Some years ago, I found myself trying to find different methods to offer my cats @tituneskittens treats healthily. Treat disappeared in their tiny mouths at light speed as soon as I opened the treat container. We noticed they developed an addiction to them, particularly to the cat-nip flavored, so we worked hard to reduce the amount and slow their anxiety.
I want to clarify that we don’t give them too many treats during the day; they receive dental or fur health treats after taking their medicines as a reward, let’s call it “dessert.” Sometimes the treats work as a decoy to a specific situation, like going to the vet.
After extensive product research, two types of products came to my knowledge: slower feeders and treat dispensers.
Slower feeders are bowls for pets with a particular form o pattern in the middle; some have a kind of maze form to increase the cats’ effort to grab the food. They can only be used with dry kibbles or dry treats. There are several types, materials, and colors, and they work perfectly if you have an obese pet that needs a diet or suffers from eating disorders like overeating.
On the other hand, you can try a treat dispenser, as the name implies, only to be used with dry treats. There are different types, forms, colors, materials, and prices on the market.
The slower feeder was not an option for my cats since they have a wet diet, so we bought a treat dispenser: Mousy.
Mousy is the name we gave to a little pink plastic mouse with two holes in his belly to add the treats that will come out with low to medium levels of difficulty when our cats play with him. I must admit that it is pretty interesting to see my cats’ reactions and strategies to push the treats out of Mousy.
The boys spend several hours playing and pushing Mousy around the house, while Milka sits and waits for other cats to get the expected reward just to run and jump over it like a thief to a diamond. For us is a win-win since we keep them busy playing and help with their eat-fast-treats situation. This is the vendor on Amazon where we get Mousy.
Because we also search for eco-friendly toys, we found this fantastic interactive puzzle treat dispenser that lets cats exercise their little paws trying to get the treats from the box.
Regarding durability, the brand @catamazingtoy did an excellent job, being their maze Titunes kitten’s second favorite toy.
It has three difficulty levels, but depending on your cat’s personality can be less or more. Mere is a curious boy; he spends almost an hour figuring out how to push the box to make the holes let the treats out.
You can visit their Amazon store here.
My advice if you want to try a tread dispense:
- The toy must be light, especially if your cat is small or young. The heavier the toy, the less interest your cat will show. Cats can be lazy.
- Welled assemble pieces to support paw knockings and more than one food outlet with appropriate treat size offers a grade of difficulty, but not too much.
- Because these toys rely on balance and toy movement to realize the treats, check the balance of the base. For example, we tried one with egg form(image below), but the bottom is a round plane area, and two things happened, the toy did not have balance when my cat pushed it, so it ended up in a horizontal position over the floor, and the treat hardly came out.
- There are a series of toy that requires more brain work for our kitties, like moving some pieces to unlock the food outlet. To be honest, I know that my cats will lose interest if the toy has high complexity, but you can also try them; just beware that they have a learning curve, and you need to show your kitty the steps to get the treat finally.
- Some dispensers require more brain work for our kitties, like moving some pieces to unlock the food outlet. To be honest, I know that my cats will lose interest if the toy has high complexity, but you can also try them; just beware that they have a learning curve, and you need to show your kitty the steps to get the treat finally.
- The amount of treat the toy can hold, in general, the size is standard, so you must check how many treats you have based on how many cats you have and following their diets.
- For multicat homes, I recommend having more than one toy dispenser.
