Cats have been man’s house companion for thousands and thousands of years back. But before they were domesticated our house cats, are believed to be direct descendants of wild feline. A recent study shows that wild feline allowed themselves to be domesticated to be nearer humans or nearer stable and ensured food sources. This continued centuries of direct domestication of cats has resulted in the watering down of their abilities to hunt and their natural curiosity. Because of these factors, some of our cats are fat, lazy and have lost their natural expertise in hunting and being naturally curious about their surroundings. Catit senses 2.0 food tree cat toy will be your life saver.
I live in multiple cat and dog owning home. At the moment, we have three cats and two dogs. While the dogs get their regular running and walking exercise, our cats tend to be lazy and just mope around the house. This got me worried and when I asked my vet, I got even more worried. Just because we observe our cats to be relaxed and laid back most of the time, that does not mean that we should let them skip on their exercise, or worst, let them lose their natural ability to hunt and explore their surroundings. That’s when I was introduced to the Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree, a fun miracle that has helped me let my cats be… well… themselves… Remind them of their curious nature and stimulate their natural hunting behaviors. But before I introduce you to the Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree, let me give you a brief background.
Some of our cats had the tendency to overeat and be lazy. This led to an issue of some of them puking and gaining weight. My youngest daughter also had the tendency to have a soft spot for our feline family members that they always get extra treats or kibble from her. That is when we found ourselves at the vet trying to address this and we were first introduced to the Catit Design Senses Cat Maze. The Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree is the better and brand new iteration of the Catit Cat Maze. Basically an upgrade in design, features, usability, and practicability.
Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree Product Description
The Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree or the Catit Food Tree is a described as a “slow feeding solution” which not only helps control your cat’s food intake, it also stimulates their natural behavior like hunting and being curious.
Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree Product Details
The Catit Food Tree weighs around 2.6 pounds or a little more than a kilogram and comes in at around 12 inches wide, 13.8 inches high and more or less 10 inches in length.
It is made of hard transparent plastic making it easy to clean and disassemble and you can see what is inside the Catit Food Tree especially the kibble and treat level.
As we said, the Catit Food Tree was based on the original Catit Food Maze it was redesigned to be more optimal and generally better. The difficulty of getting the treats from inside the Catit Food Tree can be adjusted depending on your cat’s level of interest. But generally the Catit Food Tree paw friendly even for declawed cats and the kibble and treats end up on whisker-stress free bowls which prevent spillage. Talk about clean cat fun right?
What we do with our Catit Food Tree to increase our cat’s interest and true hunting instinct is we put it in different difficulty settings and place them in different locations in the house. Our cats think it is just normal part of their playtime that’s why when they find the Catit Food Tree missing from its old location, you can just see them prowling all the time until they find it. The Catit Food Tree has three difficulty settings which can be set by adjusting the opening sizes where the kibble or treats pass through. We can do this by rotating the middle disc. We can also change the difficulty level by placing small toys or treats in different levels of the disc.
I know most people would think that this exercise is dangerous because the cats might topple over the Catit Food Tree or spill the food or just generally knock the thing over to steal food from it, but no. Since the Catit Food Maze days, the makers from Catit realize that they need to improve the stability and security of the Catit Food Tree to prevent pet’s food theft and accidental spillage. What they did was widen and broaden the base to make it generally stable and designed an oblong shaped hole at the top which prevents cats from pawing at the food. You would find even the most industrious and hardworking cats frustrated before they can knock over or steal from the Catit Food Tree.
What I Love About The Catit Food Tree 2.0 and Why You Need It
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Weight Control
Our feline family members can be quite greedy when it comes to food. The design and the make of the Catit Food Tree make it a slow feeding solution that encourages play as opposed to all-out gorging. And even if our cats are really diligent and competitive players, they would still be dished out small portions or snack-size portions at a much healthier pace because they do have to work for the treat.
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Attitude Control
I love the idea of a smart toy or a smart gizmo for our furry family members that encourages them to think and work for their food. Stimulating our feline friends to work for their food even at such a small effort teaches them to be more patient especially when it comes to food and to not steal or paw at our own food because they have a setup system for themselves.
