Customer Reviews

Ethical Wide Colorful Springs Cat Toy, 10-Pack

5 star:		(209)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(72)

 

 

Please use extreme caution if you purchase these toys for kittens in particular. My 12 week old kitten started to lose weight and failing to thrive when he was always the largest and strongest of a litter I am fostering. I weigh the kittens continually to track their progress. A barium study revealed 5 broken pieces of these springs in his GI tract which will now have to be removed either endoscopically or by surgery if the pieces migrated to his intestines. This would have killed him and/or caused perforation if not caught in time. I can't tell you how much I regret buying these toys. These kittens were carefully supervised for a month while playing with the springs before the one kitten ingested them a few days ago.

UPDATE:
My kitten is doing great now and we were lucky the pieces did not move beyond his stomach. I wanted to clarify that my kitten swallowed pieces of the Ethical WIDE Colorful Springs Cat Toy and Ethical THIN Colorful Springs Cat Toy which were both plastic. The thin and narrow version is brittle and do not coil and spring back like the wide version. They also broke easily. I do not recommend the thin springs at all. Despite the breakage, I don't believe my older cats would have ingested the pieces like my kittens. However, I do not want to take a chance moving forward with the wide coils either and wanted other pet owners to be aware of the potential danger as we had quite a scare.

I have two cats, and these springs are their favorite. They just love batting these around and chasing them, and they never get sick of these inexpensive toys. I suggest buying extras, as these springs get lost pretty easily. I used to buy them at a local store and then was disappointed when the store stopped carrying them. Luckily, I found them on Amazon! These springs end up under furniture, doors, kitchen appliances, and the washer and dryer. You can fetch them out with a yardstick, but these things do have a knack for disappearing. I usually ration them out to my cats until all have disappeared, and then every once in a while, I get out the yardstick and go searching for the lost ones.

My cats love these. I ordered four sets because they go missing for days at a time, only to end up in a cache behind a chair or in the basement. My cats will play with these for hours. Our favorite game is fetch. I toss it, the two little ones bat it about a bit, then one of them brings it back to me for the next round. Having a small black cat walk up to me with one of these sticking up in the air makes all the harder parts of the day just fade away.

My cat likes to fetch and these springs have a great bounce and springy noise when thrown. He loves them and will bring one to me when he wants to play.

I received these as a gift for my cat. I was playing with one with my cat at the vet and he highly recommended I NOT give these to my cat. Cats can chew pieces off and cause damage internally. I am not taking any chances and have thrown these away. My cat loved to play with them, but it is not worth the risk.

Are you kidding me?! This is my second time purchasing these toys for my two cats, unfortunately, this time from a different seller. The first ones I bought were plastic, the ones received now are metal wire freshly painted with very smelly paint that has gathered in small drops on the wire but the toys are already all scratched up! My curious cat sniffed the package and started sneezing. Not to mention the sharp edges on both ends of each toy that could puncture an eye. Also, the cats are meant to chew on them and I don't want my cats to eat drops of paint. What in the world is the seller thinking?!

Thought these were made of plastic. Received heavy metal springs covered in a plastic colored casing. Not even the same colors as the photos. These would have harmed my cats if I had let them play with them...scratched them, puncture wounds or even putting an eye out. What was the vendor thinking to send out wires for pet toys. Will be requesting a refund right away.

I am at fault for not reading more of the reviews for this item before I purchased them. I loved the photos of these cat toys; the colors were bright and cheerful and the springs 'looked springy and fun'. I admit I stopped reading after reading just a few reviews about how much other people's cats loved these toys. The springs sounded exactly like something my two cats would be in love with.

Now I now don't know if they would like them or not because I would never let them play with them. The are way too stiff for even me to 'spring' them. The colors are very unattractive. The paint looks ugly and smells horrid. They are very hard metal with extremely sharp and painful pointed ends on each end that could stab a paw or tongue or spring into an eye or other body part and could really injure you if you accidentally stepped on one. The photo is entirely misleading. Now, finally reading reviews after the fact, I read that this toy indeed 'used' to actually be like it looks in the photos; bright, cheery, soft plastic, springy. etc.

If you love your cats and your cats love to have fun with interactive, but safe, toys, I would not recommend buying these. I am not at all interested in reporting whether my pets like them or not; I love my two cats way too much to let them get their little paws on even one of these dangerous springs.

