ZhuZhu Pets
American line of plush robotic hamster toys
ZhuZhu Pets (Mandarin pronunciation: [tʂú tʂú], formerly known as Go Go Pets) is an American line of plush robotic hamster toys created by Cepia LLC in 2009. Multiple spin-off toy lines, including ZhuZhu Puppies and Kung Zhus, have been released.
History
ZhuZhu Pets were created by Russ Hornsby for his St. Louis company, Cepia LLC. The name comes from Mandarin zhūzhū (Chinese: 猪猪), meaning "little pig." In late 2009, Cepia employed only 16 people in the U.S. and 30 in China. The original ZhuZhu Pets are nine different characters, with names including Chunk, PipSqueak, Mr. Squiggles, and Num Nums. There are various accessories for creating customized hamster habitats. ZhuZhu Pets can be put in either of two play modes: "nurturing mode," in which they coo and purr, or "adventure mode," in which they explore their habitat and respond to various stimuli.
The toy first launched under the name Go Go Pets in July 2009, but was rebranded as ZhuZhu Pets in October. Cepia soon signed a distribution deal with Character Options to release the product (under the Go Go Pets name) in the United Kingdom for the 2009 Christmas season.
“ZhuZhu Pets” enters the record as american line of plush robotic hamster toys. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what ZhuZhu, Pets and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2631239. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009.
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