Puzzle
Feeders

Make feeding time last longer

Boredom is often a major issue in pets, especially those housed indoors. Dogs and cats in the wild would usually spend hours hunting for their food, not get their food delivered to them in shiny clean bowls!

There are novel ways that we can keep our fur kids busy, making them work a little for their food and hopefully providing a little fun while they are at it.

Benefits of puzzle feeders;

Enhance mental health and well-being of your dog or cat
Can provide physical exercise
Reduce over-eating
Slow down eating
Reduce post meal vomiting

How to use puzzle feeders;

Feed at least one meal from one or more puzzle feeders
Find puzzle feeders that your pet likes to use, you are not trying to frustrate them, you are trying to entertain them.
If you are using treats in the feeder, be sure to reduce your pets daily calorie intake to reduce weight gain
Once your pet has the hang of the puzzle feeders, you can hide them throughout the house adding to the challenge.

Warning: If your dog or cat is one to chew and swallow plastic or cardboard, you are safer to buy a commercial puzzle feeder. If you are not sure always supervise first use of your homemade puzzle feeders to make sure your pet is not too destructive.

Types of puzzle feeders;

Hand-made or commercial
Cheap or expensive
Puzzle feeders designed for cats;
Use their paws or their noses to explore
How your cat likes to explore new things is very individual. If you can, test your cat with a homemade puzzle, before buying one.

Puzzle feeders you can make yourself at home;

Use an empty drink bottle. Make holes large enough for kibble or treats to easily fall out when the bottle is rolled. Ensure the edges are not too sharp, you can use a lighter or match to melt and soften the edges. As your pet gets the hang of it, you can reduce the size of the holes to make the “game” more challenging. Make sure the kibble or treats can still fall out of the holes or your pet will become frustrated and lose interest.
A variation of this is using the cardboard tube from paper towel. Making holes along the length of the tube, folding each end over to hold in the dry food.
Play hide and seek with their food. Place dry food in several places around the home and or the yard. If you don't want to scatter the food directly on the floor, use small bowls or plates. Or you could place the food in various puzzle feeders that you have placed around the house.

Cat puzzle puzzle feeders challenge your kitty to use their paws to reach in and grab food with their paws. Here are a couple of examples;

Cut holes in a small cardboard box that are large enough for your cat to put their paw into to be able to grab dry food that you have placed inside. Some cats also enjoy having a small plastic ball inside to be able to play with.
Collect the tubes from your toilet rolls or empty tissue boxes. Be creative; create compartments where your cat needs to use their paw to search for food.
If you feed your cat wet food, you can design puzzle feeders from muffin tins or plastic egg cartons where you cat needs to use their paw to get the wet food out. You could also serve the wet food in several bowls throughout the house so they have to search for their meal. Some commercial puzzle feeders work with wet food as well.

Don’t forget to start off with simple puzzles and ease up to the trickier ones – if your cat or dog is up for the challenge. There are loads of variations - search the internet and be creative!

Buying a puzzle feeder

There are many types of puzzle feeders you can buy. To see the different types, you are best off entering a search for “puzzle feeders” or “activity feeders” into your search engine. You will be able to see the variations in the types of puzzles.

Don’t forget to think about your pets’ personality and age when buying a puzzle feeder.

Try and get one that has stages of difficulty. It should be easier at the start and then become more difficult as your pet understands the concept. For flat puzzle feeders, when first using them, fill with more food than usual so that it is easier to get the food.

Below are some options that slow down ingestion of food that are available for purchase online.

The flat style below can also be used with wet food and is dishwasher-safe.

Flat style slow feeder

Treat Ball

Staged openings of a treat ball to alter difficulty