PetSafe Slimcat Feeder Ball – Interactive Game

This is one of the most amazing cat products I have ever bought. So simple, keeps my cat entertained by herself, easy to use, cleans in dishwasher, and CHEAP! I bought this because my cat is starting to have behavior problems from me being in vet school all day every day. This keeps her active during the day when I dont have time to play her with. She could also probably lose a lb or so.

There are already many great responses so I’ll keep my review to responding to some of the people who gave it 1 star (very surprising).

1) If your cat is not interested in it: Twist the ball so the bigger holes are open, that way food comes out easily at first to train them how it works. As they begin to get more comfortable with it, make the holes smaller so it is harder to get the food out and they are forced to play with it longer.

2) If your cat knows how it works but is not interested in it: I’m sure if your cat was hungry enough, they would play with it to get food. If your cat is being overfed, they won’t be hungry and they won’t want to work to get the food. If you make the holes too tiny and it is impossible to get more than 1 piece out in 5 min, I’m sure I would give up too!! You have to be patient with this product and your pet and find the right “balance”. If they don’t play with it, and you just feed them regularly, then they know you will feed them anyway if they dont try to play with it! Also, if you put moist treats in it at first or something more special than just dry food that will peak their interest. Also, make sure you adjust the holes each time depending what food/treats you put in. It makes a huge diff and if one time you make a mistake and your cat tries for 30 min to get the food out but you didn’t adjust the hole size they will probably be discouraged to ever touch it again.

3) The instructions do come in the ball to begin with. If you can’t open the ball the get the instructions, then I wonder about your ability think lol. The side of the ball has a circle with a little handle sticking out, you twist it to the left (righty tighty, lefty loosey) and it opens up!! The side of the ball has a little notch that you can lock and unlock. This is what you use to adjust the size of the holes. Look at it carefully, there are big holes and small holes. You can also make it so half of the big holes are open, etc. The lock works well and the top fits well inside of it. It has never broken or opened up when my cat plays with it.

4) If your food spills out all over the floor: look at the size of the holes!! Make sure you adjust it according to the food you have. Easy fix! One person commented on ants, well your cat should eat all of the food up unless they are overfed and not hungry. If the ants still come to the ball even if there is no food then I would just suggest using the ball when you are home only so you can pick it up off the floor when they are done. But I think the real problem is that you have ants…No need to rate a product extremely poor because you have another problem that isn’t directly related to the product

This is a great product and easy to use. It is also one of the cheapest cat toys i have ever bought! Ive spent a lot of money on random toys for my cat to play with when I’m gone but she is never interested unless I am there to make things “move” for her. She now has a reason to play with a toy without my help and sometimes I even catch her playing with it at night when she knows there is no food in it but she is super hyper and likes to roll it all over the place. The ball is really smooth on the outside so one paw at it and it rolls well. This is important because other ball toys I have bought dont roll well on carpet.

I’m sure there may be some cats it never works with, but I assume the percentage is low. Id say maybe only very old or sick cats who cant be active at all. Otherwise, any other cat will eventually show interest if you use the product right and make an effort to combat the problems that I listed above.

We got these for our three cats who had different eating issues. It did not work for my parents’ cat who wants to still overeat.

However, it has worked wonders for my two cats who sometimes competitively eat, one tends to gain extra weight. The other cat, has a tendency to stress eat (even as a kitten) and instinctively eats more due to the “food smell” when food is in an open bowl (I learned that cats can overeat due to trying to get rid of “food smells” from predators, it’s better to have food covered for your cats).

Since using these food balls my older cat keeps a slim weight now. The stress eater has decreased his stress eating at least 90% and no longer seems to go to the food for the “food smell.” I’ve been using the same food balls for 1.5 years and they are still in great shape.

At first, the older cat thought this was a toy and kept eating, getting excited when the food would come out and eat some more until she threw up, she learned! My younger cat had no interest at first – he was lazy and didn’t want to “work” for his food but he realized within two days that I would not feed him as before, he also got used to it. I no longer have to measure food, one ball is holds about one cup of food. I leave two full balls out for them and they can self measure themselves now.

The only downside is the food crumbs they leave behind so I make sure that the balls are kept in a small area that I can just quickly clean with a Dustbuster.

Great price and great solution for what can be a big problem – pets overeating. I definitely recommend and would never feed my cats the “old way” via food bowls again.

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.

i have one cat who just seems to breathe in his food and will not stop eating. this keeps him occupied and he seems more satisfies for longer between meals. kitten who arrived in the home later got the hang of it after checking out his bro once or twice. The oldy took a week or two to get it, he’s not patient and just wanted food so I had to literally train him like I trained him over his fear for the door cat flap but once he got it he was swiping away and running after it like a truffle pig till it’s empty.