If your cat doesn’t do much more than lay around the house and sleep or eat, she could probably benefit from some exercise. My cat, Rio, used to get her exercise at 3:00am, dashing around the house like a crazy thing, determined to wake up everybody in the apartment building I lived in at the time. If you’d rather channel your cat’s energy into something a little more neighbor-friendly, you probably have looked at exercise wheels for small dogs and cats. Those are usually big and bulky and cost around $500 or more. One Fast Cat has developed a better, cheaper version of the cat exercise wheel, and they have turned to Kickstarter for funding.
The One Fast Cat Exercise Wheel is easily assembled in about 10 minutes without tools, and it’s quiet and nice looking enough that you could even place it in your living room. It doesn’t require power, other than what Kitty will provide. It has a 48″ diameter to protect the cat’s back, and its 10″ traction surface is wide enough for sure footing. It’s made of recycled plastics, and it’s sturdy and lightweight so you can move it around in your house or take it outside and hose it off when it’s time for a cleaning.
For a pledge of $199, you will receive a One Fast Cat Exercise Wheel with your choice of a black, blue, green, or red traction surface. No need to wonder if the project will meet its funding goals; they’ve already raised over $115,000 in pledges and far exceeded their $10,000 funding goal, with 16 days left in the funding period. It’s available for shipping within the US only, and shipments are expected to begin in September, 2014.
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It’s a gerbil wheel for cats. I need this for Max! I wish it wasn’t so expensive though. For $199 I’ll just continue to throw him outside so he can chase birds. 🙂
Cats are willing to run in circles?
My experience with cats is they are willing to do pretty much anything if they think you don’t want them to do it. A cat we had when I was a child would eat stewed tomatoes if he could steal them from a serving bowl on the kitchen counter. If you put some in his bowl, he would recoil in horror from the sight!
@Janet that sounds like Max. He always acts so excited when you’re making dinner (especially if meat is involved) and will stand up on his hind legs with his front paws on the cabinet like he’s begging. He won’t eat any people food you put in his bowl though. He prefers his special diabetic dry kibble or bugs… he loves bugs. Ick.
@Julie At least the bugs are protein, so good for a diabetic cat! 😉
@julie – Stolen food tastes so much better!
My cat would turn this into a curved hammock. I think the only way she might use it, is if I sealed her inside with plexi-glass sides and installed a motor to make her move. Although I might just end up with a fat cat pachinko machine. meow meow ping ping meow hiss meow ping ping
Hahahahaha! 😉 Andrew you need your own comedy show 😉
If you look at this cat-wheel and others, you will see one thing in common – Bengals. We have two and they are very active and smart cats. They are very bad, but in a good way. The Cat Wheels help them burn off some energy. Mine is on order.