Rolling Puzzles Archives - Page 3 of 5

The Doorway Dangli by Petsafe

Stethoscope-like arms grasp door frame.

In the video clip of the Doorway Dangli you can see the creativity and challenge that can be incorporated in order to make cats work for their meals. Sometimes the smartest kitties are the ones waiting for the others who are doing all of the work to dispense some kibble! We call this opportunistic foraging! The orange cat in this video Peaches, had actually become blind in this clip, and while not successful in this video, she is still a master forager despite her handicap!

This toy can be made more difficult by hanging it higher so that the cat must work harder to reach up and bat at the toy.

Adjusts to different sized kibble & varied difficulty.

The Pipolino –

A versatile and adjustable food puzzle available in a variety of sizes for many different species. Weight can be a challenge for many cats so do not be deterred by the size of this toy. In fact, it can be made more challenging by placing smaller food puzzles inside, cat toys or adding weights to impede movement and obstruct the flow of food. Great for multiple cat households. Buy your Pipolino here.

Hold a decent amount of food for multiple cat households and also lots of room to add smaller food puzzles like the versatile ping-pong balls from Fundamentally Feline.

Many different sized holes too accommodate a variety of different dry food diets.

When your food puzzle is as big as you are! No matter if you are a master forager like Hitchinson!

The Foraging Toy Starter Kit by Fundamentally Feline –

The Foraging Toy Starter Kit.

The Starter Kit is three toys in one! You get two foraging eggs (or four small mini eggs) and an upcycled tennis ball tube container essentially for free! That’s right, Ingrid schleps around town collecting tennis tubes, washes them, drills holes in them, and essentially gives them away!

Fill all three toys up individually or, if your cat reaches master forager level, you can fill the eggs and place inside the tube so that your cat has to work extra hard to obtain the kibble from two toys at once.

This toy can be easy for beginners or utilized combined for increased challenge so its difficulty level is a range of one to two stars. You can also tape up the two or thee holes in the tube to make it a one holed toy.

An example of it being used for a master forager!

Erratic movement of the eggs keeps cats active.

Does your veterinary practice promote food puzzles?

We'd love to see every veterinarian feature information about the use of food puzzles with cats on their websites! Here are just a few who do:

Paws, Whiskers & Claws in Atlanta, GA (hey! where Ingrid works!)

Frederick Cat Vet in MD

Okaw Veterinary Clinic in IL (hey! where awesome behavior consultant Dr. Sally Foote is based!)

Deer Run Animal Hospital in IN

We hope to add to this list in the future!

The No Bowl feeding system

These adorable little mice are an excellent beginner food puzzle for cats. They are unlike anything else available in that they have a fabric covering allowing the cats to grab the toy with their claws. The large holes easily accommodate a dental diet, a preferred kibble when implementing foraging. If feeding mostly canned food and minimizing the cats ability to crunch why not maximize their dental benefit with what little dry food they do consume? Dental diets are the best way to mimic the flesh, feathers and bone a cat would naturally crunch through when eating real prey. The holes of these mice offer generous dispensing of food to aid the cat in learning the game of foraging. You can increase the challenge by hiding these toys requiring your cat to go hunting for them or covering up one of the holes.

The Busy Buddy Kibble Nibble dog toy by Petsafe

Keep an open mind because dog toys can be great for cats too! They are often heavier which provides a greater challenge and they usually hold more food for multiple cat households.

This Busy Buddy toy can be made increasingly more difficult by filling smaller objects and placing them inside this puzzle so the cats have to get food out of two objects at once. A weighted object could also be adding for increased challenge.

Hitchinson shows you how here!

Twist ‘N Treat Teaser by Petsafe

This food-dispensing toy is called the Twist 'N Treat and it also encourages playtime using the enticing feather feature. Adjustable openings increase or decrease the challenge for your cat. The only downside is that it is quite easy and usually emptied quickly.

Foraging Jars by Fundamentally Feline

Easy opening lid makes filling this toy easy for the humans.

These jars make a great puzzle! They are easy to fill for the humans and opaque with only one hole so they are more challenging for your cats. You can fill a smaller object such as an egg and place inside to really increase the difficulty level or simply "dummy-fill" with other small cat toys so that the hole is sometimes obstructed as the cat manipulates the jar!

Available in various color patterns.

Production time!

All of the foraging toys made by Fundamentally Feline are hand-made.

Foraging Cubes by Fundamentally Feline

Foraging cubes are one of the most difficult food puzzles you can offer your cat. Most cats are initially pretty stumped by cubes but once they do get the hang of it they are unstoppable! Foraging ping-pong balls can also be combined with these cubes to further increase the challenge. Simply fill ping-pong with dry food, place inside the cube and offer that to your cat. This way they have to accomplish acquiring food from two objects at once! A puzzle for the Kitty Einstein/Master Forager for sure!

Milly, the star of the video below, is one of the kitties featured in the table of our Food Puzzle paper in the JFMS. She is the very last kitty in the table if you follow the link provided.

Production time!

The Pyramid by Nina Ottosson

One of the more challenging of the commercial food puzzles, the pryamid is weighted, heavy and also comes in an opaque version making it great for an experienced forager. The challenge is tipping it over! Similar to a Weeble-Wobble, it will constantly right itself and stand back up.

Clear version available with larger opening to accommodate treats as well as food.

Available in this opaque "beehive" style. A bit larger than the clear version.