You really can make a food puzzle out of just about anything!
These objects can increase or decrease in difficulty depending on how many holes you make and how full you fill the toy.
When there are only a few pieces left it can be challenging whereas a full toy is much easier.
This is an odd and unique shape which adds some nice variety to what hopefully becomes a large collection of foraging toys. Remember it is important to offer many different puzzles for the benefit of mental enrichment!
This is a
simple, yet creative way to make a homemade puzzle box/stationary feeder for your cat. Glam Cat shows you step by step how to turn an ordinary food storage container into a food puzzle – and one that you can adjust to your cat’s skill level by adding obstacles or changing hole sizes and number.
When is a chair not a chair? When it's a food puzzle! Check out this blog post where Ingrid shares how she turned an Ikea chair into a food post and scratching pad! Complete instructions are included. For the crafty cat parent!
Tennis balls aren't just for dogs any more! For a quick and easy food puzzle, you can use a Xacto knife to cut a hole in a tennis ball - voila!
Brought to us by the Frederick Cat Vet in Maryland, which also has some other DIY ideas for creating food puzzles on their webpage. We are always excited to see veterinarians promoting the use of food puzzles!
Have a 3-D printer? Then you can turn a regular food bowl into a foraging challenge!! Thingiverse, a website dedicated to sharing resources related to 3D printing, has a template for creating your own city landscape that you can place in a food dish for your kitty to eat around.
Plastic bottles are one of the easiest sources for food puzzles - just get in that recycling bin! The plastic is usually thin enough to cut easily, and you can make several with different sized holes to give your cat different levels of challenge. This website, La Loca De Los Gatos, has a nice source of instructions in Spanish on making food puzzles (you can use google translate to read it in English or another language).
This handmade puzzle is not only functional, it's beautiful! The nice thing about a DIY stationary puzzle is that you can adjust the width of the space between the bars to adjust for your individual cat's paw size and agility!
The hardest part of this puzzle is the human element! It requires some tools, including a router and jigsaw. If you're handy with tools, you'll enjoy making this food puzzle. Instructions provided by Urban Pet Haus via Purina.