One Fast Cat Exercise Wheel Review

The first time I saw the cat wheel advertisement, I just had to get it. I am that sucker. 

When One Fast Cat Exercise Wheel first came out, that was the only one on the market for a while. It was quite steep for me for over $200.

I YouTubed videos on how to make your own DIY cat wheel but they all required a handyman who has the tools and knows what they’re doing. I could’ve tried making it but I’m sure my first attempt at a DIY wheel would’ve resulted in more of a square shape.

Both Nala and Charlie had gained some weight over the last year and Nala, who is usually a very active and athletic feline, had been lounging around, unenticed to exercised. So, I really wanted to get the cat wheel for Nala. I wasn’t sure Charlie would go on it, because he’s not the exercising type.

At around last Christmas, I saw that they reduced the price to US$199 and I had just visited the Vet who said both Nala and Charlie were overweight and Nala had to get more exercise as it wasn’t healthy for an Abyssinian to be overweight. So I asked my family to get me the One Fast Cat exercise wheel for Christmas.

In the beginning of December, my sister told me she ordered it for me and I should expect it in about a week. But it didn’t arrive until the second week of January! So that was a bit of a bummer at the time. But it all worked out in the end. 

I suggest buying it directly from their website.

When the box arrived, I was super excited. It’s quite heavy, so I had to drag it on the floor from the mailroom up to my apartment.

When I laid out all the pieces, it was quite daunting. Like how the EFF am I going to put all this together? But the instructions were pretty clear and there were pictures which was helpful. There were a few small broken pieces of plastic, so I was worried that I got a defective one but it turned out they didn’t affect the functioning of the wheel.

According to the instructions, I put the wheel together first using those big rectangular curved plastic panels. You snap the two together and what secures them are the skinny curved plastic pieces that go on either side of the panels. And you use a rubber mallet that’s provided to bang the peg into the hole together until you hear a snap.

Then you assemble the rod and attach the 4 corners on top of the road where the wheel sits.

After that, when the 2 pieces are put together – the wheel and the rod base, you place the wheel on the rod. And then you put the sexy leopard print stickers on the inside of the wheel.

All in all, the assembly took about an hour from unboxing to the first turn of the wheel.

At first, the wheel made a squeaky sound which lasted for about a month. I think there were some parts of the plastic that needed to be “worn out” and smoothed out, because the squeaky noise went away after a month of use.

Getting Your Cat to Play on the Cat Wheel

So the question that all prospective cat wheel owners want to know is – does this thing work? Do cats use it?

Charlie was curious from afar. When I put him near the wheel, he ran away. He wanted nothing to do with it. To this day, he won’t go on the wheel although he’ll sit closer and watch Nala go on it. Nala, on the other hand, started sniffing and was curious.

I enticed her to go on the wheel everyday for a week by dangling some of her favorite food in front of her face. She didn’t quite understand how the wheel worked but quickly figured out that if she runs too quickly, then it’ll turn out of control fast so she would sprint for a second and then slow down. The food worked.

I also enticed her to play by dangling one of her favorite toys in front of her on the wheel. She used to play on it more but now she just randomly goes on it and jogs for 10 seconds. And this often happens in the middle of the night:

Is It Worth It?

So the truth is, just like anything else in their life, cats get bored with the same thing. I’ll keep training Nala to go on the wheel again. I think the cat wheel is effective if your cat isn’t the biggest scaredy cat like Charlie is, since he still refuses to go on it after half a year.

And it take a lot of real estate in a small apartment, so that’s a consideration if you live in a small space.

I don’t regret having it and I’ll probably keep it for a long time and take it with me when I move to different apartments. But it’s not as effective at getting your cat to exercise unless you’ve trained your cat to play on command. 

For $200, I think the price is still quite steep. For something that expensive, it’s a big gamble as to whether your cat likes it or not. If your cat is very athletic and is trained well, then it’s worth it, but if your cat is the regular lazy type, then for $200, it’s not worth it.