I've recently made old plastic bottles into puzzle feeders by cutting holes in the side. The narrow mouth bottles are a bit of a hassle to fill, you need to use a funnel, but wide mouth bottles are fillable with a scoop. With a few different bottles you can customise how difficult or easy it is depending on the number and size of the holes. I also use one of those ring with a ball hidden inside as a feeder toy, also easy to fill just pour dry food through the holes in the top & the cat scoops it out with a paw.
I've improvised a round scratch pad with the outside track rolling ball, by placing Gonzo's kibble and a few treats around in the outside track, and covering them up with his catnip toys, ping-pong balls, pine cones and whatever, to bury them under an obstacle course... it keeps him out of my non existing hair for hours.
Great video. The muffin tin is a great idea as most slow feeders are made of plastic. I was told not to use plastic as it can allow bacteria to grow. But I also use flat plates to avoid whisker fatigue. It is all so confusing!
I have a Trixie puzzle that has rods on top that cover the food wells, as well as mouse holes on the bottom for loading up food. I have another Trixie puzzle that has different food well covers: three that require her to slide, two are balls with food inside and two have levers that the cat has to flip to reveal the food. It's identical to a dog food puzzle but scaled for a cat. My Siamese girl, Cheyenne is smart. If I serve dinner on her dish (she eats off a salad plate so that she can extend her whiskers) and put freeze dried food in her food puzzles, she'll first do the food puzzles and then eat the pile of meat. I'm looking for more complex food puzzles. Siamese cats are really smart. (Cheyenne is an old lady, at age 17. Her doctor thinks she's a good candidate to join the 20+ club... and if she does, she will be the third cat I've had that did that.) After all, a well-bred, well taken care of Siamese cat can live for a long, long time.
U should put that big clock on the bottom right corner and make it smaller, its blocking the whole video. U should fast forward when u set up the toy and do normal speed when the cat is playing w the toy. Thats what ppl want to watch.
Pet safe (don't love the company, since they sell shock collars) but they have an egg shape rolling puzzle--very easy to fill, and clean and can be made harder or easier. I hadn't thought of the shoe tray to slow the toy down and keep it contained.
I have that egg shaped rolling ball and it does work. Also, don’t be too hard on those shock collars because people who have deaf cats and dogs That’s when those collars can come in handy. You keep it at a very very low setting and that gets the animals attention and then from there you use sign language.
My cats have the Trixie Mad Scientist toy. One of my cats loves it, and the other one never figured it out! I'm anxious to try it again now that she has used some other toys, but it got lost in the move qnd hasn't turned up yet.
I'm looking for challenging puzzles since my kitty is way too smart for her own good and the vet says she's probably bored. So this might be a good fit for her!
@@cobaltpterodactyl Little late to the party, but I own this one so I figured I'd chime in. My cat is pretty good at figuring things out, this one stumped her for a bit so what I did was remove the lids altogether, put some treats in, and show her where they were. She would paw at it a few times and then I'd reward her by helping tip it all the way forward to drop a treat. It didn't take her long to figure out that I'm a very slow butler and I needed help figuring out how to get all the treats out at once. Once she mastered that, I left one tube lidless and put the 'easy' lid (single hole) on the other two. That slowed her down a bit, but having a single lidless motivated her to start, and emptying the lidless and being left looking at two tubes that clearly contained treats, she mastered 'easy' in a hurry. The three-hole lids took her a lot longer. BUT... she did eventually figure out that it was simply a matter of turning them juuust so, and now we can add treats to all three tubes and they're empty within a minute or two. So now here I am on the hunt for another treat toy that will stimulate her in a different way, and also hopefully keep her figuring it out for awhile! If you don't have one yet, you might also try a snuffler mat. They seem to be sold toward dogs but I picked a smaller one and again, she needed a bit of help to figure out the game by putting treats on top of the layers, and then just peeking out of layers, and then finally showing her us putting treats under a layer - now she will check it regularly and gets very happy when one of us picks it up to add more. Also super easy to clean as it's safe to throw in the washing machine. And then I've also taught mine a handful of tricks. I taught her to shake, sit up, turn (both ways), head bump, high five, and (sort of!, we're still working on this one) stay. The nice thing is she's also a VERY loud cat, and while I tried ignoring it in the past as suggested to train her that noise does not get attention, it didn't really work. Teaching her to do a trick for a treat means that she generally starts by walking up to me and quietly putting her paw gently on my leg or arm to ask! If this blatant emotional manipulation does not work, THEN she brings back the yelling, so it's certainly accurate to say that we have done a fairly decent job of training each other to be less obnoxious to the other!
