Another great beginner toy that can be used for wet or dry food. This is a stationary puzzle that hones your cats paw fishing skills!
The Digger by Catit
Parker vs Tupperware
This video just goes to show how incredibly easy it is to DIY your own food puzzle. Quick, simple, and inexpensive!
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.
Ice, Ice Baby!
It really can be this easy to get your cat started!
Some cats are very slow starters and need to be gradually eased into the concept of working for their food. Some families also cannot afford the fancy stationary foraging boards not knowing if their cat will take to using them. This is our compromise! An ice cube tray is incredibly easy and often free or at least inexpensive if you do not already have them sitting around the house. Once your cat has developed the skills to scoop the food out of the little wells with their paw, investing in a more intricate foraging board will not seem so risky.
**This can easily be used for canned food too!
The Wine Box Food Puzzle
"Hmmm. What's in here?"
Any ole wine box will do to make this super easy and cheap foraging toy. Watch to see how these three silly's utilize this object. They are pretty hilarious. It helps if you have long legs for this one!
Similarly you can use any compartmentalized box such as a beer caddy as well! Cheers!
"Snacks, That's what!"
Squashed!
The Tunnel Feeder by Trixie Pet
This is a great beginner toy for multi-cat households. Food goes in through the top and funnels into the tunnels. If you wish to increase the challenge further, fill ping-pong balls and place inside the tunnels. This way the cats must spin the balls to get the food to dispense and then extract it from the tunnel.
The Green by Northmate
The Green is a great beginner foraging toy. This is the doggy version of the feline "Catch" toy. Because it is larger, it holds more volume for multiple cat households and provides a slightly increased challenge as the interior portion of the puzzle is harder to reach.
If you want to increase the challenge even further add a foraging ping pong ball from Fundamentally Feline. Simply fill ping pong ball and drop it into one of the sections. The cat has to spin the ball to get the food to drop into the Green and then extract it from the maze with their paw. Yes, cats really do get this skilled at foraging!
Foraging cups by Fundamentally Feline –
These two holed cups can be a great beginner toy and the one hole cup is the next step up in difficulty. Because these toys are clear the cat can see, smell and hear the kibble rattling around inside the cup.
For slow starters the cup can be laid on its side without the lid so the cat can learn to simply extract food with it's paw, once that is achieved the lid can be placed on the cup.
For the master forager, fill a large foraging egg and place inside the cup for an increased challenge. Some cats really do get that skilled at foraging!