Kong Marathon vs Everlasting Treat Ball

Now that we've had the Kong Marathon and Starmark's Everlasting Treat Ball for a while, I think it's time to compare them directly and see how they stack up. We currently have two Kong Marathon toys, a large green ball and a small blue bone. Our Everlasting Treat Ball lineup includes one large Everlasting Treat Ball, one medium Everlasting Bento Ball, one medium Everlasting Groovy Ball, and a small Everlasting Treat Wheeler.

The Facts
Both the Starmark and Kong edible chew refills come in packs of two. At Petsmart a pack of large Kong Marathon refills costs $8.99 and a pack of small refills costs $6.99. A small pack of Everlasting Treats is $4.99, medium is $5.99 and large Everlasting Treats are $8.99. Everlasting Treats come in a variety of flavors, including chicken, hickory, vanilla mint, bacon, liver, and a chicken flavor that is wheat, corn, and soy-free. Kong Marathon treats only come in one flavor. Kong Marathon toys are available in two sizes, Starmark's Everlasting Treats and toys come in three.

Taste Test
While my dogs will eat almost anything, they definitely prefer the Kong Marathon treats to the Everlasting Treats. A Kong Marathon treat placed in the Kong Marathon ball or bone will inevitably be finished in one sitting. The Everlasting Treats aren't quite so irresistible, they can hang around for several days depending on the flavor, and sometimes I have to resort to bribery to get them to finish.

Ease of Use
It might be easier to pop treats into the Kong Marathon toys, I originally used a spoon to help pop the lip of the toy over the treat. As the ball gets chewed up, it has become much easier to get the treat into it. The Starmark Everlasting Treats can be tough to get into any of the toys, the trick is to get the treat a tiny bit wet first. Even a little bit of water spread across the treat with my finger works, as does spritzing the toy itself. Still, the loaded toy is supposed to dry before being given to the dog.

Capacity
Not only do Kong Marathon and Everlasting Treat toys hold durable edible chews, they also have space to hold kibble, peanut butter, and other small treats. The large Kong Marathon ball holds about 3/4 a cup of kibble, the small bone holds about 1/4 cup. The large Everlasting Treat Ball holds a quarter cup of kibble and two Everlasting Treats. The medium Everlasting Bento Ball holds less than 1/4 cup.

Durability
After about eight refills, our green Kong Marathon ball is looking pretty sad. The edges are getting all crumbly and I can easily pull bits off with my fingers. The Everlasting Treat Ball has had at least that many refills, the Everlasting Bento Ball has been used a dozen times or more. Both of the Starmark toys are still holding up just fine. They have some small splits around the edges of the treat hole now, and those make it easier to get the treat itself loaded. The splits do not appear to be getting any larger at this point.

Bottom Line
According to Brisbane and Ru, the Kong Marathon edible chews taste better. According to me, the Everlasting Treat Ball is infinitely more durable. The Starmark Everlasting toys show little to no wear after a lot more refills, while the large Kong Marathon ball is already falling apart. I've seen the Kong Marathon toys on clearance recently, I'm really hoping the Kong Company is taking this idea back to the drawing board and will come out with a more durable version in the future.

My Kong Marathon is Getting Chewed Up

My dogs aren't serious chewers. Ru is the only one of the three who enjoys recreational chewing, he loves his Nylabones. Brisbane has had some of his food toys for eight or nine years, and used them regularly without any damage. Ulysses is the same way, he is only interested in getting the food out of the toy, and if it's too much work he just gives up. Both dogs have been using the Starmark Everlasting Treat Ball and Bento Ball for several months without doing any damage to the toys.

So why, after only a few uses, does our Kong Marathon ball look like this? Our original Kong Marathon toy was a small blue bone, but I quickly upgraded to a large green ball when I realized the small toys were intended for dogs under 35 pounds. Briz weighs 40 pounds and Uly weighs 50, the large toys are labeled for dogs up to 65 pounds.

It is fortunate that my dogs are gentle chewers with no desire to eat pieces of their toys, because the large Kong Marathon ball is falling apart on us. It's still pretty functional, but I could pull pieces off it with my fingers easily. It may only have a few uses left, which sucks because I've put less than ten treats in it so far.

The ball is put away when not in use, and my dogs don't chew on non-edible stuff for fun. They stop playing with the toy as soon as they get the treat out, if not before. They are normally gentle with their toys, and getting gentler as they age. I am certain our Kong Marathon toy has not been abused, or subjected to more than the most gentle chewing, but it just isn't holding up to normal use.

How Long Does the Kong Marathon Last?

I recently purchased our second Kong Marathon toy, the first was a small Bone and the new one is a Large Ball. With Kong products I have learned that bigger is better. The bigger the toy, the longer it lasts. The same holds true for the Marathon toys.

Photo by Erin Koski

We have been through several treat refills for our small Kong Marathon toy, and those tend to last 40-pound Brisbane about 10-15 minutes now that he understands how the toy works. He likes to remove the treat from the toy first, and then swallow it.

The Large Ball takes him much longer to empty because it is much too large for him to get his mouth around. Without that leverage, he must spend a significantly longer time licking and gnawing. This makes it a 50+ minute project.

Getting the treat itself into the toy can be a bit tricky. It slides in most of the way and then seems impossible to fit that last edge under the lip of the toy. Kong recommends using a spoon to pop the lip out and over the treat, and that has worked extremely well for me.

Another severely under publicized bit of info about these toys is that they are HOLLOW. I neglected to mention this in my original review because I didn't realize it until I went to refill the toy with a new treat. The fact that the Marathon toys are hollow means they can be used for more than just holding Kong Marathon treats. This puts them on par with the Starmark Everlasting Treat products. Our Small Bong holds at least a quarter cup of kibble, the Large Ball holds at least a cup. I could also smear the innards of these with peanut butter, or stuff in cheese or assorted other goodies before loading up the Marathon treat. I think the toys could also be used as food dispensers without the Kong treat, but putting the treat in the toy means that Brisbane has to chew all the way through that to get to the goodies inside.