PetSafe SlimCat Feed Ball, Blue

It's alright, but feel like the cutouts could have been better shaped. The difficulty settings I can achieve are either "Too Easy" or "Too Difficult". But oh well, at least entertains me watching Kitty paw it around!

the pellets / treats fall out from everywhere. Doesn't engage my cat.

This is the best toy to attract your cat and let him eat treats! My cat doesn't like when I'm going you of house. Everytime, when I'm trying to go out somewhere, my cat 'meows', like he is worry that I'm leaving. With this toy cat has to use his paws to move the ball and make the treats going out of the ball. Also because of that, he is busy for next 5-10 minutes, so I can leave the house and I don't have to expose my cat to sadness because of my leaving :D I do recommend this ball for every cat owner!

Acquistato ormai qualche anno fa in diversi colori, dimenticato per un po' in quanto continuava a perdersi sotto ai mobili. L'ho riscoperto ora e avrei dovuto tirarlo fuori prima. Purtroppo il mio gatto dopo un trasloco ha iniziato a soffrire d'ansia, avendo perso il suo giardino e non trovando il coraggio di rifarsi un territorio nel nuovo ambiente. Ha avuto problemi gastrointestinali e dermatologici anche seri. Non si riesce a distrarlo, non gioca con nulla (abituato a creature vive..) Solo questa pallina funziona, essendo fortemente motivato dal cibo. Da qualche giorno lo nutro di nuovo quasi esclusivamente così e sembra stare meglio. Preferirebbe mangiare dalla ciotola, ma lo obbligo a faticare. Funziona se non si danno alternative, a meno che il gatto non inizi a nasconderlo, come faceva il mio! Prodotto semplice e solido, può essere regolato per diversi tipi di croccantini.

Background: This is a longer background story than most reviews but I felt it necessary so you could see why we trained our cat with the SlimCat ball in the manner that we did and why we were so successful. The story provides a baseline of where Ashe was before and after the Slimcat. We had recently switched Ashe our 12.6 pound Maine Coon mix to a new brand of cat food. It turns out most cat food on the market has wheat in it, and I could not risk her food sending me to the hospital. None of the Blue Wilderness food contains corn, wheat or soy so I don't have to worry about cross contamination either! The only concern was that her new food was much higher in calories per ounce because it didn't contain a lot of filler. Good Stuff: She is already more active and jumping more. Her hair is shinier and growing longer. She defends us from the goblins during the night now. (active play) She loves the taste of it. Her poops are smaller (because she doesn't have all of that unnecessary bulk going through her digestive track? Great for my cleaning and hopefully more comfortable for her.) Concerns that led to us looking at the SlimCat Ball: It is a higher calorie food so we contacted our Vet so they could tell us given her ideal weight how much of the new food she should be fed each day. Most vets offer a free service where you can call in with the name of the cat food and they will tell you how much your kitty should eat daily, since each cat and food type is different. She went from being fed 3/4 -1 cup of her old food per day to half a cup of the new stuff. (1/4 cup in the morning and 1/4 cup in the evening). The kibble isn't something that you can level in a measuring cup so we ran the conversion of how many calories were per gram and measure her food out each morning and evening using the kitchen scale. This way she is fed exactly the same amount each day. With the change in the mass of food, she started to cry for her food hours before dinner time and it was heartbreaking. The food may have the same caloric intake but her little tummy was used to twice the bulk each day. As hard as it was on us though we were the good parents and per the vets instructions fed her only what she should be fed and kept the same routine. Pink Kitty Cat Balls to the rescue!: I picked these up with the following goals in mind. 1. She would slow down her eating, making her full faster and eventually shrinking her tummy, eliminating the crying. 2. It would increase her interaction with the world so she would think and move a little more while she ate. When fed from a bowl Ashe actually lays down on the floor like a log and within five minutes she has finished all of her food. The first day we shook the ball like we do with the food bag to signal that kibble was in there. We placed it on the floor and my husband tipped the ball with his finger so she had a demonstration of how it worked. She promptly ate the food, then stared at him with a look that said "Ok Dad, thanks for that, please tip it again so I can get moar foodz". (Smart Cat, right!? why do the work when you can get Dad to do it for you) For a second demonstration we did the same but this time with her own paw, then we stopped helping her. I made the mistake of getting up and walking past where her food bowl used to be and she went into Vespa Kitty mode. (sounds like a little Italian bike on a rough road when she purrs and runs at the same time) I heard the little scooter just before she could sneak through my legs and trip me. Not wanting her to get the wrong idea I promptly turned around and went back to the kitchen to stare at her new pink food ball with her dinner. Lo and behold she followed me back to the kitchen and started sniffing the ball; then she started playing with it on her own. Day one it took about 45 minutes for her to complete her meal. We had the ball set to the smaller holes but open all the way so the kibble came out easily. The larger holes seem meant for larger treats. Day two it took her 25 minutes to eat all of her food. This told me she was learning and actively using her mind to solve puzzles, something she doesn't do as a lump in front of her food bowl. Day 3 - 10 minutes but with a new development, she didn't eat all of her food! Ashe always finished all of her food within five minutes, occasionally leaving one lonely kibble which we would joke "one kibble for her, one kibble for her homies". This is the first time she hasn't eaten everything since changing to the new diet. While she doesn't run around like in her goblin chasing nighttime romps while playing with the ball she certainly does get up and move a lot more than she did with the bowl. That movement should add up eventually for a slightly healthier cat. After one week at this hole size setting we reduce it slightly so we can keep her eating slowly and playing longer. The full week at the first size is important so that she feels comfortable with using the ball. The goal is a long term feeding solution that will keep her happy, so no extra frustration in that first week just learning the basics. Conclusion: With this success I am giving this product the five stars it deserves for a great price and it working perfectly as intended! The success of the product rests heavily on the cat owner to be feeding the proper amount of food and to not help the cat out too much. Cats are smart and because of how you have fed the cat all these years they are used to being totally dependent on you for food. Let them learn and think about their food, feed them the proper amount as directed by your vet and you should be very pleased by this product.

My Bengal cat behaviourist recommended this ball to keep them active and interested. It’s their favorite. It’s a great way to let them solve puzzles and chase balls, great toy.

This is a great little product and easy to use for the human. The bottom of the ball just twists off, you place the dried munchies inside the ball, twist the cap back on, decided how big the holes in the ball need to be to allow the muchie through and then lock it in place. Couldn't be simpler. My two cats were bouncing up and down to be fed so I rolled the ball towards them (little munchies falling away from the ball as I did) and cats did a bunk out of the cat door! They came back in, sniffed the ball, decided it was no threat then settled down for a kip. Lesson to human, they are as conditioned as I am in that when they hear my car pull up, it's feeding time, hungry or not. I decided to leave them to it and not put food down, after all, a 7kg cat who can work out that the pack of dried food is kept in the top cupboard and manages to open the door, knock the huge bag to the floor and tear through it for a midnight feast for him and his brother can definitely work out how to knock a ball around, right? Wrong! I have decided that my 6 year old moggies have become too used to silver service and that's why they are so overweight and idle. The product is good, it rolls with the lightest of touch even when filled with food and it seems sturdy enough. I can't blame the Slimcat ball - one of us is burning calories chasing it round the carpet and two of us are looking on bemused. Meanwhile, it's a waiting game to see who caves in first . . . . Follow up to my review: Last night I made the moggies go hungry because they turned their noses up at their usual good quality dinner and hey presto! In the morning the ball - which had been hanging around since last week - was empty! So I haven't got moronic moggies, just lazy ones, the ball works.