email, while this keeps him busy. Tail-wagging the whole time, he tosses it, and runs around with it. Then when he lays down to chew all on it, if he stops for a moment or looks away - it rolls off and when he turns around - he's all charged up again - LOVE THIS. I'm sure the weazel will be gone in short order, but he will still love it as he does the ball that no longer even works! And it's nice to have interactive toys so that it gives me a break from playing tug with him. To be honest, my dog will play with ANYTHING. I give him a piece of rope, and he's in heaven. I tied a string of jingle bells from Christmas onto a couple of weird little cat toys, and he's in heaven. I give him an "approved" sock, and he's happy as a clam. So, some animals may not like interactive toys, but for mine - it gives me a much needed break, and it's hilarious to watch!

A couple of things to be aware of if you buy this: 1. This is really, really cheaply made. The weasel is attached to the ball with two little plastic bits -- the same type that hold a price tag onto a new shirt. They break FAST. The weasel's eyes pop out VERY easily, which poses a potential choking hazard not only for a pet, but also potentially for a child. The weasel's fur sheds and gets all over (which could be a problem for people with allergies). 2. The battery chamber has to be unscrewed in order to open and put the battery in. While this is good in that it keeps the battery in better, it does mean that you will need a screwdriver in order to be able to use the toy. There are two screws to unscrew; they also happen to be different sizes. I used a tiny philips head screwdriver to get the one out and then had to use a larger flathead to get the other. Bit of a pain that they weren't the same size at least. 3. The ball does not move around very well with the weasel attached. I bought this for my toy poodle and she, frankly, found it very dull after about 30 seconds. However, after I yanked the weasel off, the ball moved much better and became far more entertaining for my dog. It still doesn't move as fast or well as some others I've seen, but I think you cannot expect too much from something that sells for this cheap of a price. All things considered, it's still a fun toy for my dog, now that I've removed the ferret -- so I think it's worthy of three stars. The eyeballs on the ferret, as I mentioned, do come off way too easily, so I had to capture them and throw them out. Now my little Daphne enjoys tossing around the ferret and gets a kick out of chasing the mysterious ball that moves as if by black magic.

Great toy! The battery is quite hard to change but it is fun.

I have no idea why the manufacturers of this product chose to make THE most unnecessarily complicated and poorly-crafted battery and power mechanism I have ever seen, but it rendered the item useless right out of the box. In order to make the weasel work, you unscrew the two halves of the ball (easy enough), and then (this is where it gets stupid), you go find a tiny screwdriver to unscrew the supposed on/off switch from the top of the battery compartment. Once removing the tiny screw and the plastic on/off switch and putting the battery into the compartment, you quickly realize that you need about four hands for the process. The battery must be pushed into the compartment and held there, or it will pop up out of the compartment. It is supposed to be held in place by the screw which, after putting in the battery, must be replaced where it was. So you have to push down on the battery as you place the small, plastic on/off level over the tiny hole for the tiny screw, and then you must hold the tiny screw into the tiny hole, hold all of this still, and screw in the screw. Then you discover that the screw doesn't QUITE fit the hole. Twenty minutes later, I had removed the screw three or four different times, trying to get it to seat properly in the hole so it could be screwed in. Each time the screw was re-adjusted, the plastic on/off switch would fall off, and the battery would pop up. The screw took forever to reach its destination, and it came in crooked. Being that, for some ridiculous reason, the bottom of the screw must touch the top bulging part of the battery in order to make the connection and allow the item to work, if the screw won't go in straight, the screw will not connect with the exact right place on the battery in order to form the connection. Furthermore, since the screw won't go in all the way, the on/off switch would not sit securely on top of the battery compartment, so as I was holding it with all the fingers I could spare and trying to figure out how I could rig it to work, I saw that the switch was going to flail around turning itself off and on. I tried using tape to tape down the entire thing, but given that nothing was tight, the screw would slip off the battery, and the stupid thing would stop working. It's a double A battery and a very simple creature attached to a ball. This should not be rocket science. Why they needed to make the connection so incredibly complicated and requiring so many hands is beyond me. The item should have a simple interior on/off switch and a simple way to place one battery in the toy and make it work. Terrible design. If I could give it zero stars, I would. Waste of money. I will be returning it.

