What’s a Kong Wobbler and how can you use it as a horse toy and enrichment item? We tested this unusual treat feeder and put together a review and how-to so that you can succeed. Ready to wobble? Here’s the Kong Wobbler for horses!
What is a Kong Wobbler?
The Kong Wobbler is a puzzle feeder toy originally made for dogs. It’s a cool product that’s shaped like the original multipurpose rubber Kong, but with a different design and function.
The Wobbler is made of two parts: a hollow upper section and a solid, weighted base. The two halves unscrew so that you can easily load food into the toy. A small hole on the side of the Wobbler (on the side not shown in the above photo) lets food fall out, but only when the toy is bumped and rolled around. And while this is happening, the weighted base pulls the Kong Wobbler into the upright position so that it almost always stays upright. The treats only come out when your pet nudges or otherwise interacts with the Wobbler.
Can You Use a Kong Wobbler for Horses?
You can use a Kong Wobbler for horses just like you would with a dog. Instead of kibble, you’ll load the Kong Wobbler with pelleted feed, grain, or veggie chunks. After your horse gets the idea, they’ll roll the toy around for an extended, mentally engaging feeding session. We figured that the Kong Wobbler would be sturdy and entertaining for horses, so we bought one on Amazon and tried it in order to write this review.
Overall, it’s a cool little enrichment item for horses. It’s part toy, part puzzle, and a good way to provide challenge and get your horse using their body and mind.
What Horse Behaviors Does the Kong Wobbler Encourage?
Enrichment for horses is all about promoting natural behaviors. Using a Kong Wobbler for horses encourages several natural behaviors due to its unique design:
- Feeding and foraging
- Cognition and problem-solving
- Fine motor control and movement
Kong Wobbler for Horses: Review
I ordered the Kong Wobbler from Amazon. It’s available in two sizes – small and large – and for use with an adult horse, the large option seemed to be the best. It arrived in two days. As a plus, the packaging is frustration-free. That’s perfect for opening up quickly at the stable, and the Wobbler is ready to use right away.
The toy unscrews easily into two parts, with the round bottom part weighing close to two pounds:
To use the Kong Wobbler for horses, add feed to the upper part of the toy. I added the horse’s daily ration balancer pellet for this review. Filling it is very easy; it’s nice and wide when turned over:
The large Kong Wobbler holds a LOT of food for its size. Our equine model eats just a pound of Triple Crown Balancer each day, and this easily fit into the toy. Do remember to keep some airspace at the top and don’t overfill the toy or squash the feed down when you screw in the base, because the treats need the wiggle room in order to shift and fall out of the hole.
Even with the empty space, that’s a lot of feed:
Now you’ll want to screw on the weighted base. It’s easiest to do this by grasping it firmly, holding the food-filled bottom in your other hand, and gently twisting.
The Kong Wobbler does have a tendency to cross-thread – where the top and bottom don’t quite line up as you screw them together, and then they jam a little instead of screwing smoothly into place. Keep a firm grip on the base, because it’s weighted, as you gently twist the two together. If they’re lined up, they will come together smoothly and easily.
In this photo, the two halves are about to cross-thread. To attach the halves properly, they have to meet straight on, instead of at the angle shown here:
And remember to keep a good grip on the base, because it’s heavy! The pellets in the corner of the photo above are from dropping the heavy base accidentally and knocking some of the food out.
When it’s properly twisted together, turn the Wobbler over and it’ll be ready to use.
What Treats Are Best for the Kong Wobbler?
For this review, I used pelleted ration balancer. The pellets are small, dry, and dense. That works well with the size of the treat hole – we’ll talk more about that below – but you can use other feeds or treats with this toy too.
Most pelleted feeds will work well with the Kong Wobbler. Hay pellets work well. Dry grain such as oats are also a solid choice. Molasses-sprayed feeds may tend to clump and not come out easily – if your horse eats a softer senior product or molasses-added feed, you may want to use something else in the Wobbler.
Fruits and veggies are also good options for the Kong Wobbler for horses. Carrots, apple, celery, and pumpkin are the best choices. These foods are easy to cut into small cubes and they’re dry, so they roll around inside the Kong just like pelleted feeds.
You can use any horse-safe fruit or vegetable, but in personal experience, softer foods tend not to come out and can cause frustration when your horse can smell, but not access, the food.
