Kibble treasure hunt
Small portions of your cat's dry food hidden around the home, so a meal becomes a hunt.
What you need
- Your pet's regular food or kibble
How to do it
- Take a few pieces of dry food out of your cat's daily amount.
- Start easy: put tiny piles in plain sight along your cat's usual routes, such as near their bed and on a shelf they like.
- Let your cat find them. Next time, hide them a little harder: behind a chair leg, inside an open box, on a step.
- Leave the rest of the meal in the usual bowl, in its usual place.
- Pick up any pieces left after an hour, so you know how much was eaten.
⚠️ Safety
Supervision: Safe to leave once your pet knows it.
Use food from the daily amount, not extra. With several cats, hide portions in separate areas so one cat doesn't eat it all or block the others. Ohio State's feeding guidance notes cats prefer to eat in quiet places, so avoid hiding spots by loud appliances. Keep the main bowl and feeding time the same.
👀 What to watch for
If your cat stops finding the food or stops eating, make the hiding spots easier again. Talk to your vet if appetite drops for more than a day.
Try next
Box and paper-bag hideout
A cardboard box and a paper bag on the floor: somewhere to hide, ambush from and explore, for free.
Cardboard reach feeder
A shoebox lid with toilet-roll tubes standing in it, kibble dropped into the tubes. Your cat fishes the food out with a paw.
Cat target training
Teach your cat to touch a chopstick with their nose. It is fun mental exercise and later helps with the carrier or the scale.
Starting a cat on a puzzle feeder
Move part of your cat's dry food into a food puzzle, so they work for it as they would when hunting.
Toy rotation box
Keep most toys in a box and put out only a few at a time. Swapping them every few days makes old toys feel new.
Wand toy hunt
A short play session where a wand toy moves like prey, so your cat can stalk, chase, pounce and catch.