DIY toy guide
Muffin-Tin Ball Forage Puzzle
Hide-the-treat under balls your cat must move
The quickest food puzzle there is — a muffin tin, a few balls and some treats turn dinner into a hunting game.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 5 min
- Cost
- Free
🧺 You will need
- A metal or silicone muffin tin
- Enough balls (ping-pong, cork, or crumpled foil) to cover the cups
- A handful of your cat's treats or portion of kibble
🔧 How to make it
- Drop a treat or a little kibble into some of the muffin cups, leaving others empty.
- Place a ball on top of each cup so the treats are hidden underneath.
- Set the tin on the floor and let your cat sniff out which cups hold food.
- Encourage them to nudge, paw and roll the balls away to claim the reward.
- Refill and rearrange which cups are baited to keep it interesting.
💡 Tips
- Start with only a couple of balls so a beginner cat succeeds fast, then add more as they learn.
- Vary which cups you bait so your cat has to search every time.
- Use a silicone tin if the metal sliding on the floor unsettles a nervous cat.
Safety: Pick balls too large to swallow and check they have no small parts that could break off. Supervise a cat that likes to chew, and swap crumpled-foil balls for something sturdier if yours tries to bite them.
📝 Notes
This is the ideal five-minute enrichment for a busy day — it needs no building at all, slows down a gulping eater, and gives an indoor cat a satisfying little hunt before a meal. Everything wipes clean and stores flat.