Trixie Mad Scientist Turn Around Activity Strategy Game Cat Toy

My cat is very food motivated and spends time mostly outdoors. I thought I would get this toy as a trial for entertainment when he is indoors this winter. There are many other toys that are more complicated and pricey. This one does the trick for him. He checks it throughout the day and it's cute to see him test the physics of pushing and pulling the "test tubes". I have tried a combination of treats and food in here. There are 2 types of lids in the package, 3 lids with 3 smaller holes and 3 lids with one hole. The 3-hole lids work well with the Royal Canin kibble that I give him but not so much with the treats I give. If I give him Greenies or other larger treats I have to break them up My cat is very food motivated and spends time mostly outdoors. I thought I would get this toy as a trial for entertainment when he is indoors this winter. There are many other toys that are more complicated and pricey. This one does the trick for him. He checks it throughout the day and it's cute to see him test the physics of pushing and pulling the "test tubes". I have tried a combination of treats and food in here. There are 2 types of lids in the package, 3 lids with 3 smaller holes and 3 lids with one hole. The 3-hole lids work well with the Royal Canin kibble that I give him but not so much with the treats I give. If I give him Greenies or other larger treats I have to break them up or just use the 1- hole lid. The only minor downside is my cat frequently knocks the toy over to get the treats out. This is loud, startling, and doesn't usually work in his favor! I think a heavier base might prevent it from toppling over but for now I just put it on a carpet instead of on the hard floor when I refill the toy. … more

Highly recommend this toy! It did take some time for her to learn how to use it, so you have to be patient. It took a week or two for my cat to get good at it. I started by putting just one container with the wider top, and I kept tipping it over for her to show her there were treats inside. After she became comfortable with that, I added the other ones. After a few weeks she was able to get them pretty quickly, so now sometimes I mix food with a couple treats. The treats don't usually fall underneath on the "trap" part, so that's the one downside. Normally they fall on the carpet. Sometimes I just put some food or treats on the platform part to mix it up.

The toy was easy to assemble and use, but even with his favorite treats inside, my cat quickly lost interest. He didn't get that he needed to hit the tube to get it to flip over a release a treat. Instead, he just kind of gnawed on the tubes and lost interest when that didn't work. Still giving a good rating because it isn't a fault with the product, my cat just didn't get it.

I got this so I could make my cat work for treats, and at first my cat wanted nothing to do with it. I tried with treats and catnip and both ways he just would not play with it. I showed him how to work it a few times and eventually he understood that spinning them equals treats, and he likes to play with it now. My only complaint is sometimes he’ll just knock it over instead of playing with it.

My kittens have used a couple different treat toys and this one took the longest for them to figure out. It’s fun to watch them work on it. Now they’re pros. Only con is that the lids with smaller holes don’t fit all treat sizes.

The concept is there, but the cat hates being bonked in the head. So he will not engage with this. He does fish out treats from the spiky things once fallen. But that's really not the point.

This is great for my fat cat. Slows her eating down. Took a day or so for her to figure it out. It comes with instructions and different caps for different difficulty levels. I now add some bigger pieces bc she’s gotten so god at it.

My older kitty is super smart and very motivated by food. However, I didn’t take her easy-to-scare personality into consideration. I tried to show her how to hit the bottles but when the food fell out she got freaked and ran away. The littlest things will scare her. Although I know she would be smart enough to figure it out, I don’t think she will ever try because it scared her any time I tried to show her how to use it. I have chosen to just use the bottom part for her to get her treats but wish I could have used the whole thing! It’s a neat idea!

He's uses the bottom base, but the red containers on the top are too hard for him right now.

Product arrived in sealed box with black, greasy streaks all over the legs and metal bar holding the tubes. Screws to secure the legs to the base were screwed in as tight as they would go (possibly stripped one or two a bit trying to go further) but still wobble like crazy.