What’s that, EdenFantasys? You want to send me a free vibrator? And in exchange, I have the super difficult job of trying it out? Don’t mind if I do!

The Petite Flutter is a rabbit style vibrator made by California Exotics, a company with more than 15 years of experience in making sex toys. I happen to be a big fan of this style of toy, because let’s face it, internal and external stimulation at the same time is just plain fun. This particular vibe mixes things up a bit by having a bird shaped attachment instead of the classic rabbit. Are wings and a beak more fun than ears? Let’s find out!

Oh, silicone, I could write an epic poem about your awesomeness. I’m a little slap happy from lack of sleep, so I think I will.

Dear Silicone, most awesome of materials,
Dishwasher safe like my bowl for cereals.
You are so smooth and not at all porous,
Strong and hardy, like a Tyranosaurus.

If I put you somwhere warm, you retain the heat,
You get a perfect score on safety, which is also pretty neat!
Just gotta remember to use lube that’s water based,
‘Cause silicone lube will break you down, you’d have to be replaced.

Best explanation of a material ever? I think so. Anyway, the silicone of this particular toy is nice and smooth; there aren’t any extra ridges or bumps built in for stimulation. Even the section with the rotating beads is smooth, you can't really feel them.

The bird attachment does have a textured underside (the part that faces your body). There are a lot of little ridges from the base of the clit attachment all the way up to the bird's head. The clit attachment and last couple of inches of the shaft (above the beads) are flexible, but everything else is pretty rigid. There's a little bit of a rubbery odor if I sniff the toy, but nothing noticeable from more than a few inches away.

Although all vibrators in the rabbit family share the common design of an insertible shaft with an external clitoral stimulator, you can find a wide variety of stimulator shapes that range from a simple oval to almost any member of the animal kingdom you can imagine. Although all the different shapes might seem a little silly, the snazzy thing is that each shape is going to offer a different sensation when you get all up close and personal with it.

This vibrator has a kind of vague bird shape instead of the traditional bunny ears most commonly associated with this kind of toy. The bird measures 3.5" long from base to beak, and has extended wings that are 2.25" at the widest spot. The 1/2" beak itself is pretty thin and flexible, but I found it to be a little too pokey.

The shaft of this toy is a pretty basic phallic shape with a slightly curved head and several rows of rotating beads inside. If you need a lot of length from your toys, this might not be the one for you, because only 4 of the toy’s 8 ¼ inches are insertable (Thus the “petite” in Petite L’Amour, I guess!), although it was actually less than that for me due to the angle of the bird. The shaft measures about 3.5" around in circumference, which is sort of in the low middle of the girth scale.

This takes 3 AAA batteries, which pop into a little battery holder that is then inserted into the shaft. This is accessed by twisting a cap off the end of the shaft. It's easy to open and close, and unlike some toys you won't accidentally open it while changing functions.

The Petite Flutter is only available in pink. I happen to like pink toys, but if you’re not a fan of the color, the lack of colors to choose from may be a bit of a bummer.

There are three buttons at the base of the Petite Flutter, which seems like a good number to me since I really can’t keep track of any more than that when my mind is busy with other things. The first button (closest to the base) turns the toy on and off. I’m a big fan of having an instant off button, since I get really annoyed when toys make me cycle through a bunch of functions to power off. The middle button controls the vibrations (more on those in the next paragraph), while the top button (closest to the bird) controls the rotation of the beads in the shaft.

Okay, the important stuff: vibrations! Our good pal the middle button lets you cycle through the 7 different functions, a whole buffet of buzzes. The patterns are as follows:
1-Low, steady vibration.
2-Medium
3-High
4-pulse
5-escalating
6- I can't really figure out the difference between this and #4.
7- A few short pulses followed by a long one

Although this toy is obviously meant to be used with the shaft inserted, you could always choose to use just the clitoral attachment while holding the shaft outside of your body. In this case you would be, quite literally, flipping the bird.

Unfortunately, the vibrations aren't very strong, and if you turn on the rotation they become even weaker. The rotation of the beads also has 3 settings (slow to fast), but even at top speed I could barely feel them. On the plus side, this really is "whisper quiet" like the packaging claims. Even at top speed, you can't really hear it through a thick blanket.

Good news, everybody! It’s waterproof! Keeping a toy clean is always less of a hastle if I don’t feel like I need to be super careful when washing it. If you recall my award-winning ode to silicone above, you may remember that this is non-porous, so you don’t have to worry about bacteria seeping into your toy and making it all funky. You can generally keep this clean with a toy cleaner or good old soap and warm water. If you plan to share this toy or need to totally sterilize it for any other reason, a 10% solution of bleach can be used to wipe it down. Although silicone itself can be boiled, tossing this toy in a pot of boiling water or your dishwasher is not the best idea, since the motor and control panel are NOT silicone (the control panel is ABS plastic), so you could end up with not so great results.

Since the shaft is smooth, it's really easy to clean. The bird, on the other hand, is a total pain thanks to the ribbed texture. You really have to put some extra effort in to getting lube or fluids out of the crevices!

Although Cal Exotics makes some nice toys, they always seem to scrimp a little on the packaging. The Petite Flutter comes in a clear box made of thin plastic that’s printed with an almost life-sized image of the toy on the back, along with basic info about its functions. It's not really a great box for storage, it's much larger than the toy and takes up a lot of space.

This is a pretty okay toy in general, but just not really for me. The small size and weak vibrations just aren't enough for me, and the way the bird hit me just didn't go well. This could be a good toy for a beginner, especially someone looking for something on the small side and not too intense.

I may actually try snipping the beak off the bird, the sharp poking from the pointy little beak made trying to get the bird into a good spot even more challenging!