The WANTi Cat Toy is the type of product offering that will make you think long and hard about how much you really love your cat before you pull the trigger on a purchase. Although prices vary and have dropped since, when I got this unit it was listed on Amazon at $86.00. That’s quite the investment for a cat toy.

The box.

Fortunately, it turns out that how much you love your cat, and in my case, how much my family and I love our cat, Fluffy, doesn’t really need to be tested much in this case. You see, whether it’s the occasional overpriced meal, the occasional overpriced tech item, or the occasional overpriced pet gift, it’s really not so bad when the end product is good. To my thinking, it’s better to invest in fewer expensive items that are high quality like this than more inexpensive items that are lower quality. With this product, the investment pays off.

The contents.

In the package you get the main unit, three wands (two with toys attached), a ball, an angle connector, a paddle, and a combination remote control and laser pointer. Surprisingly, for a product in this price range, the required two AAA batteries for the remote and three AAA batteries for the base unit are not included.

First investigation.

Making her move (slowly).

Operation is simple. Attach any combination and angle of wands and toys and either press the button on the unit for 10 minutes of random play, or manually control the action from the remote. There are six basic play modes: spinning, slithering, wiggling, batting, ball tracking, and laser chasing, the latter of which is done solely from the remote.

Getting into position.

Success!

Overall build quality is excellent. There’s nice variety here to keep your cat interested longer term. It’s also very easy to press the button on the top of the unit every morning for your cat to get in a good 10 minutes of high quality stimulation. This is great when a busy schedule reduces the amount of time you can spend with your cat. Obviously, proper stimulation is particularly important with cats, because without enough of the right type of interactions each day, they can turn into real jerks.

More first play.

Nom! Nom!

We have a cat who’s particular, but surprisingly she took to the toy right away after only seconds of skepticism. In fact, the video was taken shortly after set up. Since then, she’s gotten even more into the toy. That’s a big win in my book.

Pluses:

• Good build quality
• Good variety of attachments
• Laser pointer built into the remote
• In a sample size of one, seems to easily engage even particular cats

Minuses:

• Pricey
• Batteries are not included
• You can hear the “gears” grind when the cat catches and holds the toy

Thanks to weGoLuck for the review unit.