Northmate Catch Feeder For Cats- Size Mini

When I received this, I was slightly disappointed. From the pictures, I was expecting more of a soft plastic with somewhat bendable spikes, but this is all hard plastic. However, being hard, it's definitely going to be durable and last a long time.Before I go any further, I will say it has worked WONDERS. One of our cats' eating habits is more like "binge and purge". He will eat so fast that a few minutes later it comes right back up. Since he has been eating out of this feeder, that has gone down quite a bit. When he gets into the other cats' dishes and eats too quickly, he'll sometimes puke, but it's no longer a daily occurrence.That said, I got worried the first time we used it as he didn't know how to get to his food. I was originally thinking (as I said above) that this would be a softer plastic, forcing him to root around for the food. Being hard, and with the closeness of the spikes, that's not really an option as they are too close together for his head to get at the food. What this forces him to do is use his paw to reach in and pull out 1 or 2 pieces of kibble, then eat it off of the floor.There are 2 downsides to the above, at least for us. First, we actually had to teach him how to eat out of the bowl. For the first 3-4 feedings, we would use our fingers to pull out a piece of kibble for him, he would eat, we'd repeat. After a couple of pieces he'd get the hint and could feed himself - though he wanted to try and sneak to one of the other cats' dishes. Now, he is willing to stick with his dish. Second, since he's reaching in on the side with his paw, he ends up dragging the dish across the floor as he's eating. At the next feeding, we're playing a game of "where's Sisko's dish today?"Given the last 'downside', I would have liked this to have a bit more heft. Perhaps a metal plate on the bottom, simply for additional weight to try and keep the dish in place. I'll probably stick a non-skid pad to it eventually in hopes that it keeps the dish closer to his feeding area. But, really, this is a minor drawback compared to the benefits we have seen.I would definitely recommend this as an option for cat owners that have cats that eat too quickly. I cannot say if this is better/worse than other feeders designed to slow cats down, but I am happy with my purchase.

I got this for my 3 month old kitten, as he is VERY smart and VERY active. I knew I couldn't enforce him eating all his kibble out of it if he didn't go for it, since he's just a baby and needs to eat as much as he wants to grow. So this review is written from a slightly different perspective than most who are using it either to slow down cats who scarf their food, or encourage overweight cats to be more active in their food acquisition. At first he didn't know what to do with it. Having smaller paws, I knew it should be relatively easy for him to get in the crevices, compared to adult cats. He just stared at it. I tried to show him what to do....still nothing. I gave up and put it away for a few weeks. At the same time, my husband had created a makeshift game for him to get treats, out of 2 IKEA "Marius" stools. The stools have roughly one inch diameter holes in the top, and he would stack the two on top of one another, creating a space between the two stools where he would place the treats. Kitty has to reach into either the holes or between the edges of the stools to smack the treats out. (Hang in there with me, I'm going somewhere relevant with this!) So after kitty mastered that game, we needed to make it harder for him. Hubby had the brilliant idea to put this feeder below the stool, so that sometimes when he would smack the treat out, it would fall into the feeder, creating a second level of game to get the treats. At this point kitty had still never used the feeder successfully so I wasn't very hopeful. However he immediately reached right in and started working on getting that treat! Perhaps something about the context of the game made him realize what he needed to do, or made him *willing* to do it. I still don't force him to get all his kibble from it, but he now uses it successfully. Moral of the story is that you may need to give your cat several chances and several contexts to understand the feeder. If you start them young, I'd say all the better. I can imagine my old adult cat would never have bothered with it.

I'm glad my 16 year old male cat Rikki was optimistic about his chances of getting the treats in this feeder because I wasn't, not at all after watching him fail dismally and walk away from it several times. That concerned me because his original owner had his front claws removed and I was afraid his lack of those claws was the problem.It took a few hours and initially he was only able to move the treats around within what I've dubbed his "Fin & Tooth Toy" (due to the peaks' resemblance to many sharks' most notorious body parts). I saw him try and then give up several times, but he eventually succeeded because, as you can see, only 1 treat remains which is great because he started with 11.Eventually I'll substitute healthier food because he's an older cat needing to eat more rather than to slow down or eat less. This feeder also provides an activity besides eating and demanding to be picked up and petted multiple times a day. And I'm esp glad it doesn't have to be returned.So if you're worried your cat will have problems due to lack of claws rest assured that even an older, declawed cat can benefit from this feeder.Update_2019-06-22: since the little feet on this feeder are inadequate for keeping it in place I stuck what I had on hand—rubber self-adhesive cabinet door bumpers that I use in so many other places—on the bottom of each one. When some of them weren't happy with that marriage I used what else I had on hand, Blu-Tack, between them, pressing each bumper firmly onto the Blu-Tack. Now it stays in place!