Appreciate the video appreciate all the hard work going into this my comment is regarding dry food which is just absolutely the worst possible thing you could ever feed your cat. I can tell by looking at your cats fur that there may be some issues starting to arise Get yourself an air fryer. I have a countertop air fryer and I cut up a little pieces of Cooked chicken and it doesn’t take long to get it crunchy and I use that instead of kibble But I also make my own cat food real food.
“Mar-Vell does get wet food once in a while” Are you serious?? It should be just the opposite. The worst wet food is still better than the best dry food.
I have a few issues. If you know he doesn't like using the cup, why make him? Is it really 'hard' to fill a treat ball?!? Oh, sorry, you also have to wash it 🙄 are you for real? We do these things to enrich their lives. Cats make it EXTREMELY easy on us to care for them. It frustrating to hear you talk this way. I'm out ✌️
Yes, that was going to be my comment. I have an air fryer. It’s a counter top air fryer and I cut up a little pieces of cooked chicken breast and it doesn’t take very long for them to be crunchy. Then I use those instead.
My elderly cat was on dry Iams basically her whole life because she was super picky, she basically wouldn't touch anything besides chicken flavored dry food. Wouldn't touch chicken puree treats designed for cats, but would try to eat my chili or chinese food. She super wierd but lived to 18. Dry food is good for teeth, gives cats something to chew. We've been alternating between a good quality wet food and dry for our new kitty to give the best of both worlds.
Don't you love it when people try to judge what someone is doing in a video without giving a call to action? If you're going to take the time to say what is "unhealthy" then you might as well state what is supposedly "healthy" cats to be eating.
Thank you for including our puzzles!! We'd love to send you some of our dog puzzles and other petstages puzzles
Thank you! Mar-Vell loves trying out new puzzle toys
Thank you for filming this video! It looks like a lot of work but it was so helpful. I'm definitely going to try the cup and muffin tin. So simple!
"Since when did eating become a brain game? Just pass the tuna and nobody gets scratched!" - Marble
Haha! By the end of filming this video, she was so done with puzzles
I liked the idea of all of these except the muffin tin which would cause whisker stree.
Maybe with the muffin pan she feels whisker tension and tries the next in hopes of not feeling uncomfortable
Excellent point I forgot about that
Good point, I do like the ones where she has to paw out the food
I've recently made old plastic bottles into puzzle feeders by cutting holes in the side. The narrow mouth bottles are a bit of a hassle to fill, you need to use a funnel, but wide mouth bottles are fillable with a scoop. With a few different bottles you can customise how difficult or easy it is depending on the number and size of the holes. I also use one of those ring with a ball hidden inside as a feeder toy, also easy to fill just pour dry food through the holes in the top & the cat scoops it out with a paw.
That's really cool. I love the DIY ones especially when you can reuse something you might throw away otherwise
I've improvised a round scratch pad with the outside track rolling ball, by placing Gonzo's kibble and a few treats around in the outside track, and covering them up with his catnip toys, ping-pong balls, pine cones and whatever, to bury them under an obstacle course... it keeps him out of my non existing hair for hours.
Very creative, there's always so many layers you can add to the puzzles!
Awesome informative video! Thanks for including everyday kitchen items.👍
Great video. The muffin tin is a great idea as most slow feeders are made of plastic. I was told not to use plastic as it can allow bacteria to grow. But I also use flat plates to avoid whisker fatigue. It is all so confusing!
I have a Trixie puzzle that has rods on top that cover the food wells, as well as mouse holes on the bottom for loading up food. I have another Trixie puzzle that has different food well covers: three that require her to slide, two are balls with food inside and two have levers that the cat has to flip to reveal the food. It's identical to a dog food puzzle but scaled for a cat. My Siamese girl, Cheyenne is smart. If I serve dinner on her dish (she eats off a salad plate so that she can extend her whiskers) and put freeze dried food in her food puzzles, she'll first do the food puzzles and then eat the pile of meat. I'm looking for more complex food puzzles. Siamese cats are really smart. (Cheyenne is an old lady, at age 17. Her doctor thinks she's a good candidate to join the 20+ club... and if she does, she will be the third cat I've had that did that.) After all, a well-bred, well taken care of Siamese cat can live for a long, long time.
very good video. thanks for posting. good idea using the ikea mat x
U should put that big clock on the bottom right corner and make it smaller, its blocking the whole video. U should fast forward when u set up the toy and do normal speed when the cat is playing w the toy. Thats what ppl want to watch.
But then this vid would be almost an hour long
Pet safe (don't love the company, since they sell shock collars) but they have an egg shape rolling puzzle--very easy to fill, and clean and can be made harder or easier. I hadn't thought of the shoe tray to slow the toy down and keep it contained.
I have that egg shaped rolling ball and it does work. Also, don’t be too hard on those shock collars because people who have deaf cats and dogs That’s when those collars can come in handy. You keep it at a very very low setting and that gets the animals attention and then from there you use sign language.
