Remember when you were little and your mom told you not to play with your food? Well, no offense to your mother, but she was wrong. Puzzle feeders for cats are a great way to turn meals into a fun time for your cat. Why just satisfy your cat’s need to eat when you can also satisfy their need to play at the same time?
I’ve put together this comprehensive guide to help you understand what food puzzles are great enrichment for cats, select the best food puzzle for your cat, and share a few of my favorites. Your cat’s life (and yours, too) is about to be so much better!
Why Food Puzzles Are Great For Cats
Cats are natural hunters. Because of this, cats have a strong drive to hunt. Puzzle feeders are a great way to scratch that urge to hunt and scavenge in a way that’s acceptable to us. Chances are you don’t actually want your cat hunting in your home.
Unfortunately for many cats, especially indoor only cats, their need to hunt often goes unsatisfied. Cats may be seen as easy pets and end up bored. This leads to behavior problems, stress, and low quality of life. You can’t be expected to occupy every moment of your cat’s life so food puzzles can help fill in the time while you’re working or if you need to do something else.
Enhancing Interactive Play
In order for play to be satisfying for cats, they need to go through the full hunt cycle: stalking or chase their prey, catching it, “dispatching” of it, and consuming it. Puzzle feeders are helpful for multiple parts of feline play, but they’re especially good at satisfying the part where your cat consumes their prey. You can’t really do that with a regular toy because emergency veterinarian visits to remove a foreign body are not very enriching.
Slow Down Feeding
Beyond the mental stimulation that comes from food puzzles, they’re great for what I affectionately call “scarf ‘n barfers.” If you have one of these cats, you know exactly what I mean: food can’t be eaten quick enough to satisfy these hungry, hungry felines and they’re always asking for more food. They practically inhale their food and then it quickly ends up on your floor.
Puzzle feeders for cats require the cat to eat their food slowly because they’re not getting all of it at once. The result is your cat actually feeling satiated and not regurgitating their food. Combined with feeding your cat multiple small meals during the day, this might solve that issue if there’s not a medical reason for the food regurgitation. These cats should always have a veterinarian exam!
Which Puzzle Feeders For Cats Are Best?
Now let’s get to the fun part: The cat toys!
Puzzle feeders require a cat to complete a task or tasks to get food or treats. There’s a huge variety of tasks your cat may need to do to get their food so you need to consider if the puzzle feeder is:
- Safe for your cat
- Compatible with your cat’s food (wet or dry food)
- Within your budget
- The right difficulty for your cat
- Something your cat will actually enjoy doing
There isn’t a single best puzzle feeder for cats that will appeal to every single cat out there. There are many really good ones, but the truth is that you’ll need to experiment a bit. Look at this an opportunity to get to know your cat a lot better!
What Types Of Puzzle Feeders Are There?
There are a ton of different food puzzles for cats so even the pickiest cat will have one they enjoy! If you want to experiment, you can start by trying a DIY food puzzle. Otherwise, there are a few common tasks cats need to complete in order to get their snacks.
Rolling And Flying Food Puzzles
One of the most basic puzzle feeder requires your cat to push an object so the treats or food fall out Usually these objects are mobile, such as a feeder ball, while others are fixed in place. For cats that really like to bat at things, there are dispensers that are on springs.
These are really fun for cats and simple to set up. Be aware that the treats or kibble will fly all over the place so you may need to clean a bit after.
As you may guess, these types of puzzle feeders are best for cats that eat dry food or treats because wet food flying everywhere? Chaos. If your cat only eats wet food, it’s best to try a different type of food puzzle for them.
A word of caution with one type of toy that falls under this category: robotic dispensers. Some cats may love these types of toys, but they can also be pretty scary for cats that don’t like the movement or noise they make. Carefully consider your individual cat as they may not be for every cat.
Foraging Puzzle Feeders
In nature, cats have to search in multiple place to find prey. Imitating this pattern of hunting is a great way to make sure they fully get the experience of hunting. This is also a great option to keep your cat occupied for longer, especially if you will be gone for an extended period of time.
My favorite foraging style feeder is Doc and Phoebe’s Hunting Feeder. It’s technically not just one feeder toy as it’s made from a few adorable mice that you fill with treats or kibble. These get set out in various locations for your cat to find. Your cat has to push the mice around to get the food out so it’s a bit like what they’d do when they find real prey.
You can also use a few of small dishes (including these adorable and colorful cat shaped dishes) to DIY this style of toy. This may be better if your cat eats wet food, though make sure they can find their prey relatively easily if you try this. It’s not great to have wet food sitting out for too long.
Pushy Puzzle Feeders
My favorite puzzle feeder, Buggin’ Out, falls under the category of a puzzle feeder your cat needs to push something attached to the food puzzle to get to the food. These are different than the food ball style puzzle feeders. Your cat doesn’t need to push the whole puzzle to get their snacks; instead, there’s a series of wells or objects that are fixed to a solid board your cat needs to push.
I like Buggin’ Out treat puzzle because you can alter how you set it up to make it easier or harder for your cat. To make it easy as your cat is learning how to complete food puzzle, you can put the treats in the wells and cover the well with a leaf. For a bigger challenge, putting the treats in the ladybugs and covering the wells with the leaves requires a multiple steps for your cat to get their snack.
Many of these feeders are also really frickin’ cute. Buggin’ Out is a leaf with a series of lady bugs on it, but the same company also makes a (more challenging) raincloud puzzle feeder. An easier version is the Melon Madness feeder.
