Puzzle toys are a great way to keep your cats entertained and mentally stimulated when you can’t play with them. The toys are designed to be filled with treats, and they challenge kitty to retrieve the treats through varied openings in the toys. Most puzzle toy manufacturers recommend using dry food with these puzzles. Since I don’t recommend feeding any dry food, not even as treats, I recommend using freeze dried meat based treats such as Pure Bites or Whole Life.
There’s a huge variety of puzzle toys on the market. The toy shown above is the CatAmazing Puzzle Toy, and it’s remained a big hit with Allegra and Ruby. In addition to using treats inside the toy, I put smaller toys inside, and that works just as well as treats in terms of holding their interest.
Hauspanther recently reviewed the Nina Ottoson Cat Treat Maze, and it’s on my list to get for Allegra and Ruby. I think they’d have a lot of fun with this one. The unpredictable movement of this toy keeps things challenging for kitty. Read the full review on Hauspanther.
The SmartCat Peek-and-Play box is another favorite at our house. This one is designed for to be used with toys, but could also be used with treats. Ruby really likes this one.
The Catit Design Senses Maze looks like another innovatitve toy that should bring hours of entertainment for kitty. The different layers provide varying levels of difficulty, and I had to chuckle at this part of the description: “Accu-Pressure Mat provides pressure point paw massage.” What more could kitty want while playing!
And if you don’t want to spend money on a puzzle toy for your cats, I bet you already have the makings of one right in your own home: a muffin tin! Put some treats at the bottom of each hole of a muffin tin, cover with toys, and watch kitty have fun.
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