Interactive dog feeders - ideas? Or anyone use these?

Dreeza

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#1
So I feed oakley both wet & dry food at each meal...so it complicates things a bit as I'd like to involve his wet food into the game.

I REALLY like the idea of this one (the magic one):

http://www.amazon.com/Company-Anima...?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1326673107&sr=1-1

...because I feel like I could fill some of the little white bones with his wet food & freeze them, so he licks the food out of them. HOWEVER, I'm guessing the plastic is crappy & will crack/break very easily. Oakley is king of biting/breaking tupperware.


The other option is:

http://www.amazon.com/Aikiou-Intera...?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1326673311&sr=1-1

But I feel like Oaks will just catch on really quickly & it won't be all that challenging after a few weeks.


The other option is to build my own, using my idea from the first one to freeze the food into containers. But beyond that, I'm at a loss as to how to build it safely & durably. Any ideas??
 

lizzybeth727

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#2
I've never used those types of toys, they seem overpriced and I'm not sure how well they'll work anyway.

I DO do a very simple version: the Muffin Tin game. Here's a video. I've done this with dozens of dogs and they all seem to love it. :)
 

katielou

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#3
I have the first one and it has withstood freezing and abes chewing and throwing around however he had it solved in about a minute so it takes no real effort now.
 

Laurelin

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#4
Mia has a couple of those kinds of toys (not those specifically but the same idea- circle with different puzzles). It was never a challenge. It takes her maybe 2 minutes to empty it. Even the first week she just emptied it right away.

I tried again recently after her not having it for a year and she did the same thing. I think they're too easy for her.
 

Southpaw

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#5
Juno has the Nina Ottosson Twister. The plastic is definitely not meant for chewing. I've had to throw away a couple of the little bones because she either chewed them to the point where they are warped just enough that they don't fit in their slots anymore, and so are useless, or she just annihilated them completely.

It doesn't take her long to empty the puzzle (maybe 3 minutes tops) but I don't put her entire meal in it at one time. I try splitting it in thirds so that I can fill the puzzle 3 times and stretch out the mealtime a bit. It's definitely better than just throwing it in a bowl, and more complex than something like a buster cube or kong wobbler. But it's probably not going to like, blow his mind and be a super challenge.
 

Dreeza

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#6
I've never used those types of toys, they seem overpriced and I'm not sure how well they'll work anyway.

I DO do a very simple version: the Muffin Tin game. Here's a video. I've done this with dozens of dogs and they all seem to love it. :)

ooh yeah, thanks for the reminder. I keep meaning to do that. I just keep imagining that oakley will flip the whole thing over in like 2 seconds, haha.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#8
We have a few of that type at my work but the dogs figure them out in a hot minute and then I have bored puppies. If they were complicated enough I'd like them more.
 

Dreeza

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#10
OOH!!! What if I bought silicone muffin cups....and put those upside down inside the muffin tin? And I could freeze food in that? Might be slightly harder to get out too, since I;m guessing (I don't have any to try), that you'd have to squeeze em in there to fit in upside down????

What do you think????
 

lizzybeth727

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#11
You can get really creative about what to put inside the muffin tin. At work we use items that we're having a particularly difficult time getting dogs to retrieve (for example, a set of keys). You can also use larger or smaller tins depending on the objects you want to put inside them.

So I guess you could use the silicone thingies, though it's likely the dog will puncture them.

The good thing about tennis balls is that they fit down into the muffin tin so that it's hard for dogs to get their teeth around them to pull them out.
 

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