Foraging eggs are an awesome and versatile toy. They are opaque and provide erratic movement, keeping kitty entertained and on the move. The eggs can be filled and placed inside other foraging toys to increase the difficulty level for your master forager!
A Nestle Quick container? Why yes!
Gus so nicely demonstrates the difficulty of oddly shaped items. When full this object can be quite heavy making it difficult to manipulate. For Gus it is no problem! Eating this way has helped Gus loose weight. Please share this video if you know an overweight kitty who could benefit from learning to forage for their food.
Twine, cardboard tubes and a rock!
This is an earthy, natural style food puzzle. I used a leftover rock from our catio, some cardboard tubes that already came cut just like this as packing material from a mail order and some garden twine. It’s a little rickety but a fun impromptu puzzle.
Something Outta Nothing!
This video shows Willow foraging from a protein shake container. You truly can make a food puzzle out of just about anything in your home and the goal here to show you how to do that!
It is nice to offer a variety of commercially available and homemade puzzles. Remember this is not only a feeding protocol but mental stimulation!
The Catit Massage Center
This sensory enrichment tool can serve a variety of purposes and meet different needs depending on your cat’s preferences. Great for itchy cats, arthritic seniors and special needs kitties who have an itch they need to scratch!
Using Food Puzzles with Your Cats
I'm excited to share this handout from a paper I co-authored for the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery on helping clients use food puzzles with their cats! The final version is available at the publisher's website. As a supplement to the article this handout was created and you can download and share with others!
Please feel free to distribute so more cat owners, veterinary professionals, behaviorists and shelter staff can learn about the importance of this type of enrichment.
