We have not tried the spring yet, but the rod itself is very handy. My cats both have a very different hunting technique, the 4 year old hides and then suddenly comes running after which you can hardly get the prey loose, while our kitten of 10 months keeps running after the prey like crazy and also grabs his prey jumping in the air. So far, the rod is coping well with all of this, so I am very happy with it! One downside is that our kitten likes to bite into the wire, probably because it is black, because with a transparent wire he does not do this so quickly. However, a textile wire is much safer than a transparent plastic wire, so we take that for granted. The rod is very sturdy and safe by the plastic around the clip, so my cats can not just a protruding piece of metal in their mouths! My cat of 4 years old is a master in holding on to his prey, so as soon as he gets hold of the sparrow I have on the fishing rod it takes quite some effort to get it loose again. Fortunately, the rod has no problems with this, it is very flexible. I have had the rod for about 2 weeks now and we play with it every day for at least 10 minutes, and so far the rod seems to be coping fine.