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Physical and Mental Stimulation
Having a smart feeding toy like the Catit Food Tree helps stimulate our cat’s physical and mental conditioning. The same way physical and mental stimulation is important to us humans, the same is also true with our cats. The same way we humans like crosswords puzzles and IQ massaging toys, this is also the same with our cats and our dogs so that they too can reach their full potential and live long and productive lives.
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New and Improved
If you have encountered the Catit Food Maze or other Catit products, then you would know their knack for self-improvement. They have the tendency to release iterations of their products with better innovations and design. That’s why they did with Catit Food Tree. For this version they have a stable and very durable wide base, making it nearly impossible for cats to topple over. Even my dogs find it a challenge to topple over, the design makes it a need for an opposable thumb to lift it off the floor or topple it over.
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No Cheating
Make no mistake, the Catit Food Tree is not the first smart toy for our family. But the Catit Food Tree is the first smart food toy that we have used that makes cheating or food stealing almost impossible. The new design of the narrow oblong like opening at the top makes it easy for you to see and restock the Catit Food Tree, but even the most diligent of cats will find it impossible to access. We have a big tabby cat that was very keen and persistent in trying to cheat and steal food, but he had to give up after a couple of days of trying.
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Easy to Maintain
Nothing can be easier to do than to clean up you Catit Food Tree. All it needs is a quick disassembly, running water, any natural soap, rinse and you are done. The transparent green plastic design all helps for you to inspect and see if there are any foreign matter, dirt or simply if your Catit Food Tree needs cleaning. We clean ours about once a week, not because it is dirty, but just because it became a habit. It is an easy chore that even the kids would easily do without fuzz.
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Fun Never Stops
Here is the ultimate kicker for me, the Catit Food Tree is compatible with all the other Catit Senses 2.0 products. The Catit Food Tree is designed to fit and match the different toys from the Catit Senses 2.0 series to pique their interest or to always engage our feline family in fun and exciting ways. So far the Catit Senses 2.0 series includes: a wave circuit where your cat can chase balls designed for them with holes in the tube that they can paw the balls at, of course, the ball that comes along with the circuit, the Senses 2.0 Scratcher – a rolling scratch post that looks like a brown log made with replaceable cardboard, a wellness center (yup you read that right) made of BPA-free materials where your cat can sit, relax and get a massage and a hairbrush the natural way, like they used to groom in the wild, and a grass planter kit which helps stimulate your cats healthy digestion (comes with a grass kit and instructions), a cat digger made of narrow tubes so you can place treats and kibble in them and many more. All of these snap together to make one big giant playground for your pets.
READ ALSO: Best Cat Bubble Backpacks
The Downsides of Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree
- The Dogs Love It Too
If you live in a multiple pet household like ours, you will quickly find that the dogs love the Catit Food Tree too. They would sometimes try and sneak in and paw at the Catit Food Tree to see if they can get a treat too. I have not seen them successfully do it yet, because their paws are just too big, but the problem is when the dogs are around the Catit Food Tree, the cats would wander off or would not go near it. It is not nearly a huge problem as it seems, but I do find myself bothered or worried about it from time to time.
- Impatient Cats vs. Patient Cats
Multiple species of pets and multiple numbers of the same species means multiple personalities. All of our pets have different personalities, most especially our cats. We found that some cats are more patient than the others. Like I said our tabby cat was so fuzzy and diligent in getting the treat that he mastered the difficulty setting with relative ease, the problem was our other cat, was not as patient and resourceful that we found him frustrated when we set the difficulty level higher because his tabby brother was getting the hang of the easier setting.
Summary For Catit Senses 2.0 Food Tree
After more than half a year of having the Catit Food Tree, I can easily recommend it for serious cat lovers. If you don’t want a cat that lounges around the whole day, lazy and just not his or her cat self, do yourself and your cat a favor. Get them a smart food toy like the Catit Food Tree and remind your cat that he is a feline hunter with great instincts so that your cats can live a long, fruitful and meaningful life.
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I bought this for my cat however the base looked different. Instead of the widening base, it was widened with a rubber circle mat that you put around the base. My cat found a way to not have to work for his food. He would put his paw in one of the opening, hold on to it, tip it forward and then let go. That way when the base fell back to the floor, the food tumbled down into the bowl. He would keep doing this till all the food was gone. I solved this by putting one of my 5lb dumbbells into the bowl base so that he could not tip it forward anymore. He would try and tip it a little bit but it was not enough.