Slow/puzzle Feeders

[valou999]

Anyone here uses these types of bowls? I've been meaning to get one but I'm not sure what would work best for my cats. My youngest kitty Loki eats his kibbles often too fast and vomits almost immediatly after. In the last couple of weeks he's also become quite gluttonous as well and will eat his portion for the entire day within an hour, leaving him and my senior cat Mittens without food for the rest fo the day until their next meal. My older kitty eats normally but I do not believe he would have much patience with an overly complex feeder. So what I was thinking was getting 2 types of feeder in which I could split the food into so it would last longer through the day and satisfy both my cats feeding habits. One that's a regular bowl with simple bumps/columns in the middle just to slow down Loki sufficiently and be simple enough for Mittens, and another more challenging puzzle feeder like say the Northmate feeder for the 2nd half of the food. Does that sound appropriate? What's you experiences with such feeders and your differnet cats? Do they ever lose interest? Did you ever had to return to normal bowls?

 

[lalagimp]

Aikiou and Pioneer Pet

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I think you might be surprised by what you older cat might enjoy. Cats need to have their brains challenged. What does Mittens do all day? If the answer is "lay around doing pretty much nothing", then I think a challenging feeder for both of them might be healthy.

You might try raising Loki's dish just to make it all the more difficult. I've got one who eats really fast and then regurgitates his food, so now he eats from a raised dish. It's really helped.

 

[susanm9006]

Here is the slow bowl that I use for Willow. Each piece of kibble must be scooped up individually and pulled out of the bowl so it definitely slows her down and she enjoys the game. They are used for dogs and cats and are sold on Amazon. I think the manufacturer on mine was Kyjen.

 

[susanm9006]

One very simple puzzle type feeder you can make at home. Take a plastic water bottle and using an exacto type knife cut four or five holes that kibble or treats will fit through in the bottle at different levels and on different sides. Then add some food or treats to it, put the cap on and let the cats roll and knock it around to shake out a treat. Willow loves this game. If I am slow with her evening snack she will knock the empty bottle around until the noise gets my attention.

 

[Willowy]

I have one like that ^^^ for one of my dogs, because if fed in a bowl she'll try to swallow a whole mouthful at once and choke herself (well, her bowl is green and has a different pattern, but same concept). I use it with both dry and canned food. It should work for a cat too. They have to lick the food out of every line instead of gulping it, so it really slows them down.

 

[Elfilou]

Another recommendation could be the SureFeed microchip feeder for your senior cat. I have one very gluttonous cat and one who has always been a picky eater. The SureFeed gives me the peace of mind that when I give them breakfast in the morning I don't have one cat getting fatter and the other getting thinner.

 

[valou999]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Right now I'm leaning for the Pioneer Pet Tiger Diner feeder, I think it would be apt for both my cat (and there's a version made of ceramic which is a big plus in my mind). I might get another one down the line just for added diversity, one with tubes or like the orange dog feeder, but I'll start with just the one to see how it goes.

The SureFeed looks FANTASTIC, but darn... Mittens, my senior, is not microchipped, Loki however is - I got this all backward for the purpose of this device... And it's a bit pricey I must add. Wish I could try it out before purchasing it.

 

[lalagimp]

T

The SureFeed looks FANTASTIC, but darn... Mittens, my senior, is not microchipped, Loki however is - I got this all backward for the purpose of this device... And it's a bit pricey I must add. Wish I could try it out before purchasing it.

Surefeed supplies 2 tags with the feeder, if your cats will wear collars. I don't have ours programmed to the girls' chips in their shoulders, but the tags on their collars. Pricing varies, depending on where you are looking. Different cat magazines offer discounts at different times, and you can always see if any of their promo codes are listed on RetailMeNot . com
I know I either paid $119 or $129 when they were brand new at $149

 

[biscuity]

Here's a link to the Catit website for Canada. I have all 3 of these feeders.

Slow Feeders Archives - Catit CA

 

[valou999]

Here's a link to the Catit website for Canada. I have all 3 of these feeders.

Yeah the Catit Digger was one of my choices for a second feeder (along with the Aïkiou Stimulo). This way they'd have a horizontal foraging feeder with the Pioneer Pet Tiger Diner and a vertical foraging feeder with the Catit Digger.

 

[biscuity]

I have all 3 feeders around the house. Coojee can handle the two digging feeders well, but the tree feeder I help her with. It's a daddy thing! I make a coffee for myself & sit down with Coojee helping her with the feeder.

 

[chunkykitty]

I have used Catit 2.0 and highly recommend. The bowl type feeder not so much.

The No Bowl feeders (felt wrapped plastic mice) are terrific! Even my 17 y/o kitty loved these and I knew they wouldn’t be gobbling their food till they barfed.

 

[1 bruce 1]

One very simple puzzle type feeder you can make at home. Take a plastic water bottle and using an exacto type knife cut four or five holes that kibble or treats will fit through in the bottle at different levels and on different sides. Then add some food or treats to it, put the cap on and let the cats roll and knock it around to shake out a treat. Willow loves this game. If I am slow with her evening snack she will knock the empty bottle around until the noise gets my attention.

We have done this.
Fair warning, if you ever have a get together and people have water bottles, and your cat is bold, don't be shocked if they go from guest to guest and use their feet to knock their water over to see if anything cool falls out of it.
If your guests are cool, they'll laugh. Ours did.

To add to this idea, plastic water bottles are cheap and need to be RRR (reused, reduced, recycled) so keeping a few handy as future cat toys is good. When you make the toy for the first time, make the holes big so the game is easy (one topple = 10+ treats/kibble) so cat doesn't get discouraged. You can use the next bottles to make it more and more challenging. Once they understand the game and are into it, you can make a bottle very challenging that will keep them busy for quite a long time trying to get the food inside when there's one single hole that barely allows a single piece to escape.

 

[tnbsp]

I just got the trixie activity board off amazon. My two boys were very curious and catching the hang of it. They have to use their paws to get the kibble out- i wouldnt put wet food in this one, would be harder and messier to clean. Also you could feed one meal in the morning and one at night- maybe that could help the one not eat too much all at once also.

 

[valou999]

Update! So I got the Pioneer Pet Tiger Diner feeder and it seems to work well enough for my younger kitty. If he's hungry, he goes to it and starts foraging for kibbles. Very effective in slowing him down and reducing his overall intake of dry food in a day. However, as I suspected, my senior kitty is not all happy with this change. He knows where to find the food and how to get to it (in fact he was the first to figure out how it works, but I've seen him dig for kibbles only once or twice since, and he's not great at it...) but doesn't want to bother with it and just waits there looking defeated. Granted it's only been a short time, so we'll see how it goes given more time. Not sure how I could feed him separately without having the other kitty steal all his food.