Review of Melon Madness Puzzle & Play by Petstages

Hey feline friends and the hoomans who love them! Today I thought I'd do a little review of this treat/food puzzle that I got for Yuan: the Melon Madness puzzle toy from the brand Petstages. I had wanted to get him one for a while after I saw a cat I petsit for sometimes had a ladybug one from the same brand, and I found this one at almost half off, so I got it! :)

When you are starting out, they say to use smell-good treats to tempt your cat and let them know there are noms in there. So to start I put half Temptations treats, and half his normal kibble.

What is this?

There are NOMS in there?

Hmmm...

Success!

He's been using this for almost a week now, and he seems to really like it. He follows me when I go to fill it. I mostly just put kibble in there now, but sometimes I make one of the slots for treats to keep it interesting.

The toy is made out of hard plastic (hard plastic mixed with wood, the box says, but it's the consistency of plastic), so it's easy to clean with soap and water.

The only problem I would say on this model is that sometimes the pieces of kibble get trapped in between the red top layer and the green bottom layer, as below:

I can get some of them out with my fingers but other times I have to use my little bread machine hook that is meant to get the paddle out of the bread loaf. The ladybug one that my neighbor had didn't have this problem when I used it with her cat, but that one is flat and this one is slanted so that may be why it happens? Or maybe just neighbor cat's kibble was more round and Yuan's is more flat. It isn't a deal breaker, anyway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

So if you have a kitty who needs a bit more mental stimulation/hunting/play, or one who gobbles up their food too fast perhaps, this might be a good solution for you! Yuan figured it out fast and I can hear him pushing the slot cups or the watermelon seeds (which are on a swivel) around as he works for his noms sometimes while I'm in bed. It would also probably work well for kitties who are home alone while the hoomans are away at work to keep them a little more entertained than just eating kibbles from a bowl. For the petsitting, I would fill hers up before I left so she could nosh on it in-between visits.

Yuan has had other treat puzzle styles before: a ball that as you roll it around, food or treats fall out of a hole, and what I call Weeble Guy, who he bats at and it wobbles and treats fall out. But this is the first one of this style where he's sliding things around to get at it. I'd say it's a win!