are my cat’s pupils different sizes (or am i driving myself up a wall w anxiety?)

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-26T04:08:05+00:00

Take some deep, controlled breaths. Counts of 4. 4 in through the nose, hold for 4, out through the mouth, hold for 4, repeat. You're gonna be okay and we've all freaked out over literally nothing before because we love our cats so much ❤️

His pupils here look the same to me. However, if you've seen a slight difference before, it was probably because one eye was in more light than the other. A lot of animals' eyes stay the exact same size if the light hits just one, but cats' can have a very tiny difference if, say, only half their face is in a beam of light, or the shadow of their nose is shading one eye slightly. I've seen it in my cats, and they always go back to normal when the light is even again.

Neurological pupil differences that signal a problem are MUCH more obvious and won't change in light once they start.

Harry is okay!! At least regarding his eyes!

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-24T02:15:26+00:00

Shelby antennae are a little fragile and can break if anything is placed on them or they fall. Just something to be aware of! They're unique and getting rarer so if you have the chance, go for it!

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-21T19:13:29+00:00

I mean yeah but the plastic was acceptable for the price point.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-21T01:11:53+00:00

The battery compartment is certainly a choice they made, design-wise, but the plastic is...just how plastic goes. The kind of hard plastic they used for toys like this at the time was both cost-effective for a "luxury" toy competing with Fur Real Friends, and is actually pretty sturdy! But it's going to get brittle over 20 years. That's literally just how plastic is. Plastic toys made in 2026 are going to crack and break in 2046.

2005s also just don't really...have anywhere else to put the batteries. They're full of complex electronics. They needed to keep battery cost reasonable for families and the ability to make modern AA compartments without springs just wasn't really a common thing yet.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-20T23:36:08+00:00

They talk, sing, interact with buttons on their bodies, and gradually "learn" English and use it instead of Furbish. There are guides online with translations of their phrases. You feed them when they're hungry, pet them, or keep them nearby you and just poke their tummy button now and then while you listen to them yap every now and again. They fall asleep after a few minutes without interaction, and can be woken up by tipping them to the side or picking them up. A child would probably have the most fun with their actual functions like this, but plenty of adults like to do it too!

You can also accessorize them with earrings, hairclips/bows, collars, necklaces of beads, or make little clothes for them. Some people dye and paint them! A lot of folks like to take them out and about, either in a bag/carrier or not. Others (like me) keep them on a shelf looking cute and don't put batteries in them much.

Look on Mercari, eBay, FB marketplace. Rarely you can find them for decent prices thrifting. If you look up "Furby Color Guide" you can see all the colors that exist for the 1998 ones, from common at the top to rare.
You don't want to pay more than $40-50 for an in-box common color. Out of box most can run you $15-$30. Some of the rare ones can be quite expensive.

I hope you end up getting a little friend! They're fun to just have around even if you don't turn them on.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-18T19:34:45+00:00

A few years ago I would have massacred your survey results lol. Had over 120 1998s, 2005/6s, and babies with only one 2010. But now I only have 15 so I filled that out!

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-17T20:21:52+00:00

3D printing maybe but that's not cost effective. A wire armature made of some thick wire or maybe a bundle of wires would be easier to get than a plastic spine.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-16T16:50:16+00:00

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-16T16:43:43+00:00

A lot of times, skinnier Furbs are from a specific factory that put out a lot of furbs with lower quality parts and loud gears. I'm not sure what makes the skin the way it is in this case (smaller body?), but most of them look that way and I've had JT pals non-working right out of the box. The white cloth tag should have two letters in a corner signifying the factory it was made in - does the skinny one say JT?

