A little pet that lives on your Mac.

Adopt a cat, dog, bunny, hamster, panda or parrot that roams your desktop, naps on your windows and needs your care.

Version 0.2.0
3.9 MB
macOS 14 or later

A ginger cat walking along the bottom of a Mac desktop

Meet the six.

Each one has its own colours, foods, habits, voice and signature move. They're shown at their sizes in the app, so yes, the hamster really is that small.

Cat

Independent and a little mysterious. Naps anywhere, especially on top of your windows.

Dog

Loyal and full of energy. Needs play every day and lives for a good belly rub.

Bunny

A gentle hopper. Shy at first, then does happy binkies across your desktop.

Hamster

Pocket-sized and nocturnal. Busiest while you sleep, and always stuffing its cheeks.

Panda

Big, slow and snacky. Eats bamboo all day and naps the rest of it.

Parrot

Chatty and clever. Flies between your windows and gets bored without company.

Real needs, in real time.

Seven needs change hour by hour, even while your Mac sleeps or DeskPet is closed. Look after your pet from the paw icon in the menu bar, or just click it.

Food: Two meals and a treat for every species, from salmon to bamboo.
Water: A bowl appears on your desktop and your pet laps it up.
Energy: Sleeps at night and naps when tired. The hamster sleeps through the day.
Fun: Hit play and a ball rolls across your screen for it to chase.
Clean: Brush it or run a bath. Poops land on your desktop; click one to clean it up.
Health: Drops when needs go unmet, and a dirty pet can catch something. Medicine helps.
Bond: Grows with care and a good stroke, and fades with neglect.
Vacation mode: Going away? It pauses everything, even growing up.

It lives on your desktop.

Your pet walks along the bottom of your screen, just above the Dock, and finds its own way around your windows.

On top of your windows

It hops up onto windows and rides along when you move them. Drop it on your favourite app and it stays there, even after a restart.

Up on the menu bar

Now and then it shrinks down and scampers along the menu bar, or hangs from it and swings along.

Over full-screen apps

It keeps you company in full-screen apps too, hanging from the top of the screen when the menu bar hides.

Stroke it
Hover and rub. Its tail wags harder the longer you keep going.
Click it
Its care panel opens right next to it.
Pick it up
Drag it anywhere. It dangles until you let go, so don't drop it from too high.
It follows you
Its eyes track your cursor, and now and then it trots over to sit beside it. Sometimes, Often or Off.

It grows up with you.

Your pet arrives as a baby and reaches full size over its first month. How you look after it shapes its body, coat and personality.

First week
Baby
Big head, big eyes, short legs. Naps often and sometimes trips while running.
Until day 30
Young
Faster and bouncier, with twice the zoomies. Pounces at your cursor and jumps highest.
Most of its life
Adult
Full size, with the body and coat your care has given it.
Later in life
Senior
A greyer muzzle, a slower walk, more naps and a stiff stretch after lying down.

Body

Thin
Healthy
Chubby
Round

Lots of treats and full bowls make it rounder and a little slower. Going hungry makes it thin.

Coat

Scruffy
Soft
Glossy

Keep it clean and its coat gets a shine. Let it stay dirty and the tufts come out.

Bond

A close pet greets you when you come back, follows your cursor and rolls over for belly rubs. A shy one keeps its distance and flinches when clicked.

Sounds, only when you want them.

Every species has its own voice, made in code: purrs and trills, woofs and pants, squeaks and whistles. The parrot even says your pet's name. Out of the box, it only makes a sound through headphones.

OffAlwaysWith headphones

Ignore a pet that needs you while you're at your Mac and it calls for you, a little more insistently over time. You can turn that off too.

Guard mode

Lock your Mac and your pet keeps watch. It's off until you turn it on.

Someone touches the keyboard or mouse: a soft warning growl.
Still locked 15 seconds later: it raises the alarm for 30 seconds, longer if they keep trying.
When you unlock, it tells you when someone tried.

Choose how strict it is.

Pick a care style when you adopt, and change it any time in Settings.

CozyDefault: Your pet gets sad and sick if you forget it, but it never leaves and never dies.
Runs away: After three days of neglect, or four if you're close, it leaves you a note and walks off the screen. You get a warning first.
Realistic: Neglect can be fatal, and pets live a natural lifespan in real days: about four months for a hamster, a year and a half for a parrot. A missed day or a weekend away is fine. Four days without vacation mode is not.

Your pet stays on your Mac.

No account, no ads, no analytics. Your pet's save file lives in your Library folder, and the only thing DeskPet asks the internet is whether there's a new version.

How DeskPet handles your data

Adopt your first pet.

Download for Mac

Version 0.2.0
3.9 MB
macOS 14 or later