One thing to note for this toy is the small size of the treat hole. It works great for dogs, and performed well with these small, smooth ration balancer pellets. But larger pieces of feed or irregularly shaped carrot or apple pieces can have a hard time dropping out. Cut your fruit and vegetable pieces into small dice, as evenly as possible, and don’t overfill the Wobbler.
Using the Wobbler
Since it was this horse’s first experience with the Kong Wobbler, I used his multipurpose tray to contain the Kong and hold some freebie pellets (that’s an Amazon link so that you can see the product, but those trays are easy to find at local hardware stores). It’s always good to set your horse up for enrichment success the first few times they use a toy or puzzle. The food in the tray encourages the horse to nose around and bump the Wobbler, which releases more treats and teaches your horse how to use the item.
You don’t have to use a tray with your Wobbler but it’s really helpful. It keeps the toy close to the food, and vice versa. It also provides a smooth clean surface for the toy to roll on, helping it stay upright, and the treats are easy for the horse to locate – they don’t fall out and get lost in pasture grass. If you’re using the Kong in a stall or area without grass, a pan keeps your horse from accidentally ingesting stall bedding or soil, both of which can cause problems for your horse’s gastrointestinal tract. Soil consumption, especially in sandy areas, is particularly problematic. A tray or kiddie pool takes care of all these concerns.
You can use the Wobbler in any location. I tested it out in the pasture on a wet, rainy day. You can also give it to your horse in a stall, or even in an arena or barn aisle.
Within a few seconds, our demo horse Allan got the idea and was happily shuffling the Wobbler around for treats.
The Wobbler stayed safely in the tray despite pretty excited nudging and pushing. The pellets came out at a slow rate, which at time seemed a little frustrating to the horse but mostly seemed enjoyable. It was a low-key feeding experience, which is exactly what I’d hoped. Fifteen minutes later, he was still going at it:
Fifteen minutes to get halfway through just a pound of feed? Now that is definitely an extended feeding experience!
The Kong Wobbler for Horses: Great Toy, Might Need Some Tweaks
For this horse, the Kong Wobbler was a perfect enrichment item. He’s fairly low-energy and relaxed while eating. The Wobbler struck a great balance between effort and payoff, and was intuitive for the horse. He caught on easily and understood right away how to make the food come out of the toy. From time to time, just a few pellets of feed would come out and he seemed a little frustrated, putting his ears back while shoving the Kong until a larger amount of pellets fell from the hole.
The Wobbler seems really durable. Our demo horse isn’t destructive, so it’s hard to say how well it would hold up to kicking and striking, but the rounded design is going to give it a durability bonus as it tends to just roll away when hit. I felt comfortable enough with its safety to leave it unattended, which isn’t something I do right away with most enrichment items.
For less patient horses, this toy might be too slow to provide a reward. There’s only one hole in the side and it’s quite small, so the rate of reinforcement is very low. Some horses might be frustrated by this, and frustrated horses often display behaviors we don’t want such as biting and striking at toys.
If your horse appears to want a better payoff, consider adding one more hole on the other side so that treats fall out with less intense effort from your horse, or file down the edges of the hole to make it larger. This will let bigger food items come out more readily, letting you use carrots, apples, and pelleted hay more easily.
If your horse is new to toys in general and you want to give them some puzzle-feeder practice before dropping $20 on the Wobbler, you can create a similar enrichment item for free with some basic tools and an empty plastic container. Try these instructions for making a DIY rolling treat feeder to give your horse some experience with container-type food puzzles and get a feel for what size holes your Wobbler might eventually need.
The Wobbler: Definitely Recommended!
Overall, this repurposed dog toy is an excellent enrichment item for your horse. It’s sturdy, durable, and it works. If your horse needs an adjusted version, the Kong Wobbler is easy to modify because its design is so simple. Plus, that same simple design makes the Wobbler very safe – and safety is also a priority with enrichment. If you haven’t purchased this toy already, I highly recommend adding one to your equine toy box for extended feeding and a cognitive workout.
Related Horse Enrichment Ideas
The Kong Wobbler is a puzzle toy for horses. If you’re looking for similar enrichment options, try:
The Jolly Egg DIY rolling treat ball