Squirrel Dude

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Eddie’s new BFF Big Yellow Ball, which we obtained when the boys finally broke the Purple Egg and Treat Ball.  Since our Wobbler is on its’ way out too, we also got the boys a Squirrel Dude.

Gambit and Squirrel Dude can be pretty funny together – hang in there with me for a minute.

Squirrel Dude is essentially a scented purple Kong with a squirrel on it and prongs slowing the release of food, but made by a different company.  We have a large, which is about the same size as our large Kong Extreme.

My feelings on Squirrel Dude as a meal toy are about the same as with the yellow ball.  The prongs make it annoying to load with food.  The kibble needs to be pushed in by hand or else Squirrel Dude has to be banged on the counter to be filled.  It holds about a cup of kibble, which comes out with relative ease, although the last few sometimes take a little longer.

In other words, it now takes ages to fill the 2 food toys and Kongs for meals, so the boys get a bit more antsy than they did with the screw-apart food toys.

One night, when Gambit was a whiny bundle of energy, I finally tossed a couple milkbones into Big Yellow Ball and Squirrel Dude.

As I suspected, they worked much better as treat toys.  After all, that’s how they’re advertised.  In fact, they were frustrating enough for the boys that I had to break the milkbones into quarters inside the toys.  Eddie was persistent and eventually defeated Big Yellow Ball, but Squirrel Dude took a little more effort.

Eventually, Gambit settled into a routine.  He would pick up Squirrel Dude and give his head a good hard chomp (I’m pretty sure this did nothing, but he was convinced it was necessary).

Then, without letting go, he’d slam the bottom of Squirrel Dude down on the carpet to force the treats to the bottom and gently let go.

At this point, Squirrel Dude would be laying on his side with the opening facing Gambit.  Gambit would then try really hard to reach the treats, which were right by the opening but guarded by the little rubber prongs.

This persisted for over half an hour, during which I’m pretty sure the treats ended up fairly soggy but I don’t think he managed to get any of them.  It took several days for the boys to finish a single broken up milkbone in Squirrel Dude, although several meals were also eaten out of Squirrel Dude in the meantime.

Conclusions?  Squirrel Dude and Big Yellow Ball are much better treat toys than meal toys, and as usual, Gambit’s logic is pretty great.  Brain workout success.

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