Slow Feeders
Sometimes you just want to slow your cat down as they eat. In these cases, the focus is more on slowing your cat’s eating and less on providing mental stimulation (though they do provide some stimulation). They are excellent for scarf ‘n barfers!
Usually these feeders are very simple and are similar to a regular food bowl, but with a series of barriers that your cat has to navigate around to eat. These feeders have an advantage over others for folks looking for elevated feeders as many sit on a pedestal. If you want to use a bowl you already have, you can transform a regular bowl (including those found in many automatic feeders) into a slow feeder using a silicone insert.
Digging Puzzle Feeders
Some cats really like to stick their paws or snoot into things. For these cats, digging treat puzzles are the way to go.
The most basic digging feeders is the Catit Senses 2.0 Digger. While it’s not super complicated (it is a couple of cylinders your cat has to pull food out of to be able to get it), it’s enough ti provide them with mental stimulation. An alternative is a hunting box style toy that follows the same basic concept of requiring your cat to dig their food out of the box.
The Cat Puzzle Feeder Treat Maze is a challenging option for the really smart or really food motivated cat. It’s a short maze that requires your cat to push their kibble or treats through it until it gets to the end and can munch on it.
Snuffles
My favorite digging puzzle feeders are snuffle mats. These are essentially a fabric mat that your cat has to dig their cute little nose in to find their food.
Snuffles aren’t just limited to the traditional mats, though. Variations include:
Some of the variations will be too hard for some cats, but if your cat needs a challenge? Try the snuffle broccoli or snuffle roll up.
Wet Food Puzzle Feeders
Is your cat more of a fan of wet food? While many puzzle feeders are geared toward dry food, there are still a few great choices for wet food eaters. In fact, some are designed specifically to be used with wet food. You can even find a variation of the hunting feeder mentioned above that is designed specifically for wet food.
A favorite wet food puzzle feeder for cats is a lick mat. These are typically a silicone mat with a series of ridges on them. Food is spread out on the mat and the cat has to navigate the bumps using their tongue. Some of them will even come with a tiny spatula for easy spreading.
Lick mats are great for using with the most magical cat treat of all, Churu. If you want to get your cat to adjust to the new style of feeding, consider spreading some Churu out on the mat. If you want to give your cat a special summer treat when it’s blazing hot out, spread out some wet food or Churu on the mat. Freeze it for a few hours and then give it to your cat. This will not only keep them cool, but keep them occupied for a bit longer.
Combination Puzzle Feeders
Some puzzle feeders combine multiple different types of mental stimulation and tasks your cat needs to accomplish. These are great for cats that need variety or for cats that are really, really smart.
One of the ones I like best is the Trixie Cat Activity Board. It has a lot of different ways for your cat to get their food. Plus, it’s washable so you can potentially use it for wet food in some parts of it. If you want to try multiple types of puzzle feeders, it even comes in a bundle with another wildly popular food puzzle for cats.
Unique Puzzle Feeders
Some food puzzles for cats don’t fit quite as neatly into the other categories. A recent favorite of mine is the treat launching duck. Yes, a duck that launches treats.
This puzzle feeder has a dome you fill with treats or kibble. When the lever on it is pressed, the bottom of the dome spins around. The dome has a hole that treats fly out of for your cat.
Either you or your cat can press the lever so this treat puzzle can also be a way to bond with your cat. Training your cat to use it can be accomplished fairly easily using clicker training. Your cat may figure it out on their own after watching you press the lever enough times.
Puzzle Feeders for Senior Cats
There’s no reason senior cats can’t try food puzzles! Make easier choices when selecting a food toy (read: not the dreaded green maze) and increase the challenge slowly If they don’t like food puzzles, that’s completely okay. You can always switch back to a more traditional bowl.
You can adapt almost any puzzle feeder for a senior cat. Try putting a feeder on a small platform if your cat has a hard time eating from a bowl on the floor. There are slow feeders that are elevated and at an angle to make it easier on a senior cat while still giving them a bit of a challenge. If you’re looking for a particularly cute one, there’s one that has a cat face as the ridges.
Senior cats may also benefit from simple DIY puzzle feeders. Toss some treats or kibble in an ice cube tray and bam! Easy puzzle feeder for your senior cat. They’re easily washable and will provide the right balance of challenge while still being accessible.
How Do I Get My Cat To Use A Puzzle Feeder?
Not all cats will take to puzzle feeders right away, but don’t give up immediately. There are ways to encourage your cat to use their puzzle feeder even if the first go around isn’t a success.
- Use high value treats at first. Even if you intend to feed their regular meal in a puzzle feeder, starting with treats will help them be very motivated to solve the food puzzle.
- Transition your cat to their regular food by gradually mixing it in with the treats. As they successfully complete the puzzle feeder, use less treats and more of their regular food. Eventually, you’ll drop the treats entirely and only use their normal food.
- Modify the puzzle feeder to make it easier. For example, with a food puzzle like the Buggin’ Out, put food in the wells and leave them open to begin with.
At the end of the day, though, your cat should enjoy the puzzle feeder. Cats need to eat and it’s not fair to them to withhold food if they won’t use a puzzle feeder. You can try a different puzzle feeder as some cats prefer certain actions or ways of getting their food but not others. You may also just need to stick with a traditional food dish and find other ways to stimulate your cat.
