Slow feeders and lick mats: a UK buying guide

Slow feeder, lick mat, snuffle mat and puzzle feeder get sold to the same person for the same reason, and they do four different jobs. Buy the wrong one and it sits in a cupboard, which is where most of them are.

Start with the actual problem. There are three, and they have different answers.

Which problem are you solving

Problem one: he eats too fast

Dinner goes in twelve seconds. He then coughs, or brings some of it back up, or stares at you as though nothing happened.

Answer: a slow feeder bowl. It is the only one of the four designed to hold a normal dry meal.

Problem two: he is bored

Fine on a walk, difficult in the house. Finds things to do that you would rather he did not. Settles badly in the evening.

Answer: a snuffle mat or a puzzle feeder. Both make him work for the food, and the work is the point rather than the eating.

Problem three: he cannot settle for a specific thing

Crate time. A car journey. The doorbell. The towel after a wet walk. Visitors arriving.

Answer: a lick mat. This is the one people buy for the wrong reason and then find the right one for by accident.

The four types

Slow feeder bowl

A bowl with a moulded maze of ridges in the base. The dog has to work around the pattern to reach the food, which turns twelve seconds into three or four minutes.

Best for: fast eaters on dry food.

Look for: a genuinely deep pattern, a non-slip base, and dishwasher safe. Shallow decorative ridges slow nothing down.

Weakness: a determined dog will tip it. Some designs are miserable to clean with wet food.

Lick mat

A flat silicone mat with a textured surface. Soft food is spread across it and the dog licks it out of the pattern.

Best for: settling a dog before or during something they find difficult.

Why it works: licking is a repetitive, self-soothing behaviour that dogs do naturally, and a lick mat gives them several minutes of it in one place. In practice, a dog standing over a bowl is eating. A dog lying down to lick is settling. The value is the ten minutes afterwards rather than the food itself.

Weakness: it is not a meal. It holds a small amount of soft food, and it is a management tool rather than a feeding one.

Snuffle mat

A fabric mat with dense fleece strips. Dry food is scattered into it and the dog has to nose it out.

Best for: boredom, and dogs who need to use their nose. Scent work tires a dog out of proportion to the effort involved.

Weakness: fabric, so it needs washing and a chewer will destroy it. Not for unsupervised use.

Puzzle and stuffable toys

Rubber cavities to be stuffed, or sliding puzzles with compartments.

Best for: longer duration, and dogs who need a real problem to solve. A stuffed and frozen rubber toy can occupy a dog for half an hour.

Weakness: puzzles need supervising, because a dog who cannot solve one will simply chew it. Stuffable toys are awkward to clean.

What to look for in a lick mat

• More than one texture. A single repeated pattern gets emptied at one speed. Different textures across the mat hold food at different rates, which extends the session.
• A raised rim. Without one, food goes over the edge and onto your floor.
• Suction cups, or not. Cups hold the mat to a tile or a bath panel, which is what you want in a bathing situation. They do nothing on a rug or a rough floor. Decide where you will use it.
• Something to spread with. Getting a paste evenly into a texture with a teaspoon is more annoying than it sounds.
• Dishwasher safe, top rack. Non-negotiable. Anything you have to pick food out of by hand will stop being used within a fortnight.
• A hanging hole. Small thing. It means the mat dries on a hook rather than living on the draining board.

What to put on it

Anything soft enough to spread and thick enough to stay put.

• Plain natural yoghurt
• Wet dog food, or a pate-style tinned food
• Mashed banana, pumpkin puree or unsweetened apple sauce
• Soaked and mashed kibble, which counts against the daily ration
• Peanut butter, with the warning below

Freezing it. A frozen mat lasts three or four times longer than a fresh one, which is the difference between five minutes and twenty. Spread, freeze flat, and take it out when you need it. Keep two mats and one is always ready.

Count the calories. Enrichment food is food. If your dog is having a lick mat daily, take it out of the daily ration rather than adding it on top. This is the most common way an otherwise sensible feeding routine quietly puts on weight.

How to use a lick mat for settling

The timing is the whole thing, and most people get it backwards.

Give it before the difficult thing, not after. Before the crate door closes. Before the car pulls away. As the visitors arrive rather than once the barking has started. You are trying to occupy the dog through the moment, not to console them afterwards.

Used consistently before the same event, the mat also starts to change what the event means. A crate that reliably comes with something good becomes a place a dog goes into willingly. That is the real value and it takes a couple of weeks.

Do not use it to interrupt barking. A dog given something pleasant while barking learns a straightforward lesson about how to get it. Give it before, or after a period of quiet, never during the noise.

Cleaning, which is where most of these fail

Anything that has held wet food and dog saliva and then sat out grows bacteria. Silicone is easy: top rack of the dishwasher, or hot soapy water and a brush into the pattern. Fabric snuffle mats need a machine wash and thorough drying, and they are the ones people neglect.

Rinse straight after use rather than leaving it. Dried yoghurt in a fine texture is genuinely difficult to shift.

Common questions

Does eating fast cause bloat?

Gastric dilatation-volvulus is a genuine emergency and is more common in large, deep-chested breeds. Fast eating is often listed among the risk factors, though the evidence is not as settled as the marketing on slow feeder packaging suggests. Slowing a fast eater down is sensible for several reasons, but no bowl prevents bloat, and any product implying otherwise is overreaching. If your dog is a deep-chested breed, talk to your vet about the actual risk and the warning signs.

Can I feed every meal in a slow feeder?

Yes, for dry food, and for a fast eater it is a good habit. Lick mats and snuffle mats are better used as extras than as the whole meal, because the volume is wrong.

Are lick mats good for anxious dogs?

They help a dog settle in a specific moment, which is useful and worth having. They are not a treatment for anxiety, and a dog with genuine separation anxiety needs a behaviour plan and probably veterinary input. Do not let a mat become a reason to postpone that.

How long should a session be?

Five to ten minutes for a fresh mat, fifteen to twenty for a frozen one. If your dog empties it in ninety seconds, you spread it too thickly or the texture is too shallow.

Can puppies use them?

Yes, and they are particularly useful in the first few weeks for crate settling and for the first car journeys. Supervise, and take it away when it is finished so it does not become a chew toy.

My dog ignores it. What now?

Usually because the food is unfamiliar or too thin to hold. Start with something obviously good, spread thickly, at a time when they are not already full. Sit next to them the first few times. Some dogs need to be shown that the flat thing on the floor is food.

What we would do

Decide which of the three problems you have before buying anything. A fast eater gets a slow feeder bowl. A bored dog gets a snuffle mat and a stuffable toy. A dog who struggles with crates, cars or the doorbell gets a lick mat, used before the event rather than after, frozen when you need longer, and counted against the daily food. Buy two mats so one is always in the freezer, check the peanut butter jar, and put the whole lot in the dishwasher afterwards.