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Updated 11th Mar 2025
First published 27th Jan 2025
Most cats are fed from a bowl in the same location each day, meaning little or no effort is needed to get their food. Gone are the opportunities to search for and capture their food – which involves considerable mental and physical exertion. For cats, hunting is problem-solving. First, they need to solve the problem of finding the prey, then successfully capturing and killing it – all of which needs completing before they can eat.
Without the mental stimulation that comes from interacting with their surroundings, your cat may become bored, which may cause anxiety and potentially lead to problem behaviours. In addition, if your cat only needs to walk to their food bowl, they’re taking in more calories than they’re using, resulting in weight gain. Puzzle feeders are a great way to encourage mental and physical stimulation during feeding and allow your cat to express natural hunting behaviour. They hold food and must be manipulated in different ways to release it, helping meals last longer, increasing your cat’s physical activity, and providing a fun ‘brain teaser’ for your cat.
Puzzle feeders can hold both wet (i.e. food from tins or pouches) and dry food (i.e. kibble/biscuits). Some puzzle feeders need cats to get the food out with their paws or manipulate the object with their paws or nose to release the food, while others need cats to get to the food using their tongues and jaws (especially when wet food is used).What types of puzzle feeders are available for cats?
A silicone ice cube tray is a great option to puzzle feed wet food
Puzzle feeders are available to buy, but you can also make them at home. Everyday household items can also be used as puzzle feeders. For example, putting dry kibble (biscuits) in an egg box, or wet food in an ice cube tray. At International Cat Care, we’ve put together a ‘feeding plan’ which also gives instructions on making puzzle feeders at home. The feeding plan outlines a few simple changes to how owners feed their cats, which can help improve their health and welfare. For a short version of this feeding plan with instructions on how to build the puzzle feeders, click here. For the full report behind the development of the feeding plan and a more detailed version (including instructions on how to build the puzzle feeders), click here.
A large puzzle feeder
It’s best to introduce puzzle feeders gradually, to give your cat time to learn how to use them and avoid frustration. When introducing puzzle feeders, we recommend you: Continue to feed some of your cat’s daily food allowance in a bowl, as well as offering some of it in the puzzle feeder Adjust the settings of the puzzle feeder so that getting food is easy Use clear puzzle feeders and/or ones with plenty of openings so your cat can easily see, smell, and hear the food Sprinkle some dry food around the puzzle feeder, to encourage interest, and to help your cat make a connection between food and the puzzle feeder As your cat becomes better at using the puzzle feeder, and if they’re showing no signs of stress, anxiety or frustration, increase the amount of their daily food allowance provided via the puzzle feeder – at iCatCare, we recommend that 100% of a cat’s food is provided via puzzle feeders where appropriate. The difficulty of the puzzle feeder can be gradually increased by using feeders with fewer and/or smaller holes, opaque feeders, and feeders more challenging to manipulate. This ensures the puzzle feeder continues to be stimulating – it should pose a challenge to your cat, without causing frustration. Cats have individual preferences and abilities, so try different puzzle feeders to learn which your cat enjoys using. How to introduce puzzle feeders to your cat
Has your cat grown bored of their puzzle feeder because they find it too easy? Here are our top tips on how to make their ‘hunting’ harder: Instead of placing the puzzle feeder in the same place daily, hide it in new areas of your home to get your cat to seek out their food If your cat eats wet and dry food, try putting the opposite food in the feeder. Wet food won’t dispense well from puzzle-feeding balls, but works well in egg boxes, cardboard tubes, and activity board feeders Many ball puzzle feeders allow you to change the size and number of holes the food falls out of when rolled. It may be time to increase the difficulty setting by making the holes smaller or having less of them open If your cat has become a maestro at scooping biscuits out of a cardboard tube, it’s time to encourage your cat to roll a ball or lick wet food out of an ice cube tray. Think about different puzzle feeders so that your cat uses different behaviours to gain food Make a puzzle feeder within a puzzle feeder. Can you place your puzzle feeder inside a paper bag with a few pieces of kibble in the bag and the rest in the puzzle feeder? Now your cat has two activities to work through to gain all their foodPuzzle Feeder Tips
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For more ideas on how to make puzzle feeders of all different difficulty levels, visit foodpuzzlesforcats.com
A review* of the scientific literature provides evidence for many benefits of using puzzle feeders with cats. These include: reducing signs of stress, contributing to weight loss, decreasing reactivity towards people and other cats, reducing anxiety and fear, and eliminating attention-seeking behaviour and inappropriate toileting problems. The authors found that all cats can use puzzle feeders, even senior cats, kittens, three-legged cats, blind cats, and cats with other disabilities! This review was published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, the flagship journal of International Cat Care’s veterinary division. *Dantas LMS, Delgado MM, Johnson I and Buffington CAT. Food puzzles for cats: feeding for physical and emotional wellbeing. J Feline Med Surg 2016; 18: 723-732.The Science