My cats have the Trixie Mad Scientist toy. One of my cats loves it, and the other one never figured it out! I'm anxious to try it again now that she has used some other toys, but it got lost in the move qnd hasn't turned up yet.
It's nice with the toys that have difficulty levels so you can slowly make it harder but some cats may just not get it
I'm looking for challenging puzzles since my kitty is way too smart for her own good and the vet says she's probably bored. So this might be a good fit for her!
@@cobaltpterodactyl Little late to the party, but I own this one so I figured I'd chime in. My cat is pretty good at figuring things out, this one stumped her for a bit so what I did was remove the lids altogether, put some treats in, and show her where they were. She would paw at it a few times and then I'd reward her by helping tip it all the way forward to drop a treat. It didn't take her long to figure out that I'm a very slow butler and I needed help figuring out how to get all the treats out at once. Once she mastered that, I left one tube lidless and put the 'easy' lid (single hole) on the other two. That slowed her down a bit, but having a single lidless motivated her to start, and emptying the lidless and being left looking at two tubes that clearly contained treats, she mastered 'easy' in a hurry. The three-hole lids took her a lot longer. BUT... she did eventually figure out that it was simply a matter of turning them juuust so, and now we can add treats to all three tubes and they're empty within a minute or two. So now here I am on the hunt for another treat toy that will stimulate her in a different way, and also hopefully keep her figuring it out for awhile!
If you don't have one yet, you might also try a snuffler mat. They seem to be sold toward dogs but I picked a smaller one and again, she needed a bit of help to figure out the game by putting treats on top of the layers, and then just peeking out of layers, and then finally showing her us putting treats under a layer - now she will check it regularly and gets very happy when one of us picks it up to add more. Also super easy to clean as it's safe to throw in the washing machine.
And then I've also taught mine a handful of tricks. I taught her to shake, sit up, turn (both ways), head bump, high five, and (sort of!, we're still working on this one) stay. The nice thing is she's also a VERY loud cat, and while I tried ignoring it in the past as suggested to train her that noise does not get attention, it didn't really work. Teaching her to do a trick for a treat means that she generally starts by walking up to me and quietly putting her paw gently on my leg or arm to ask! If this blatant emotional manipulation does not work, THEN she brings back the yelling, so it's certainly accurate to say that we have done a fairly decent job of training each other to be less obnoxious to the other!
Appreciate the video appreciate all the hard work going into this my comment is regarding dry food which is just absolutely the worst possible thing you could ever feed your cat. I can tell by looking at your cats fur that there may be some issues starting to arise
Get yourself an air fryer. I have a countertop air fryer and I cut up a little pieces of Cooked chicken and it doesn’t take long to get it crunchy and I use that instead of kibble
But I also make my own cat food real food.
I used to make my own cat food, when I lived in the hicks. Unfortunately, my kitchenette is really too small to do that.
I wouldn’t use the cups that way. I felt bad for the cat because it was clearly experiencing whisker fatigue.
Thank you ☺️
My Buddy "Mew" has no problem with sticking her whole Arm into a bottle to retrieve food or treats, in fact she can take off the lid
Mar-vell wants food but is too lazy to work for it 😂
How often does she eat with the timer?
I only used the timer for this video. I usually just leave it out overnight.
Those big numbers blocking are extremely annoying
🙏
Another great thumbnail! Maybe next time try some emojis :)
That's a great idea! Thank you
“Mar-Vell does get wet food once in a while” Are you serious?? It should be just the opposite. The worst wet food is still better than the best dry food.
I have a few issues. If you know he doesn't like using the cup, why make him? Is it really 'hard' to fill a treat ball?!? Oh, sorry, you also have to wash it 🙄 are you for real? We do these things to enrich their lives. Cats make it EXTREMELY easy on us to care for them. It frustrating to hear you talk this way. I'm out ✌️
Is this about you and your cat? OR CAT PUZZELS. HMMM
¿porque no los dos?
Laisser à volonté un chat se régule seul
Dry food is very bad for cats. Period.
Yes, that was going to be my comment. I have an air fryer. It’s a counter top air fryer and I cut up a little pieces of cooked chicken breast and it doesn’t take very long for them to be crunchy. Then I use those instead.
@@dcwatashi 🥰
Truth. I wish it was more well known.
My elderly cat was on dry Iams basically her whole life because she was super picky, she basically wouldn't touch anything besides chicken flavored dry food. Wouldn't touch chicken puree treats designed for cats, but would try to eat my chili or chinese food. She super wierd but lived to 18.
Dry food is good for teeth, gives cats something to chew. We've been alternating between a good quality wet food and dry for our new kitty to give the best of both worlds.
Don't you love it when people try to judge what someone is doing in a video without giving a call to action? If you're going to take the time to say what is "unhealthy" then you might as well state what is supposedly "healthy" cats to be eating.