July 22, 2022 Jeffers Staff

DIY Upcycled Cat Treat Dispenser

This is a super easy project for you and your cat to spend some quality time building something fun for them to interact with and get their favorite thing, treats! Grab all your materials and get ready to build a fun interactive rotating treat dispenser with optional puzzle grass for your cat!

Easy DIY Upcycled Cat Treat Dispenser

Tools and materials

What you need:

Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Pen
Tape
1 Small Carboard Box
Dowel Rod or Wooden Skewer
2 Paper Towel Roll Core (Cardboard Tube)
1 Toilet Paper Roll Core (Cardboard Tube)
Small Sheet of Cardboard (for sealing the treat tube ends and making your fins)
Rocks (or something heavy to stabilize the box)
Stickers, scrapbook paper, markers, or anything else to decorate your box with. (all optional)

Need treats to fill your new DIY treat dispenser? These are purrrrfect for this project Vital Cat Wild Alaskan Salmon Cat Treats or It's Purely Natural USA Cat Treats

How to:

You can decorate ahead (or as you go) like we did or decorate after you’re done, the choice is entirely yours!

First things first, toss some rocks or old unused books into your box to weigh it down and stabilize it. This keeps kitty from knocking the entire box over. Once your rocks are inside, seal it with tape or hot glue. At this stage you can cover the box with scrapbook paper for decoration (like we did) or you can wait till you’re done to decorate all at once.
Grab your small sheet of cardboard and trace the round ends of your toilet paper roll core and cut them out, after you cut them out. Center your dowel rod on each cutout and mark where you want the dowel rod to be placed and make a hole big enough with the point of your scissors so you can slide the dowel rod through. This will allow the treat tube to spin so kitty can get their treats out.
Next cut 4 strips of cardboard from your sheet that are the same length as your toilet paper roll core, these will become the fins on the treat tube, width can vary. We went with about 1 inch width for ours but you can make them bigger if you like! If decorating with paper now is a perfect time to go ahead and cover those fins!
Grab your paper towel roll cores and measure 1-2 inches from one end, mark where you want to make a hole for the dowel rod on each one. Using your scissors make a hole big enough with the point of your scissors so you can slide the dowel rod into the tube.
Now cut a “treat slot” in your toilet paper core, make sure its wide enough to let treats come out!
Now the fun part, assembly! Using your hot glue gun put a bead of glue around the end of your toilet paper roll core and attach the round cutout to each end of the tube to seal the treat tube. You can put your dowel rod through in this stage or after you get the fins on, do what is easiest for you. Next grab the “fins” you cut and glue them onto the outside of the roll. Make sure that you don’t glue the dowel rod in place on the treat tube, this will keep it from rotating when you’re finished.
Next use your hot glue gun to attach the bottoms (the ends without the holes) of your paper towel roll cores to the top of your bottom box. Make sure you line up the holes at the top facing inward so you can put your rotating treat tube in on the next step!
Finally, the treat tube installation! Put a bead of hot glue on each end of the dowel rod and push it through the hole in the top of each paper towel roll core. This will hold everything in place.
If you haven’t already, now you can decorate! You can also add another element like we did by cutting a piece of scrapbook paper at various lengths to make puzzle grass for your cat or you can leave that out if kitty isn’t a fan of working too hard for treats
Puzzle grass option: If you want to make puzzle grass for your treat dispenser here’s how! Take a strip of paper roughly 2-3 inches wide and make cuts at random on one side to create you blades of grass. Make sure you don’t cut all the way through. Make as many or as few of these as you like, use your hot glue gun to glue them into place on top of your box underneath the treat tube. You can do straight lines, curves, or any other pattern you come up with with your grass to make a fun and interesting addition to your cats treat dispenser.