List Price: $25.99
Sale Price: $22.11
Today's Bonus: 15% Off
I became interested in this product because I have four indoor cats, and I worry about their eating habits since they don't play as much as they did when they were kittens. One cat was becoming increasingly overweight the veterinarian said it was time for an intervention before his weight started negatively affecting his health. My other cat ate his food so quickly (even though it was left out all day) that he choked and threw it back up un-chewed. The other two cats just seemed bored. I was unable to transition to "feeding times" as opposed to ad libidem feeding because all the cats would yowl and yowl until I provided food, and my roommates threatened to move out if I couldn't shut the cats up. I thought this product would solve all of those issues, and it absolutely has.
I recognize that this product is described as a treat maze, but I have chosen to use it as my cat's main food bowl. I initially provided both the maze all day and a secondary traditional food bowl in the evening, but have since done away with the traditional food bowl all together because the maze is so successful.
Good Points:
The overweight cat is steadily losing weight because he can't eat as easily as he used to. The product does slow consumption rate dramatically. I am noticing myself using less food to feed them all, and that correlates to lower food consumption all around. It also saves me some money because I'm not running through a bag of cat food every week.
The cat who eats too fast and chokes can no longer do that. He has to work for each piece of food, and that has slowed his eating sufficiently to inhibit choking.
All four cats, who had been acting very lazy and bored, have become re-invigorated and I see them hunting and prowling around the house more often now that they are mentally stimulated. They have more interest in toys, and I see them exploring more often.
Design Flaws (which I expected prior to purchasing):
The feeder is small, and it is not in any way weighted to inhibit it from being knocked over. I never even attempted to set it up in its factory-designed state because I knew it would be on its side in 3.532 seconds.
To mitigate this design deficiency, I mounted it, with some nylon nuts and bolts, to a very nice, smooth, white lacquered 2' x 2' piece of 1/4" thick birch plywood, which I placed on little no-skid feet. This involved drilling four small holes through the bottom of the feeder, but since I chose white nylon nuts, you cannot see the mounts from a distance, and they are remarkably sturdy.
The board is big enough that the cats have to stand on it to eat out of the feeder, and therefore, simple physics inhibits them from being able to knock over the feeder-base unit upon which they are standing. Furthermore, the clean white lacquered base I designed is easy to clean with a damp cloth or a light detergent, which is much easier than dragging out a broom and mop to clean the whole floor.
Additionally, I mounted a small lip around the edge of the base so the food, when it does fall and scatter, doesn't go everywhere. It is contained by the lip at the edge of the board.
Lastly, before mounting the cat feeder to the base, I filled the underside of the feeder with polyurethane foam. This greatly reduced the noise of the food colliding with the feeder as it fell.
After a few days observing the cats, I realized they had learned how to eat out of the hole in the top of the feeder, so I closed that in with a light piece of corrugated plastic, cut into a circle to fit snugly in the top, but that is removable as to allow a human to open it to place more food in the feeder.
Aside from the designers grossly underestimating the ability of cats to knock things over and break things, I feel this is a really wonderful product without any flaws that cannot be mitigated by some simple do-it-yourself fixes. The cats had no issues figuring out how to use the feeder, although they all seem to access their food using different and ever-changing methods. It has really helped my cats' health improve, and I would credit this feeder with possibly adding years on to their lives due to the improved nutrition and eating behaviors it promotes.
The only down-side is that, despite the foam I installed to reduce the sound, it is really loud when the food falls. I got around this annoyance by placing it in a separate room that people don't typically frequent, but it would drive me crazy if I had to listen to it, lets say, in my bedroom every night.
I hope that this review was helpful to you, and that this product will help your cats live nine healthier lives.
Laura
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