beginner food puzzle Archives - Food Puzzles for Cats

Play-N-Treat Balls by Our Pets

These foraging balls are a great beginner toy. They also are great for down the road when your cat becomes a "master forager" and it is time to increase the challenge. As shown in the photos below, these balls can be placed inside larger containers much like the foraging ping-pong balls from Fundamentally Feline are utilized to increase the challenge. One never needs to get rid of easy toys, just save them for later when you need to make the game harder.

An Our Pets ball and a foraging ping-pong, stuffed and placed inside larger object.

Two Our Pets balls inside an XL foraging gear by Fundamentally Feline.

Scratch pad with treat dispenser

Step 1. Purchase treat ball attachment.

Step 2. Purchase traditional scratch pad.

Step 3. Attach treat ball to scratch pad.

Step 4. Poof! Instant food puzzle!

A clever little two in one toy. This scratch pad offers a feature that allows you to make it two toys in one! This is not a very difficult toy, but a fun spin on this classic corrugated cardboard scratch pad nonetheless.

The Catit Play stationary foraging board

This stationary foraging board offers a myriad of different obstacles, can be used for wet or dry food and can be enjoyed by both novice and experienced foragers. Placing the food only in the center of the board increases the challenge and requires the cats to then extract food from a secondary puzzle at the perimeter. Not only is this toy stylish, it is well made, easy to clean and versatile.

The Catit Spinner

This is a beginner puzzle that surprisingly kept a few master foragers occupied for a minute! It spins and swirls like a top, dispensing food out of one of three openings. The inside has a maze that prevents the food from dispensing too easily. It is good to offer novel puzzles from time to time to curb mental boredom.

Treat Mouse by Aikiou

Cats actually love this little treat mouse by Aikiou as a traditional cat toy and as a food puzzle. It is perfectly sized to mimic prey, dispenses small pieces of food and has a great overall feel. It is not very difficult but could be easily placed inside a larger food puzzle to create a greater challenge. Hiding it would make for a fun game too!

ThinKat by Aikiou

The ThinKat is a beautiful beginner food puzzle. Cats can either dig food out of the flowers or access food at the base of each flower. Extra flowers can be added to increase the depth and the petals are supple and can be folded inward (see photo below). This requires the cat to "unfold" the petals to gain access to the food. This is definitely a foraging toy you can proudly display in your living room when guests come over!

Click video above to see it in action!

A view from above.

The flowers fold in to increase the challenge.

Now unfolded with food inside.

The LickiMat

This is a fantastic new tool to slow down those cats that eat wet food too quickly. Available in three different textures and two colors. Easy to wash and clean, easy to fill. This could also be used as a tool while introducing new cats to each other since it will slow down their eating and possibly allow for a longer positive session.

Surprised to see how much they really liked this product!

This particular one seemed the most difficult to lick clean.

As you can see they did quite well!

The Snuffle Mat

Other ways to use your Snuffle Mat!

A truly unique foraging toy that simulates rooting through grass as a cat would do hunting for small prey like bugs. This is an easy toy; great for beginners. It can be machine washed and dried making it easy to care for and maintain.

The Snuffle Mat is made by Paw 5 and we home to see more cool toys roll out from them.

Watch video below!

Slide and Feed by Trixie Pet

A great beginner puzzle designed for wet or dry food. If your cat is just starting out this is an excellent toy to teach them the game.

Foraging Ping-Pong Balls by Fundamentally Feline

Available with large or small holes to accomodate a variety of different kibble types.

These ping pongs are a great beginner toy, great for very overweight cats when we really want to limit their access to dry food, and also great for combining with other objects to increase challenge. For example, the ping pongs can be filled and placed inside another toy such as the long gear, cubes or poster tubes so the cat must work extra hard to get food out of two objects at once!

See photos below for examples of their versatility!

Cats enjoy hooking their nails into the small holes and will even learn to pick up the toy and shake out the kibble this way.

See how versatile these ping-pongs are in this post, So you think you have a "master forager"? They are a must have to any feline weight loss foraging program!