My overweight cat...sorry, clinically obese cat needed to lose weight, so my vet suggested we buy a 'Hedgehog' bowl for his biscuits. My wife was dubious, but I weighed out his biscuits and placed them in the new bowl. My cat just looked at me.....I had to show him how to get the biscuits out, then when he realised I wasn't going to just give in, he started to use it. He uses it all the time now and has lost weight! My controlled eating rather than stuffing his face in his bowl. We don't use it for any 'meat' as I can imagine it would get very messy. The bowl is placed on our kitchen tiled floor, so will move as the cat tries to get his biscuits out, but it doesn't go too far. I suspect it would move more on a laminate, but you could secure it with some sort of temporary tack (like Blu Tack), but I've never had to. It can be cleaned easily by hand or in the dishwasher.

I’ve given it one star for value for money because, after a month, I had to abandon all hope of my cat ever mastering it. I should have known better, she turns up her nose at most cat toys, much preferring live prey, or acquiring a walnut from the nut bowl. Over the month of attempted use I had to gradually increase the number of anti slip methods to prevent the whole kit and caboodle ending up half way across the kitchen. I have now repurposed it as a Christmas table decoration.

This was a present from 'Santa Paws' and when I first loaded it up for my overweight cat she looked at me as if to say 'Are you having a laugh?'. We had a problem that our cat would eat so fast sometimes that she would be sick so I was looking for a product like this to slow her down. Plus she was always prowling around me for food (she is a rescue cat and probably how she became overweight) her constant prowling even had me begging the vet for help. We tried low calorie food, feeding her smaller amounts more often but nothing was working.Since getting this bowl, our cat has not been sick, she has not constantly prowled for food or hassled us for food all the time, seems happier and she has even been more playful which was slightly unexpected from an eight year old cat. Time will tell if she loses weight with it as she has only had it less than a week, but she has a healthy pet vet check in February so I am hoping to hear she has lost some of her bulk. I would definitely recommend to other owners of overweight cats.

We have 3 cats one of whom, despite outdoor access, prefers to live indoors. This means he can tend towards being overweight and a bit depressed without enough stimulation and exercise. To combat this we use the Trixie activity board (big white mixed puzzle feeder) and this to feed him. It keeps his brain working and spreads out feeding times to 10 mins rather than under 5.It’s brilliant and looks pretty funky so fine to have on display. It does have 4 very small grip strips but still moves around a bit on our floorboards as he uses it. No big deal though.It’s slightly more difficult than the Trixie board but most cats could probably use this with a bit of encouragement.Combining this puzzle feeder with exercising him with fun toys we’ve successefully got 0.5kg off him so he’s back to his ideal weight.Would highly recommend a puzzle feeder for all cats who eat dry food. It’s much more fun! Could also be used as an occasional bowl for treats and play rather than main meals.

It only took a few minutes of training with some Dreamies before my 11 year old cat got the hang of this. I'd tried her with the Trixie Interactive Board in the past (similar idea to this but bigger and with different shapes) and she was having none of it, so I didn't have high hopes. I was wrong. Now she's moved on to eating her usual biscuits from it.My cat pretty much hates most wet food, loves dry food, and refuses to drink much water. You can imagine that's a recipe for disaster (indeed she's just got over a bout of cystitis). This feeder seems to be slowing down her biscuit eating, and increasing her wet food eating (I add extra water to her wet food). It's also giving her some mental stimulation, which is important in indoor cats, as she has to work out how to get at those precious biscuits.I'd recommend being patient when introducing a cat to this. Try training with a few of their absolute favourite treats until they get the hang of it, then switch to using this for their regular dry food. Don't give in and put some dry in a separate bowl, but persevere. Give them some space though, don't hover and faff - let them investigate it in their own time.This seems like it would be great for cats who over-eat, cats who need extra mental stimulation if they're kept indoors, cats who eat too quickly, and - although I'm still waiting to see if this behaviour continues - as a way to encourage a cat to eat more wet food because it's easier than going through the palaver of trying to extract biscuits.