Pet Rat Food Puzzle Fun

Why use food puzzles?

Rats are so incredibly intelligent and they love using their minds. They have a sense of humor and enjoy adventure. Food puzzles help satisfy their curiosity and their natural inclination to explore and learn.

Which food puzzles do you recommend for pet rats?

There are so many different puzzles available. They’re all made for cats and dogs and rats are easily able to use them. Here are just a few food puzzles I recommend:

Outward Hound Brick Interactive Treat Puzzle

SPOT Seek-a-Treat Flip ‘N Slide Treat Dispenser

SPOT Ethical Pet Interactive Seek-A-Treat Shuffle Bone Toy Puzzle

Outward Hound Nina Ottosson Hide N’ Slide Green Interactive Treat Puzzle

Nina Ottosson Smart Orange Interactive Treat Puzzle

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How to Get Started with Pet Rat Food Puzzles

Choosing the treat

Dried cereal such as rice Krispies, or a piece of a Cheerio work great. (I break Cheerios down at least into quarters for my pet rats.) Be sure to buy organic with no sugar added. A single sunflower seed or equally small piece of walnut works well, too.

Initial Training/Acclimation

Step One: Place a single treat inside each of the food puzzle’s “dispensers”. Leave the door open so your rat doesn’t have to do anything to get the treat out. This helps your rat learn that the food puzzle has treats available for them.

Step Two: Partially cover the treat. If it’s a food puzzle that has a door or a flap, close the door halfway so your rat can still see the treat. That way they can get the treat out without having to do too much work.

Step Three: Place the food inside the treat dispenser with the cover completely closed over it.

Throughout this process, praise your rat every time they’re successful. Rats, just like us humans, thrive on hearing positive feedback.

Where and when to use food puzzles?

During free range is the best time to use food puzzles. The main reasons are most food puzzles require more space than you’d have inside their cage. That said, you can leave a food puzzle inside their cage when you’re not around to supervise. If you want to do this, I’d recommend trying it first while you’re around to supervise. You’ll want to find out if your rats are apt to chew on the puzzle. If it’s made of wood, it could be a wood that’s not safe for pet rats. With plastic, you want to be sure they don’t ingest it. If your rats are not big chewers (some are and some aren’t) it will be fine to leave a food puzzle inside their cage.

To show you just how fun pet rat food puzzles can be, here’s a video of my rats using their puzzles: