Homemade Treat Toys For Cats

I thought it would be fun to share something we use actually quite often.

Specifically, we like ‘treat boxes’ to help simulate some of the activities outdoor cats would do in the hunt for food. They are great for burning active kitties energy, OR, great for getting a slightly more portly kitty moving a bit for food.

Here is a video of the Meadow Crew in action.

Direct link to video

As a note, some items work better for different cats. For example, Asia likes to tear egg cartons into little bits making it sorta pointless.

For treats, I use cooked chicken bits cut into teeny pieces and dried out for an hour or two in an oven (set on lowest temp with door open). We have used bonita flakes (too messy), and dehydrated chicken liver as well. You can use any treat that works best for your cat. You can even try gradually going from treats to their dry food. Be sure to reduce feeding calories at mealtimes to balance out the extra calories from the treat box.

Couple of tips when making these types of toys:
-Use a sharp knife, and ALWAYS cut away from human body parts (pretty please).
-For cats new to these toys, create plenty of large holes to reward often. You can always make another container or tape up holes later on.
-Use super yummy treats and a hungry cat in the beginning, placing treats right at the openings to show them what’s in store. Later you can phase in smaller treats or even dry food.
-For best motivation, put container away in between rewards and alternate types of containers to keep the cat motivated.
-For overweight cats you can even feed entire meals from a container to promote activity and spread out mealtime.
-For non food motivated felines, you could use a ball or toy in the box instead. Ping pong balls are great for this, make the holes big enough for paws but not large enough to let the ball out.

Please supervise all pets during the use of homemade toys, and use caution when cutting into containers.

If you want something a bit less homemade, here are some other ideas.

Treat type dispensers:

Toys that fill the need to search and find: