Trixie - Activity Fun Board - 1 piece

Best thing I’ve ever bought for my cats. They are so greedy and always used to eat too fast and then bring it all back up. This is great for slow feeding and making them work for their food. Plus very interactive play

From fishing rod toys to laser pens, walk down the cat section of any store and you will note that everything is designed to promote and imitate 'natural' hunting behaviours. Why? because cats are soley motivated by food. For them, hunting releases much needed endorphins which encourage a much happier cat, and therefore a much healthier cat.Enrichment through these toys is usually a given for any cat owner, and often results in giving 'treats'. I do not condone giving treats to any cat, they are a huge cause of obesity in our pets and it is much better to instead give them part of their daily food allowance. Anyway, if food is so important to our cats, why is enrichment during feeding time so overlooked? I suppose we find it easier to just pop it in a bowl for them rather than hide it around the house or whatever. Well this is your answer. You can use it just as you would a food bowl, and not have to do any of the work hiding the food.Personally, I purchased this because my cat has many behavioural issues and wanted something to provide cognitive enrichment combined with her feeding time. As a rescue cat, she is reactive, nervous and therefore easily stressed. Since purchasing this product back in June she has improved leaps and bounds. It took her a while to get used to using it, and sometimes a little persuasion as she would attempt to get me to pop the food in a bowl by ignoring the food in the tray. However, once she got the hang of using the product, she was well away. She is now more affectionate, less stressed around other cats and people and is much less nervous. Though this product was not the sole reason for that, it did play a large part. After all enrichment is intended to promote positive and natural behaviour.Other positive attributes this boasts:- It can be used for both dry and wet food as well as water- It's is easy to clean (can be rinsed in the sink and the bowls on the edge can be removed and washed separately too)- Useful in combating obesity in your pet or just to help keep your pet trim!- Good for older pets as they can lay down and still get at the food easily- Is large enough to feed multiple cats, if that's your thing.- Is not an eyesore!So get this and make a positive change in your cats life!

This board is good quality and keeps my cat entertained. She usually eats treats quite quickly and this will slow her right down. It took her one night to figure out most of the activities on the board. She still can't figure out how to use the bowls though - in my opinion they are a bit steep for most cats, and the transparent bowls make it hard for her to learn to use the openings at the top. Making them either shorter or opaque would probably work, and since they are removable you could probably fit your own if you wanted.The board itself is solid with some weight to it. It has rubber pads to keep it from moving. My cat isn't majorly destructive with the board but I imagine if a cat jumped at it or shoved their paws down the tunnel hard then it could shift a bit. It's pretty easy to clean but naturally has a lot of small annoying bits.Overall a nice board, if a bit expensive at the full price. A good variety of activities that most cats will pick up if shown. The bowls may be too small for some larger cats and are not a great design in my opinion. And as always, every cat is different and yours might not like puzzles - I would suggest trying a cheaper puzzle ball or board first, even a homemade one. If your cat is interested in that they will probably take to this board no problem.

We have two cats who yearn to eat 'Dreamies/catisfactions' snacks morning noon and night (and in between one tells me to write). The treats in the yellow packet being their absolute favourites. We bought one of these activity boards hoping that it would encourage paw dexterity, work their (few) little grey cells and reduce the large number of bags required to keep the cats happy.The cats in question were just around 18 months old when the first activity board arrived. We also purchased the Trixie Cat Activity Turn Around. Both devices were immediately welcomed by one of the cats, he was happy to develop his nose and paw skills in order to access a previously only dreamt of number of treats in a small amount of time. The second cat joined in initially, she was particularly good at the Turn Around toy and at accessing treats placed in the more difficult to access places on the board. Soon though our second cat decided it not her place to interrupt her brother's activities. I was concerned that there was some cat psychology at work here and that the male had been dominant and made clear to his sister that these were his treats, his treat activities and he had no need of assistance.So I decided to purchase a second Activity Board, placing one each with identical numbers of treats stashed for each cat. I placed them at opposite ends of the room in the hope that this would discourage George from further intimidating his sister. No such luck. George cleared his own board and then progressed to the second, untouched by Prune who simply sat and watched. I can only think that this was due to my mistake in providing Prune with treats on her own while we were waiting for the second Board to arrive.In a final effort to entice both cats to use the boards I put Prune, her board and her treats in a separate room so that she could take her time and enjoy her treats without pressure from her brother. All of this met with no success. While Prune had shown at the start that she could extract the treats from any of the parts of the Activity Board she simply didn't bother. Clearly she had learnt that simply waiting would result in me developing sufficient sympathy to give her the treats in more traditional fashion in the end.So, the Board as a concept appears a success in that both cats proved quickly that they were capable of working out where the treats might be found (visible or not, so nose and paw skills developed alongside sight). George's little grey cell(s) developed sufficiently to deal with all of the obstacles presented by the Board. Prune's, perhaps more sophisticated little grey cells worked out that she didn't in fact need to exert any effort because eventually she would get what she wanted anyway.In addition to using the Board to seek out treats George will accidentally on purpose drop things that he likes chasing amongst the various obstacles in order to provide himself with entertainment as he tries to extract them.Our cats have large paws being Maine Coon. I'm sure the Activity Board would suit any size cat from kitten upwards, similarly the Turn Around Activity toy made by the same people which is also really well made.