Hello, friends and felines! My cat Yuan is 15 years old, and though he may not have crazy kitten energy anymore, he is super smart and very good at solving treat puzzles. I've tried a few with him, like his watermelon puzzle, or a mouse with a food compartment and "Weeble Guy," a bottom-heavy toy with a compartment both of which you have to bat around to get them to wobble or turn upside down and drop treats.
Snuffle mats are generally marketed as for dogs, but I saw someone mention using them with cats online so I thought I'd try one. I had Treats points at PetSmart to use, and there was a sale, so it was a good time to pick up a new puzzle for him! :)
There are lots of little nooks and crannies in here to hide treats in. So I tried it with his favorite treats, freeze dried chicken.
At first, I showed him that there were treats in there, and he did OK with that:
But then he didn't keep searching for more, he just lost interest. Freeze dried chicken is his favorite, but it isn't very odiferous, so I decided to try some catnip:
And he was absolutely uninterested. 😂
Even when I pulled up the flaps like you see in the picture so that treats and 'nip were both visible, he didn't go for it. Instead he went to finish his lunch:
So experiments will continue, but he doesn't seem to be into it very much yet. I'll try it with Temptations treats next (I believe those are called Dreamies in other parts of the world).
Not everything we try is a winner, and sometimes it just takes time and they end up liking it later on. So we'll see!