Yeowww!
Catnip toys stuffed one hundred per cent with organically grown American catnip — no filler, since 1997
🇺🇸 Made in USA
Our assessment
Company details
Where Yeowww! products are made
The claim that does the work here is not the flag, it is the fill: Yeowww! toys are one hundred per cent stuffed with organically grown catnip. Most catnip toys are polyester with a token sprinkle. Filling a toy entirely with the active ingredient is dramatically more expensive and is the entire product.
The company specifies that the catnip inside its toys is USA organically grown. For a product whose only function is potency, where the nepetalactone comes from is the specification.
The toys are cotton twill bodies — the Cat Bat is described as a four-inch durable cotton twill body — embroidered and sewn to survive the specific abuse a cat inflicts. Durability is not decorative in this category.
The Roseville, Minnesota address is published in the company’s own site footer. The 1997 founding and the founder’s name come from the company’s own anniversary page. The origin wording — made in the USA, one hundred per cent stuffed with USA organically grown catnip — is quoted from Yeowww!’s own product listings across more than one product family and is not paraphrased or strengthened.
The story
Yeowww! began in 1997 when Kevin Duck bought twenty-five pounds of the best organically grown catnip he could find and started a business on it. That is the company’s own account, and it is a fair summary of the strategy ever since: buy the best catnip, then do as little as possible to it.
The insight was that the catnip market at the time was mostly weak. Once cats had experienced a toy filled entirely with strong, organically grown catnip rather than fibre with a dusting of herb, the difference was not subtle — and it was the cats, not the marketing, that made the case.
The company trades from Roseville, Minnesota as DuckyWorld Products, Inc. Kevin is joined by his wife Lisa, who runs day-to-day operations, and the range has grown into the sewn shapes the brand is known for — the Pollock Fish, the Cat Bat, My Cats Balls, the Rainbow, the butterflies and krinkle bugs.
Its own stated measure of success is not growth but consistency: that the catnip and the toys are still stuffed one hundred per cent full, twenty-five years and more after the first twenty-five pounds.
Why they matter
Pet toys are among the most thoroughly imported goods on a shelf, and catnip toys are an easy place to cut corners because the customer cannot assess the product and the end user cannot complain. Filling a Yeowww! toy entirely with organically grown catnip is the opposite trade.
Growing and processing the catnip domestically also keeps an agricultural supply chain in the United States, not just a sewing operation. In a category where the herb is the product, that is the meaningful part.
And it is a company that has kept the same promise for a quarter of a century in a market where nobody would have noticed if it had quietly stopped. Cats notice.
Shop Yeowww! products
Browse Yeowww! catnip toys and organically grown catnip stocked on the Buy American Campaign store.
Frequently asked questions
Are Yeowww! toys made in the USA?
Yes. The company describes its toys as made in the USA and states that they are one hundred per cent stuffed with USA organically grown catnip rather than with fibre filler.
Who makes Yeowww! catnip?
DuckyWorld Products, Inc., 2958 Cleveland Ave. N., Roseville, Minnesota 55113.
When was Yeowww! founded?
1997. The company’s own account is that founder Kevin Duck started the business with twenty-five pounds of the highest quality organically grown catnip he could find.
What makes Yeowww! different from other catnip toys?
The fill. Most catnip toys are polyester with a small amount of catnip added. Yeowww! toys are stuffed entirely with organically grown catnip, which is far more expensive and is the reason cats respond to them the way they do.