Cat feeders and the lingering smell of food

[Renne]

Cat feeders involve a cat taking food out of something, and then it ends up on the floor or carpet.

I occasionally play-feed my cat just by rolling her food on the floor. She likes that a lot. However, there's a problem of lingering smell that I imagine commercial cat feeders have, as well.

My kitten is acting disoriented when she comes upon a spot she was play-fed at before, for example, a few hours later. She smells around, acts hungry, but there's nothing there anymore. Isn't it frustrating for a cat to smell food but find nothing? If I start using cat feeders, my whole apartment would end up smelling tasty for the kitten eventually, and I imagine that'd cause her some frustration. She'd never know if food aroma means she's found something or not.

What do you think? What's your experience?

 

[Azazel]

I use timed feeders for canned food every now and then and I don't have that problem. The only time they smell the food is if it's inside the feeder - they try to break it open sometimes. If you're going to have a feeder out at all times with food inside of it, then yeah, they will probably try to break into it.

I always wash or wipe down the dirty parts of the feeder and clean the area around it. I usually put the feeder on the kitchen counter so it's easy to clean the area and afterwards I put it away in a closed cabinet. I also don't use the plastic bowls that came with the feeder; instead, I bought a couple of small ceramic bowls that fit into the compartments. They are less likely to harbor bacteria and I wash them after each use.

This is the one I use: Cat Mate C20 2-Bowl Automatic Pet Feeder, 48-hour - Chewy.com

 

[Renne]

I see! It's good to know if my cat ever needs a feeder like this.

But actually I was talking about toys for feeding cats. Like various balls they roll that dispense food. Sorry for the unclear topic title, I didn't think of timed cat feeders.

 

[Azazel]

Ohhh, sorry I completely misunderstood. I don't use those balls. I did try them once a long time ago and I did find them kind of messy with freeze dried food cause some of it would break apart and go everywhere. I think it frustrated me more than my cats because I didn't want cat food all over the ground.

It's also really hard to clean the inside of those balls which also frustrated me!

 

[mani]

It's swings and roundabouts with this one.. They're a great way to keep cats occupied, but there's the mess issue.
Renne your kitten (still un-named? ) probably plays with toys like there's no tomorrow, so doesn't really need the impetus of food. And you're feeding her in one place, and that's a good habit to get into. So I'd tend to give it a miss.

 

[Renne]

mani , the reason I'm looking for a toy is to feed her more, not less She tends to eat anything edible if I'm using it to play with her, hungry or not, once she 'catches' it. I guess it's an instinct. But she started eating more, so it's no longer required for me to think up ways to feed her.

I've checked out some user video reviews at Amazon and most people have no problem with their cats rolling toy cat feeders all around the floor. Maybe their cats see better than mine, because mine starts to seek food if there's some lingering smell of food, even though it's clear that the floor is empty. Only one person had a similar problem and he found a solution of using a basin with high walls, so that the cat wouldn't get kibble out anywhere else but the basin

 

[kittenmittens84]

My cat does the same thing and I got so tired of stepping on little bits of cat food that I rigged up a solution. We put a large baking sheet on the floor (one with 4 sides), put a silicone baking mat like this Silicone Baking Mat - Made By Design™ inside the tray, and then put his puzzle food bowl on top of it. The silicone is grippy so it doesn’t slide around and the sides of the tray keep the food in, it seems to work pretty well.