Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Feb;22(2):193-198.
doi: 10.1177/1098612X19838080. Epub 2019 Mar 26.

A survey of feeding practices and use of food puzzles in owners of domestic cats

Mikel Delgado  1 , Melissa J Bain  1 , Ca Tony Buffington  1
Affiliations

A survey of feeding practices and use of food puzzles in owners of domestic cats

Mikel Delgado et al. J Feline Med Surg. 2020 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: Food puzzles may provide enrichment to domestic cats. The purpose of our survey was to determine: (1) how respondents fed their cat (type[s] of food, amount and mode of delivery); (2) how many people used food puzzles to provide food for their cats; and (3) owner attitudes about food puzzles.

Methods: We conducted an online survey from January to April of 2018 to ask cat owners (n = 3192) questions related to their cat feeding practices and use of food puzzles.

Results: Most cat owners fed their cats dry food, with half of those owners offering it ad libitum. Thirty percent of participants offered food puzzles to their cats; another 18% had tried food puzzles but were no longer using them. The remaining participants had never used a food puzzle with their cat. Reasons for not using food puzzles included perceptions about the cat (eg, being too lazy), multiple pets in the home, pets fed different diets, health issues and feeding an exclusively wet food diet. Many participants did not know how to choose or introduce a food puzzle to their cat, and many non-users saw no need or benefit to their cat.

Conclusions and relevance: This survey provided information about the feeding habits of cat owners and why they do and do not use food puzzles with their cats. Because of the scarcity of empirical evidence about the effects of food puzzles on pet cat welfare, more research is needed to determine the role of food puzzles as part of an overall enrichment plan.

Keywords: Cat behavior; environmental enrichment; food puzzles; foraging; human–animal relationship.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of participants feeding each food type by percentage of diet
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Young RJ. Environmental enrichment for captive animals. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2013.
    1. Bayne K, Würbel H. The impact of environmental enrichment on the outcome variability and scientific validity of laboratory animal studies. Rev Sci Tech OIE 2014; 33: 273–280. - PubMed
    1. Newberry RC. Environmental enrichment: increasing the biological relevance of captive environments. Appl Anim Behav Sci 1995; 44: 229–243.
    1. Mellen J, MacPhee MS. Philosophy of environmental enrichment: past, present, and future. Zoo Biol 2001; 20: 211–226.
    1. Stella JL, Lord LK, Buffington CAT. Sickness behaviors in response to unusual external events in healthy cats and cats with feline interstitial cystitis. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2011; 238: 67–73. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources