All indoor cats should be fed with puzzle feeders

Cat puzzle feeders are mandatory for full-time indoor cats in my opinion.
Cat puzzle feeders are mandatory for full-time indoor cats in my opinion. Image: MikeB

The title is a bold statement but I think it’s valid. You might not know what puzzle feeders are. They are devices which make it a challenge to a domestic cat to get at the food which somewhat replicates how they would live in the wild. It’s a sort of substitute for hunting; a poor one but the objective is to mentally stimulate an indoor cat.

Indoor cats need mentally stimulating because, without wishing to be too critical, many indoor cats are very much under-stimulated. Their environment often lacks enrichment which brings me to the topic of a scientific study about captive cats.

Challenged feeding for captive cats

I’m referring to a zoo environment. I would somewhat equate the life of a full-time indoor cat to that of a small wild cat at a zoo. There is little difference really in terms of the basics which is why I can refer to a study about “the influence of food presentation on the behaviour of small cats in confined environments”. A very apt study.

The scientists looked at captive small felids and as we know they often pace repeatedly. Pacing is a diversion away from acute boredom. It is not a good sight at a zoo as it is strongly indicative of failure by the zookeepers.

RELATED: Why do tigers pace?

The scientists found that when they presented a fishing cat with live fish the cat became more active. Specifically, time spent sleeping was reduced by 60%. Their behavioural diversity increased. There was an increase in hunting behaviours and they used their enclosure more effectively. In other words, they were turned on emotionally. Not entirely but there were improvements.

The beneficial effects persisted for about two days after they were given live fish up to a maximum eight days of improved behaviour.

In a second study, four leopard cats (Asiatic leopard cats) were fed in various ways namely (1) once per day, (2) four times per day and, (3) four times per day with food hidden in small piles of brush.

The last-mentioned way of feeding i.e. hidden food fed multiple times increased the cats’ motivation to explore. And exploratory behaviour increased from 5.5% to over 14%. There was increased diversity in behaviours and a reduction in the amount of stereotyped pacing.

The conclusion was that feeding cats in the way described enriched their lives. The idea is to minimise predictability of food availability in conjunction with maximizing normal behaviours in finding food.

RELATED: Monty’s Kingdom – Enriching Your Cat’s Indoor Environment (DIY)

Conclusions from study for indoor domestic cats

I think we can take from that study that feeding indoor cats with puzzle feeders would be highly beneficial to them. I think you’d find that they’d sleep less. I know that a lot of full-time indoor cats simply kill-off the day by sleeping or snoozing throughout. I don’t think that is great because it’s indicative of a poor environment in my personal view. I know that some people might disagree with me but I’m saying it nonetheless.

There are a range of puzzle feeders available on the Internet particularly Amazon. The most commonly used is a ball with holes in it. You don’t have to train a cat to use it. You place dry cat food pellets inside and when the cat tries to get at the food they push the ball around and the pellets drop out. The cat immediately learns the consequences of their actions and pushes the ball around again.

Another version of the puzzle feeder is a digger type where cats are encouraged to dig into a tube within which is the food. They have to pull out the food with their paws. The picture on this page shows it and the ball type puzzle feeder.

Study referred to:

Shepherdson, D.J., Carlstead, K., Mellen, J.D. and Seidensticker, J. (1993), The influence of food presentation on the behavior of small cats in confined environments. Zoo Biol., 12: 203-216. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.1430120206

Leave a Comment

follow it link and logo