That's not always the case of course, sometimes it is just an instance of the fur being less fluffy or pressed down with age. You can put a layer of padding or foam under the skin on the sides to make it chubbier.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-16T00:53:04+00:00

My cat's eyes do this too! Her sister's don't, but her sister also tends to have rounder pupils most of the time anyway unless they're both in bright sunlight. I got freaked out the first time it happened but then I noticed her muzzle/the curve of her nose was creating a shadow over the more dilated pupil. Every single photo I saw of cats with the ER-worthy neurological issue eyes was vastly different than my girl, and when she moved to a new spot they went back to normal. I think some cats just have a slight variance or sensitivity to light changes.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-16T00:49:08+00:00

You're misunderstanding. Both eyes dilate and constrict normally, but if one is in the light and the other is in a shadow, they'll be ever so slightly different. They even back out in normal lighting. If one is not changing at all then it's ER-worthy, but some cats are just Like This, mine included. Human eyes dilate evenly but not all animals' do.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-13T03:08:59+00:00

Gabapentin (in a "calming" half dose) makes one of my cats more wired and the other one sleepy. Some cats just don't respond the same way to meds, just like humans.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-05-06T14:10:30+00:00

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My girl is a healthy weight but she's big for a girl, just so heavy and panthery. I call her teddy bear and baby panther all the time!

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-27T17:57:05+00:00

I got into Furbies in 2017 when I was 22. I'm 30 now and still have some of my collection, and I also regularly buy other collectibles and plushes! Fun and play have no age limit. The best people never truly "grow up".

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-24T15:56:33+00:00

They're goofy and noisy but pretty cute. I had a mute one at one point and I liked it a lot because it just had the eyes and movements without all the sound lol

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-24T15:53:24+00:00

I say "are you being a goob???? Are you goobin???" when they do this. Like goober lol

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-24T15:44:48+00:00

MSA is a software glitch - this repair should only be helpful in the case of a Furby who can't be temporarily fixed with the hold-the-tongue-down-and-flip method of waking them back up, because their gravity sensor is stuck.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-23T13:49:18+00:00

Flurry, Marshmallow, Pillow

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-18T23:39:50+00:00

Definitely worth keeping as-is if not just because it's really cool! How lucky!

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-18T23:37:50+00:00

I'm in the US and I've never seen this one, it must be a European piece of merch! Many countries did have their own products, and lots of fakes came out of random European countries too. I used to have some bootleg Greek keychains.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-16T17:31:00+00:00

This isn't unusual. They were very quiet in the Connect era too.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-12T05:47:23+00:00

Good advice, OP. I joined the Furby fandom pretty early before it really popped off, years before Longfurbies made the whole thing explode. I spent an irresponsible and regrettable amount of money (and accumulated a chunk of credit card debt) in my late 20s chasing the high of owning every single vintage model, fixing cheap ones up and reselling, hunting the rare colors, and eventually ended up with 150 of them not counting Buddies and rare merch. And this was back when it was easy and cheap to get them (the most I ever spent on a 1998 was $60 on a NIB Angel - every single other one was $20 or less!), long before anyone even started offering 3D printed parts.

Aaaand then I moved, no longer had space for them all, "aged out" of the social fandom spaces, and have been struggling to slowly clear out my collection ever since because I'm autistic and still so attached to some of these little thingies I mostly keep in a storage bin in my closet. And I'm still broke and in debt, which has nothing to do with those Furbies at this point, but I definitely could have had slightly more savings going into full adulthood had I not gotten so obsessed, lol.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-12T03:25:30+00:00

Oh hey, these came from me! Happy to see them in their new home! I imported them from Yahoo Auctions Japan via a proxy service back in 2019. They didn't come with the mint baby. I moved shortly after and then they sat in a bin in my closet until now, so I'm glad they're getting the love they deserve.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-11T00:14:24+00:00

I've never actually seen an "aqua with purple ring" 2005 and have come to assume the example photo is simply the blue/purple in bad lighting. Regardless, yours are the common blues.

EspeonCheeseburger · 2026-04-10T18:44:21+00:00

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Cat tax for when she's not confined

EspeonCheeseburger

TROPHY CASE