Pet Toy Reviews: Snacky Mouse Fails a Bit

Published in and tagged on by Lindsay

My cats are treat fiends. There’s only been a handful of cat treats that they won’t eat,and we’re doomed to accidentally trick them into thinking they are getting a treat if we open any sort of resealable bag. They have a particular fondness for Temptations, so when we came upon the Temptations Snacky Mouse while shopping for pet stuff one day, we were certain it would be a snacky cat win.

Snacky Mouse from Temptations

Snacky Mouse from Temptations

The mouse is designed as a weeble-wobble style of toy – mostly hollow with a heavy,rounded bottom. The overall lightweight top with the heavy bottom is meant to entice the felines to bap and bop Snacky Mouse until treats spill out. He’s got several holes placed (assumably) in strategetic locations for treat placement, which doubles as places that reward the cat with said placed treats. Plus, he’s pretty cute.

The expected, delightful response would be for the cats to bap Snacky Mouse happily for snacks.

The expected, delightful response would be for the cats to bap Snacky Mouse happily for snacks.

When we eagerly set up Snacky Mouse blatantly stuffed with treats, the results were less than satisfying:

  1. Rocky (boy kitty) was immediately excited because HEY TREATS! Marta (younger, girl cat) mostly observed because she doesn’t like stepping in Rocky’s business if she’s not inclined to do so.
  2. Rocky fully aware that we hand out treats, ignores the Snacky Mouse. We are the giver of treats, who is this Snacky Mouse?
  3. After some coaxing, Rocky realizes “Hey, that weird thing has snacks in it.” We eagerly awaited for him to cutely bap and paw to get the treats.
  4. He mostly just stares
  5. And staaaaaaares. Then, action! Rocky leans close to Snacky Mouse, surely he will start with the cute bapping and pawing!
  6. Instead, he mostly shoved the flat part of his head at Snacky Mouse until all the treats tipped out within 2 seconds, then ate all of them. Marta vaguely watched from 5 feet away.
  7. After Snacky Mouse was empty, Rocky proceeded to ignore it again, then fussed at Humans for more snacks.

Here’s a comic-based summary of typical Snacky Mouse interaction from Rocky:

The actual cat reaction to Snacky Mouse was less exciting.

The actual cat reaction to Snacky Mouse was less exciting.

Although his cuteness appeals to the Humans, sadly, Snacky Mouse is a failure in our household for cats who prefer their treats not involve much work.

Overall Ranking: 1 out of 5 Cat Stares.

Epilogue

Not long after I wrote this review (but before I published it onto The Internets), Rocky was randomly making noises in the middle of the night with something annoying noisy. The next day, it was discovered that he had suddenly found Snacky Mouse again (with no snacks) and had developed a fascination for picking Snacky up and repeatedly dropping it. We’re under the assumption that Snacky smells enough like treats now to engage Rocky at random points of the day, including in the middle of the night, so perhaps the Snacky Mouse now has a 2 out of 5 Cat Stares ranking now.