One of my goals this year is to introduce Chewie to a variety of enrichment toys.
In our post from Week 19, I wrote about teaching Chewie to use a puzzle ball toy. She quickly learned how to push the ball to get hay pellets to come out of the ball.
Earlier this summer, I tried introducing Chewie to a snuffle mat. Our snuffle mat has raised plastic pieces so that Chewie has to sniff and forage to find the food.
Well, Chewie ate a bite of hay pellets off the snuffle mat and then said, “No thanks!”
She was not scared of the snuffle mat. She just didn’t know what to do with it.
As I thought about Chewie’s first encounter with the snuffle mat, I realized that she primarily eats from buckets, feed tubs, or off the ground.
She has limited experience eating on surfaces that are a variety of colors, textures, and materials. Or, surfaces that may move, bend, crinkle, or make noise.
Anything can be a plate
I didn’t want to keep working with the snuffle mat, as I didn’t want Chewie to get frustrated or confused. So, we switched to a different game: teaching Chewie to eat from a variety of different surfaces.
I started with surfaces that were more similar to a bucket or feed pan. I wanted to make sure that she would be willing to eat, without hesitating or feeling conflicted.
After just a few rounds of this game, we were able to progress to more interesting and novel surfaces.
In the video below, you’ll see Chewie eating off the following plates:
- Cardboard box
- Large exercise mat (folded in half)
- Bucket lid on top of the exercise mat
- White feed sack
- The backside of the purple snuffle mat
The bucket lid and feed sack both moved as Chewie was eating the hay pellets. The feed sack also made some interesting noises!
Happily, we’ve had the right progression of steps, and Chewie didn’t have any issue eating on any of these objects.
We’ll try the snuffle mat again soon and see what happens!
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