KONG Cat Wobbler, Treat Dispensing Toy, Purple

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List Price: $19.99
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My cat enjoys feeding balls, and my dog loves his big Kong Wobbler so I decided to see if Nugget could manage this toy as a food dispenser. He is very interested in it and periodically bats at it to see if food will come out, but so far he hasn't mastered the necessary technique. We show him how it works by pulling on the attached attractant at the top to spill food out for him. That always gets his interest, but he just hasn't figured it out for himself yet. We haven't given up and are still hopeful that a light will suddenly come on. The concept is fine and the interest is there, but the motivation may not be high enough for a cat. I like the idea of my animals "working" for their dinner because it adds interest to their lives. It's what they are meant to do. We will keep trying with this toy and I'll update this review if we are successful. However, at least for my cat who is used to feeding toys and clicker training, this toy requires input from the human(s) in the family. That's not a bad thing. It's too easy to put the food in a bowl and walk away. Interaction is something we should encourage with our animals and the Kong Cat Wobbler requires that in our situation so far.

(UPDATE) Nugget has mastered the Cat Wobbler at last and loves it! This took several months with us helping him spill food from it. At some point recently , he got the idea that food would come out if he just pushed it around enough. He uses the plume to pull it over. I love this toy for him because it is a real challenge. Nugget has cerebellar hypoplasia with moderate motor problems. He cannot jump or climb vertically, and he has an uneven gait. For him, any new skill or accomplishment builds confidence and makes him happy. I give him the Cat Wobbler with pellets (not filled because it would be too much food for him) several times a week when we go to bed. I hear him working with it throughout the night; he has emptied it by morning. It was worth the time showing him how to use it because it gives him something interesting to do for several hours at a time.

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Really could use more than one hole for dispensing, my cat loses interest because she has to work to hard to get anything out of it.

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My cat loves food. He'll eat all day if he could, and with this he can. It slows him down enough that it takes all day to dig out all the treats.

My feline friend seems to have trouble with understanding which way to tilt the thing, but he never gives up.

Hopefuly your cat will enjoy this as much as mine.

Easy to clean

Easy to fill

And easy to spot (and not trip on) when your half asleep in the dark

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I am glad that the store put this in a large paper bag. The cats do love playing with that! They won't touch the toy. They do want the treats inside but we have to keep kicking it over for them to get the treats out. They are not interested in doing that themselves.

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My 1-year-old kitty is overweight, so I tried putting out some weight control food by her normal food. She clearly preferred her original food but will eat the weight control, so I switched to exclusively diet food in her bowl. I think she just eats more of it now.

I am not the type of person who is disciplined or consistently-scheduled enough to measure out daily or twice daily servings for my cat, so a while back I picked up one of these at a local store to meter her feeding rate a bit. I tried to buy another yesterday, but they aren't stocking any foraging feeders locally anymore.

I didn't try hard to show her how to use it; she can smell the food in there, and if she wants it I couldn't stop her from trying to get it. I put her preferred food in the Kong and her weight control food in the bowl. For weeks I don't think she did much with it; I would sometimes see her pawing ineffectively at the tail and sometimes see a spilled bit or two of food when I was away from it for a while.

More recently I have accidentally kicked the Kong while walking, sending it spinning and dispersing food like a lawn spreader dispensing lawn food. Perhaps that helped because since then I sometimes hear her playing with the Kong and eating the spilled food.

She doesn't play with it while I'm watching her, but I know she knows how to use it, and when it's lying down she knows how to put it back upright which surprises me a little.

Today she was begging for food because her bowl was empty, but I know she had food last night so I was feeding myself first. I finally saw her play with the Kong when she gave up on me, walked over to the Kong and casually but expertly batted it into a graceful leaning twirl that dispensed several bits of food. BUSTED, kitty! She can get food out of the Kong whenever she wants; she just doesn't want to when she thinks I'm watching her.

Now that I know she can use it reliably I want to get two or three more foraging feeders, remove her bowl and let her graze off the feeders. I want more than one so I don't have to refill them daily, and perhaps I can offer some food variety and see if she likes that.

I was planning to get different foraging feeders partially due to cost and partially because I wasn't convinced this design was effective, but now that I saw how deftly she can work this model and see that it doesn't go all over the house like the ball designs I am considering getting more of this model.

As for why 4 stars and not 5, I'm trying to find a rational justification. All I can think of is that if it were 5 stars I wouldn't be considering other foraging feeders. On the other hand, maybe it's kitty's fault for fooling me into thinking she didn't use it much because she only does it competently when she thinks I'm not looking.

Same-day UPDATE: After some consideration I bought two more Kongs right here on Amazon and took advantage of the free Super Saver shipping. Now that I finally saw how good the little sneak is with the Kong I feel confident in leaving three out for her and removing her food bowl. Although the Kong is a bit more than some of the foraging feeders I now see how effective she is with it and I know it won't roll all over the house.

Update Feb 17, 2013 (original review Jan 26): Kitty happened to see the delivery of the Amazon Kong order while window-gazing, and I made a big deal of telling her it was for her and brought it in, unboxed and opened them under her supervision. I filled them with food and placed the three in different parts of the house with hard floors. She's not shy about using them in front of me anymore, and I praise her when I see her do it. She uses each of them. It's not any difference to me, but the tails on all three of my Kong Wobblers (two from Amazon, one from a local store) are solid black, not striped as shown on the packaging or the product photo here.

Update Aug 17, 2013: I never took the feeding bowl away, but kitty usually prefers her favored food from the Kongs over her diet food in the bowl. When I see the bowl food start going down I know it's time to refill the Kongs. I haven't had her to the vet to check her weight, but her belly doesn't stick out alternately to each side anymore when she walks; I think the Kongs slow her down a bit and help her eat less overall. Although kitty uses all three Kongs, they stay within a couple of feet of where I put them whereas a ball feeder would go all over the house. We found out the tails can snap out and back in. The new product photo here on Amazon looks just like mine with the solid black tail.