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

I bought this for my cats but they didn't have much interest in it no matter what we did. I tried to make them engage with it by smacking it around a little, but they really did not seem to care about it at all. After a few failed attempts I realized I was playing with this thing by myself, but I was having fun doing it! I've given up on the cats but after a hard day at work I'll throw this thing on and chase it around my house on all fours for a bit. This thing can keep me busy for hours! My wife loves it too

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.

Doesn't work at all, straight from the box. Again this was for my neighbors cats. Very disappointed.

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.