We received this product and gave it to our small 4 month old puppy, She went crazy over it. She would drag it under the couch and it would wander back out into the living room. It rolled well , we have low pile carpet and it had no problem getting around from kitchen tile to carpet area. I like it due to the fact it takes AA battery and not the weird expensive watch batteries. There is one issues, the weazel is attached with plastic taggers, like what is used to attach price tags to clothes, the things you usually tear off with ease. ( i do not know the proper name). It is held on by 2 of them inserted into a hole.. After about 45 mins of play it was all twisted around very tightly. I do not see this lasting. Plus if they get to the head of the weasle, they will try to chew that off. I will rethread it with another type of material when it does bust and it will bust. This will not be a hard task since you can get to the hole with ease, and with the way she loves this toy. it will be worth the trouble. My 7 year old pom has never played with toys and he went and grabbed this. I am ordering another one to watch my pup try to round up 2 of these balls at once. This is for supervised play but when you give this to your dog you will want to watch them anyway and laugh. She plays with it off and on during the day and we try to give this to her about 30 mins before bed time to wear her out, which works ! During the day if we do not take it away from her, she will play to the point of exhaustion. To me it is worth the value, but i am rating this on a 4 lb yorkie mix pup she can not get ahold of the ball to chew on it. But she will be able to chew up the weazle, she is a strong chewer for her size.

I bought this for my dog. He had one a few years ago that he loved. It finally died after a couple of years. This one has an external off button which is an improvement over the first one I had. You had to open up the first one to shut it off. The weasel is only attached by 2 pieces of plastic barb so it could be destroyed easily by an overzealous dog. Mine does not tug on it too hard & he only weighs 30 lbs. I also supervise his playtime with the toy. If he gets too aggressive with it then I will take it from him before he destroys it. He tends to start to destroy any toy after 5-10 minutes (he is a tenacious terrier so this is too be expected) so I supervise him with any toy that I don't want destroyed within 30 minutes. I buy stuff animals (no beads inside & remove any small parts ) at the thrift store for him to play with unsupervised. He has great fun tearing them to pieces within a very short while. No problem as those are very cheap. Overall, for the price it is a good value in my opinion. The battery is a little difficult to replace as you have to remove a very tiny screw inside to put in the battery (it does not come with a battery), so put in a good one initially so you won't have to replace it again anytime soon. You will need a micro screwdriver to turn the screw.

This should take 1xD battery, instead of 1xAA. The extra power would let it run for 5X as long between cumbersome battery changes, save money, and the extra weight would allow them to include less lead inside the ball. I've tried it with over 40 cats, now... Giving it to various people to see if any of their pets will get some use out of it. Not a single cat out of the lot has pawed at it more than once before giving-up on it entirely. I can't find one cat, anywhere, that is interested. They get much more use out of a "Cats Meow" or similar toys. That's probably because of the poorly designed mechanism that really doesn't result in the weasel moving much, at all. It really just sits in one place and shakes a little bit, moving an inch left/right all the time, looking like a fuzzy carrot blown around by a light breeze. Only once in a great while does the weight line-up just right to pull the weasel more than an inch away from where it started, and it NEVER climbs over the ball. And there's no intelligence in the ball... When your battery is running low, it just keeps going, supplying the motor too-little power, doing nothing, but getting the motor very hot in the process, and doing that for an hour, until the battery is completely dead. Not sure if it's a fire danger, but it's certainly going to self-destruct in no-time if you aren't around to shut it off right away when the batteries are getting low.

Bought this for our 3-month old adopted kitten. She'll attack anything that moves, or doesn't move. I have the marks on my hands, arms, and ankles to prove that. Figured it would be something different for her to play with as the "fishing" toys and laser pointer are getting somewhat "boring" for her. The first few days she just watched it from a distance, and she'd run away a few feet when it came towards her. Slowly she got used to it as I would run it a while, then shut it off and leave it there for her to inspect. She'd wrestle with it a while then look at her conquered prey and walk off. Today, Day 6, was the first day SHE attacked IT while the Weasel Ball was running. She'd come from behind the tail, pounce and grab the tail, then hold it while she wrestled with it. It was a hoot to watch, 'cause if it got loose and turned towards her she'd run a few feet away and plot a new attack plan. This has been going on for the better part of an hour so she should take a good nap this afternoon. The Weasel Ball isn't that noisy, and travels all over the den; under sofas, between table & chairs, etc. If it fits it'll find it. We have tile floors so it moves very well. It hasn't gotten stuck in any tight space yet. It did push out two "lost" cat toys (a small mouse and a ball of crumpled aluminum foil) that were in a narrow spot by a subwoofer we have under an end table. I think the kitten was as surprised as I was when the two toys came out in front of the Weasel Ball. Based on this short experience, I give it 5-Stars and would recommend it for an active, and somewhat brave, cat or kitten. *** UPDATE *** Our kitten has now proclaimed this as her favorite, go-to toy. The wrestling gets pretty intense, and she'll attack it even if it's off. Funny to watch her pick it up by the tail and carry it across the room. The round ball is still wiggling while she carries it, so I guess it simulates some "prey" that's fighting to get away. I did find that it will turn off sometimes and I guess the kitten hits the on-off button accidentally. But, she'll lay by the weasel's tail until either my wife or I turn it back on. Then the wrestling begins again.