Always in search of natural pet products and toys here at spoiled Labrador world headquarters, I was especially interested to test drive some of the products from this site when I met up with the owner, Pam Wheelock. Three specific toy samples made their way to my door. All were of high quality. Some were pricey. Others were an even bigger bargain than I expected. Read on to find out how these natural pet products made out at our house, enter to win a prize give away and even get a chance to review a not yet released toy on your own blog.

First, the lowdown on the specific products we reviewed at our house. Our rambunctious, professional toy destroying dog tried out two of the wool balls, the tug toy and a crescent shaped squeaky toy made with organic hemp and stuffed with organic cotton. All are machine washable, nontoxic and dye free.

  • The tug toy was a huge hit, and certainly a quality toy. At nearly seventeen dollars, this might be more of a holiday wish list item or special occasion purchase for Wise Bread readers. However, they do stand up to laundering, so if you don't want to make your own out of old blue jeans and don't want to keep paying for the cheaper ones, you might still find this a value. Certainly from the perspective of hand made in the USA from organic materials it's a value. But for those who are needing to make uber frugal budget choices, you may want to consider creating this one on your own or putting it on your dog's gift registry list. Again though, a quality toy that your pet will enjoy if you decide to go for it.

 

  •  The wool balls are still going strong after nearly two weeks of use. The el cheapo ones from the store are usually toast in less than an hour. Pam mentioned she has several customers who only need to buy one ball a year, due to the fact that you can put these in the little fabric sock pouch that comes with them to toss them in the wash for cleaning and “refluffing”. When these balls have truly been used until the end, they are completely compostable. Ranging from small to jumbo in size with a price range of $4.95 to $11.75, I consider these an excellent value as compared to constantly replacing the cheaper ones. However, it gets better. These particular toys also have seconds that you can purchase for roughly half the cost of the full price ones. To be able to see the comparable quality, Pam sent me a full price one and one that fell into the rejected “seconds” pile. Honestly, any differences were barely noticeable and Maggie loves them both. She even requests them regularly over some of the other toys she has here at home.

 

  •  The last toy is not officially released yet by Purrfect Play, as it is still in development. It's a half moon shaped toss and squeak toy made of seriously sturdy fabric. The squeak factor is apparently an issue due to the strength of the fabric needed to make these things durable, and the fact that Pam doesn't use spun plastic to stuff them with, which allows less air into the “toy system” so to speak. Maggie went nuts over it for the first few minutes, yet bailed when she found she couldn't destroy it and rip out the squeaker like she can with other toys we bring home to her. However, as a boomerang type of toss and catch toy, she enjoys it just fine and will play for a few minutes at a time if you make it squeak and toss it down for her. Pam is going to try some adjustments to the design with channeling the seams differently to allow more air to the squeaker, which is loud when outside of the toy. She asked me to open up the opportunity to four different bloggers who have dogs that can seriously put this toy through it's paces and are willing to write up the results online. Just let her know if you're interested.

PurrfectPlay.Com also makes cat toys and other pet related gifts, that they will gift wrap upon request in Earth friendly packaging. They also use no plastic strings to attach tags and have basically no plastic in their toy packaging whatsoever. (Although she did mention one item requiring Velcro as the exception.) Now, on to the prize give away and how you can enter. Simply pop us a comment in the section below telling us why you would like to receive some of these great products and you'll be entered to win. If a cat lover is selected, the prize package will be one of Purrfect Play's catnip snakes and a kitty sized wool ball. If a dog owner ends up being the winner, your prize package will consist of a tug toy and one of the wool balls my dog loved so much. Contest ends June 17th, 2009 at 9:00 in the morning, EST. Good luck, Wise Bread readers!   (CONTEST CLOSED - THANKS!)