This clip illustrates both the reluctant and the brave and offers some tips on encouraging cat wheel use. For a detailed explanation visit my web article detailing the “how-to” steps. Mostly, it is just cute and hopes to inspire cat parents to provide this type of enrichment and activity if you think your cat is up to it!
feline games
Mousin’ Around by Petstages
These cute little mice are such great foraging toys! They are small, easily manipulated, offer appealing textures, and can be picked up and carried around the house just like real prey! They do not hold a lot of food so they are great for portion control as well. They really require some batting around to get the food to dispense and are not quite as easy as one might expect.
Melon Madness by Nina Ottosson
This is an intermediate level stationary foraging toy for wet or dry food. The cat must learn to uncover the wells by moving the “seeds” or green pegs to uncover the snacks below.
Doc & Phoebe’s Hunting Feeder – New and Improved Version!
This food puzzle has been upgraded by adding an adjustable opening which allows for a variety of different dry foods of various sizes to be used as well as increasing the challenge. This foraging toy is unique as it is the only one to feature a “skin” allowing the cat to pick it up, toss it around and manipulate it just like real prey!
The Nina Ottosson Dog Treat Maze
This is a very complicated food puzzle. It is two sided, features a maze within the toy on both sides and requires the cats to wobble or flip the toy entirely to dispense food. As this video demonstrates, not all hunting expeditions are successful. She walks away without success but that is ok, intermittent reinforcement keeps the animal doing the behavior! Practice makes perfect. Remember that novel food is helpful to stimulate interest and drive motivation. If your goal is weight loss or busting boredom the toys should be challenging and make them work hard!
Flower Tower by Trixie Pet
This is an intricate, brains over brawn, food puzzle originally designed for dogs, but that won’t stop us! This puzzle features four swiveling layers but access is only granted once the large base cones are removed. That is the challenge, the cat must do one section of the puzzle in efforts for the next to be revealed. All levels can be rearranged for constant variety! This is definitely a toy for the experienced forager.
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