Almost every dog likes food.
And even the dogs that are a bit fussy will eat better if they have to work a bit for their food.
However, snack toys do not just delight the dog simply because it likes food. The use of new problem-solving strategies makes you happy and helps against boredom.
And that, after all, is one of the points that good employees should do.
There are therefore many different types of snack toys for dogs. Snack toys are a wonderful addition to anti-sling bowls and sniff rugs.
Here I present you the favorites of my dogs:
Snack Snake
Product Description
- Easy to clean
- Squeakers in the head
- Suitable for all types of feed
- Dishwasher-safe to a limited extent (will deform if not weighed down)
The snack snake works with all forms of feeding and is by far one of the most popular snack toys in my dog’s household.
The good piece is made of TPR material and easily withstands even wild nibbling (a dog that prefers to eat the toy should always be watched when playing anyway).
All forms of dog treats can be filled in here and the snake can even be frozen without any problems. Due to the design, no negative pressure can develop here when suckling and from the senior to the extra smart Border Collie everyone has a lot of fun with their snack snakes.
Unfortunately, the snack snake deforms a bit in the dishwasher. But that’s not too bad and can be prevented to some extent if you lay the snake flat in the upper compartment and weigh it down sufficiently.
By the way: the snack snake has always been a hit as a funny gift for other dog owners!
Incidentally, the snack snake is also available in small and round versions. A great addition that requires new strategies on the dog side.
Zogoflex Toppl
Product Description
- Can be combined with each other for increased difficulty
- For large and small meals
The Toppls are ideal for small and large snacks in between. Hardly any snack toy is easier to fill.
Yes, the Westpaw Design Toppls are a bit more expensive.
But they also hold up and are very user-friendly. Because here there is no tedious filling of individual treats. Instead, within a minute you can just squeeze in the goodies and let the dog have fun.
The difficult thing about this toy is its deep shape. If you want it even more difficult, you can combine several topples. By twisting a small and a large topper together, the opening for the dog is closed and it can only get to the food through the small holes on the side.
PetSafe Freezer Penguin
Product Description
- Stackable
- Can be filled with liquids
- Playable while lying down
PetSafe’s Frozen Penguin doesn’t have to be sold frozen. My dogs also just love it with a spoonful of yogurt in between.
I stumbled across the frozen penguin by accident and so far I am very enthusiastic.
This snack toy is suitable for both large and small dogs. I get about 50 grams of ground meat squeezed into the big penguin, about half of it into the small one. That doesn’t sound like much, but it strikes just the right balance between long-term employment without getting a stomach ache from too much ice cream afterward.
The large, snowflake-shaped opening makes it difficult for your dog to get to the filling. And still ensures that it is almost impossible to generate negative pressure. So there is no ventilation on the underside. This toy can also be filled with liquids, eg eggs or buttermilk.
Filling actually takes less time than the dog then needs to lick out!
Due to the semicircular shape, the toy rocks and wobbles a bit when working on it. So your dog has to use some paws to keep the penguin in place.
“Tooth Care” Balls
Product Description
- Suitable for all types of treats
- Available in different colors
- Robust
The NERF snack ball can be filled with dry food and, to the delight of my dogs, also with spreadable wet food.
Recently, not only children’s toys have been designed at NERf. The Nerf Dog product line now also includes dog toys such as the snack football.
The toy works according to a very simple principle: simply rub appropriate chunks of food or a bit of canned food or unsweetened peanut butter into the curved grooves, and that’s it.
The Classic (dry) Bait Ball
Food ball to roll
Product Description
- Long fun
- Requires active participation
- Easy to fill
- Only suitable for TroFu
- Likes to roll under furniture
- Animates dogs instead of calming them down
You really can’t go wrong with a ball like that. My dogs work here for a long time until they have emptied every last crumb out of the ball.
The round ball of food is still very popular around here and each of my dogs has a different strategy for getting the biscuits inside the ball.
Since such a ball must of course be moved so that the biscuits fall out, this is not a toy that can be worked on in a stationary manner.
And be prepared that you too will have to help your dog when he has rolled his food ball under the next piece of furniture in the heat of the moment.
The fodder ball with a difference: This model has an additional ball integrated. This makes emptying a little more difficult for the dog.
Which snack toys don’t like so much
Of course, over the years I have made bad purchases from time to time or tried out well-intentioned gifts.
Here are a few more comments on the snack toys and food balls that we ended up throwing in the bin.
1. Soft silicone snack toys are too dangerous for me.
While my dogs are powerful chewers, intentional toy shredding is not permitted here.
And yet these toys disintegrate too quickly into their individual parts and are then swallowed. That puts me at far too great a risk of an intestinal obstruction.
Not only cheap Chinese goods made of latex and vinyl, which are obviously not very durable, are affected.
My terrier, who was already very old at the time, easily managed to halve the whole toy with her molars and swallow the newly released toys from Kong’s Quest series. That was a lesson for me.
2. Hard plastic toys can be fun for the dog, but are no good for wooden floors and… that unspeakable rattling!
Since there are now dozens of good alternatives made of natural rubber and TPR, I have no desire to try these noisemakers again.
And it’s also not the right thing for the teeth if sooner or later the dog bites into its toy and then chews on hard plastic.
3. Toys that can only be filled with house-brand snacks are rip-offs!
There are some toys that can only be filled with completely overpriced branded snacks. The toys are then often thrown out cheaply. These are obviously bait offers.
4. I don’t enjoy toys that I have to fiddle with longer than my dog.
I buy toys like that to keep the dog busy. However, snack balls, into which you have to fry individual chunks of food for minutes at the highest concentration, are more of a concern for me than for the dog.
And when the dog has emptied everything again after just 30 seconds and asks for a second helping, that’s when I’m no longer happy about a snack like this.
5. I don’t trust toys with a strong odor.
Yes, rubber toys smell like rubber. But I don’t want to subject my dogs to toys with a pungent chemical smell. Especially since dogs are supposed to serve a snack toy with their mouths.
What can you fill snack toys and food balls with?
With everything you can think of and what your dog can eat!
Snack toys that can be filled with wet food types can be filled with canned food, meat, cheese, dog sausage, unsweetened peanut butter, yogurt, or boiled egg as you wish.
Closed food balls are more intended for dry food. To give the dog more fun and excitement, I pimp the filling and add individual dried meat cubes or dog snacks to the dry food. This increases the surprise effect with every cookie found.
Summary
Snack toys and food balls bring joy and drive away boredom without overstimulating the dog.
It is often the simple food toys that bring the best results.
Because simply making the work for each biscuit insanely complicated naturally increases the playing time, but not necessarily the fun factor for the dog.
And then there are the other criteria to consider:
- How long does it take to fill the snack toy?
- How easy is it to clean the toy?
- Does the toy size fit my dog?
- How cheap is the food toy?
The most fun for me and my dogs is to switch toys every now and then. That’s why I usually collect many of these toys in my online shopping cart and buy them when I want to give my dogs a new treat.
As a rule, you are well served if you rely on proven quality goods and rely on reports. As always, here is the tip to read the customer reviews.
So: get to the snack ball!
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