Cinder's a Holee Roller!

A plastic Miracle Whip jar with a hole in it.

Finally, we figured out a homemade toy to serve multiple purposes.  Cinder is a little vacuum cleaner when it comes to eating. She doesn’t eat, she inhales! I’ve been looking at several ways to change the way we feed her, most involving some form of specialized bowls or “interactive dog food toys.”  In looking at some of them, I came up with an idea for a homemade version of the same basic idea. We made our version of interactive food dispensing toy from  a round, plastic jar with a hole in the side; enabling a piece or two of kibble to fall out when rolled around.  It couldn’t be simpler! We call it the, “Holee Roller Jar.”  

The result in our test run was SPECTACULAR! Cinder quickly figured out the game and did not deviate from it until every piece of kibble was gone-over an hour in the process!  YAHOO!  We watched her roll the jar all over the house to acquire the kibble rewards that fell out!  Bingo! We have a WINNER!  A toy and food dispenser that keeps her engaged but doesn’t let her inhale treats or food.  Clearly we don’t want her to take over an hour to eat a meal, so it’s better suited to use as a toy for providing a mid-day snack to help keep her busy.  Right now, she eats three times a day so that's one meal she's spreading out longer while we have the benefit of about 30-60 minutes of freedom to do other chores without worry about what Cinder's doing.  

We've used the jar an average of once daily for her mid-day meal. She's become quite attentive to ALL jars we pick up now, looking to see if they will be HER Holee Roller Jar.  She's quite skillful at maneuvering it around the house to obtain her kibble.  

We've added another hole on the opposite side of the jar, more toward the bottom.  We found that the treats fell out well enough that it didn't take her very long to empty the jar.  We decided that putting tape over one hole or taking it off allows us the option of making it a faster or slower game; as well as adding more or less kibble.  I'm going to try a larger Peter Pan peanut butter jar next to see how that may or may not change the game. The Miracle Whip jar is a great size except that it gets caught under the toe-kick of our kitchen cabinets and rolls under our loveseat-although Cinder hasn't let it do either of those lately! 

One more fun little tidbit of many that make up our days as we continue raising Cinder.  

Cheers!

Chris