Wouldn't pay to send them back, but definitely won't use them or, heaven forbid, ever order anymore.

EDIT: Additional information on these springs - added 01/09/2012:

I contacted Amazon directly about these dangerous springs. They have processed a refund for the cost of the springs (I didn't pay original s/h; the springs were part of a Super Saver Order). They also provided me with information about Ethical (phone #, fax #, e-mail, etc) so that I could contact them directly about whether the springs were still being made with plastic or have been changed to metal. Frankly, I think it is obvious that the metak springs many of us received were not related to Ethical; the Ethical name was not mentioned on the product I received. It appears to me the seller is simply misrepresenting what the item he is offering for sale.

I would urge every customer who ordered these dangerous springs offered for sale as 'Ethical Springs' to contact Amazon directly and ask to receive a refund for the misrepresented product.

Based on this episode, plus another episode with misrepresentation of the condition of a book ordered from a marketplace seller, it has become clear to me that Amazon is placing themselves squarely is the middle by not holding their third-party and marketplace sellers to a higher standard. Amazon is providing their (at this point) positive name recognition to other sellers (of both types) and is bearing the weight of having their customer-service representatives spend an enormous amount of time dealing with unhappy customers, and in many cases is provided promo credits or refunds for products - but they are not following-thru with the third-party sellers and marketplace sellers to hold them responsible for honesty in selling. At least that is how it looks to me as a customer.

I have been an avid and dedicated customer of Amazon at all levels for many years, but after multiple problems this November and December; I am currently re-evaluating my future as a loyal Amazon Customer. Including this misrepresentation with the cat springs, I have spent way too much time dealing with Amazon customer-service through phone calls and e-mails to try to get correct products, owed credits, adequate service, and final resolutions. I am now evaluating whether the savings is worth my time in the long run. I will however state that in the end all my problems have been resolved and credits given, but one has to wonder; how long can Amazon continue to bear the brunt of the fall out of misconduct and misrepresentation by 'outside' sellers? Amazon of course is in control of the answer to that question and ultimately, hopefully, will make the correct decision for them as a business.

From the outside looking in; right now Amazon is seriously beginning to look a lot like Netflix when it comes to presenting themselves as a major booming successful business venture demonstrating just how to go about shooting themselves in the foot.

Perhaps customers requesting Amazon to make refunds on misrepresented items, such as this dangerous cat toy, will help Amazon make a decision on their future dealings with outside sellers that will ultimately be advantageous to both Amazon and their customers.

These are the BEST toys. Well, next to the bath robe belt that Smidgeon stole when she was very young and still drags around EVERYWHERE with her. But these are a very close second. I was a little wary at first, because one of my previous cats liked to chew these into pieces, but Smidge never has tried that. She chases them. She carries them around. She drops them on my face in the middle of the night. She plays fetch with them. She doesn't always get them all the way back to me, but when I remind her that she has to bring it back or I can't play with her, she does a very obvious "OH!" and trots back to where she dropped it, picks it up, and brings it over. And will do this about twenty times in a row.

The amazing part was when Noxie began to play with them. Noxie had been in a shelter for a year out of her first year and a half of life. She never really learned how to play with toys. In the last two months, she started playing with these. She learned that she could pick them up and carry them around. She found her Huntress Yowl.

And yes, they get shoved under the fridge all the time. I came in just the other day and found BOTH cats, each with both front legs under the fridge up to their furry armpits, gazing up at me pleadingly. "Um... a little help here? They escaped!" Like one of the other reviewers, I ration them out, and occasionally go under the fridge with a yardstick and, oh hey look! Here's FIVE OF THEM in hiding! The cats come running when they hear me pick up the yardstick. "Momma's gonna get the toys for us!!" Once I found that Smidgeon had knocked over the yardstick and was determinedly trying to push it over to the fridge herself. (She has a VERY strong I DO IT MYSELF ethic).

And watching them chase these in an empty bathtub is simply hysterical. Slip, slide, whee-lookit-it-go!

Fantastic cat toy. Such a simple concept. Better than the plastic seals off of milk jugs. And THOSE my previous cat would sacrifice to the god of heat in winter. But that's another story.

Length:: 0:35 Mins

My cat likes playing with ping-pong balls because they bounce everywhere. He also likes rubber bands because he can stretch and pull on them. This spring toy is basically the best of both of those toys. See for yourself...