Field Guide · Glossary
Scatter feeding
EnrichmentThrowing a meal across grass, a rug or another textured surface instead of putting it in a bowl.
How it works
It is the lowest-effort way to turn eating into foraging, and it takes about thirty seconds to set up. The surface does most of the work: food thrown into long grass or a shaggy rug has to be located piece by piece, while the same handful on a hard floor is simply visible. Because it uses food the dog was going to eat anyway, it costs nothing and adds nothing to the day's ration.
What it looks like
A dog's breakfast is thrown in a wide arc across the back lawn rather than tipped into a bowl. What would have been ninety seconds of eating becomes fifteen or twenty minutes of slow, nose-down searching.
Commonly confused with
- Foraging
- Foraging is the behavior of searching for food. Scatter feeding is one method of producing it, and the simplest one. A puzzle or a snuffle mat produces the same behavior differently.
Related terms
Where this comes up
Gear that helps
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Snuffle mat
Hides kibble in the fabric so a dog sniffs it out, and sniffing is genuinely calming. Our go-to for a dog who needs a job on a rainy day.