5 Easy DIY Snuffle Mats for Dogs and Cats From Old Fleece and Towels
Short answer: A snuffle mat is a mat covered in fabric flaps that hide kibble: your pet sniffs, noses, and paws through the flaps to find the food, turning a 30-second meal into a 10-minute foraging game. It slows fast eaters, tires out bored pets, and gives anxious dogs a calming job. You can make one in 20 minutes from old fleece, a towel, or a rubber mat — no sewing needed for most versions.
Snuffling is natural foraging behaviour, and it is genuinely tiring: 10 minutes of sniffing works a dog's brain harder than a short walk. That is why snuffle mats help with the same problems as our indoor enrichment ideas — boredom, begging, and restless evenings — and why vets and shelters use them for enrichment every day.
1. Build 1: the classic fleece mat
You need a rubber sink mat or bath mat with holes, about a yard of fleece (old blankets work perfectly), and scissors. Cut the fleece into strips about 1 to 2 inches wide and 7 to 8 inches long. Thread one strip through two adjacent holes, pull both ends to the top, and tie a single knot. Repeat across every hole, then turn the mat and fill the gaps in the other direction until the mat is a dense forest of flaps.
Fluff the flaps, sprinkle a handful of kibble into them, and let your pet forage. Start easy — kibble sitting on top of the flaps — and hide it deeper as your pet learns. Wash the mat in the machine when it gets grubby, and air-dry it. This version is the sturdiest and the best for enthusiastic diggers.
2. Build 2: the towel roll (no base needed)
No mat? Roll a towel. Lay a bath towel flat, scatter kibble across it, and roll it up loosely. Your pet unrolls it with their nose to find the food. For a harder version, fold the towel in half, scatter kibble, roll it, then tie the roll loosely in a knot. This takes two minutes, costs nothing, and is the best first snuffle game for a pet that has never foraged before.
Towel rolls are also the easiest to wash and the safest for chewers, because there is nothing to pull off and swallow. Supervise the first few uses: if your pet shreds the towel instead of sniffing it, switch to a sturdier fabric or a shorter session.
3. Build 3: the muffin-tin puzzle
Put a few pieces of kibble in the cups of a muffin tin, then cover each cup with a tennis ball or a small fabric scrap. Your pet must lift or nose aside the covers to reach the food. This is not a snuffle mat in the strict sense, but it teaches the same foraging skill in a form that suits pets that prefer lifting and pawing to sniffing through fabric.
Start with half the cups covered and half open, so the game is rewarding from the first try. Increase the covered cups as your pet learns. Use it for part of a meal, not the whole meal, until you know your pet enjoys it — a frustrated pet should get an easier version, not a harder one.
4. Build 4: the box forage (best for cats)
Cats often prefer a box to a mat. Take a shallow cardboard box, fill it with scrunched paper, toilet-roll tubes, and a few fabric scraps, then sprinkle treats through it. Your cat digs, bats, and fishes treats out of the hiding places. Add a couple of holes in the box sides so paws can reach in from outside, and replace the paper when it gets flat.
For cats, keep sessions short and treats small — a tablespoon of kibble is plenty. If your cat ignores the box, start with treats on top and only one hiding layer, and place the box where the cat already likes to sit. A cat that kneads contentedly on a blanket nearby is a cat in a good mood for a new game.
5. Build 5: the braided fleece mat
For a mat that survives serious chewers, braid it. Cut fleece into long strips, braid three strips together into ropes, then knot the ropes through a rubber mat's holes or weave them into a flat braid mat and knot the ends. Braided mats are denser, harder to pull apart, and wash well — but they take longer, about an hour, so save this version for a pet that has already destroyed a simpler mat.
Whatever version you build, check it before every use: no loose threads long enough to swallow, no small parts, no frayed elastic. Retire any mat that is falling apart. Snuffle mats are a supervised activity, especially for puppies and power chewers — the game is sniffing, not eating the mat.
6. Difficulty ladder and fast eaters
Level 1: kibble on top of the flaps. Level 2: kibble buried halfway. Level 3: kibble buried deep plus a few high-value treats at the bottom. Level 4: a frozen version — wet the mat lightly, add kibble, freeze for an hour — for a long-lasting summer game. Move up only when your pet finishes a level happily, and drop back down if they give up or get frustrated.
For fast eaters, a snuffle mat is one of the best tools available: it forces a dog to eat piece by piece instead of inhaling a bowl. Split the meal — half in the bowl, half in the mat — for the first week, so the dog does not get frustrated by a suddenly slow dinner. Dogs that beg for food at the table often beg less when meals themselves become an activity.
7. Washing, safety, and storage
Wash fleece mats weekly in a normal cycle and air-dry; wash towel rolls after every few uses. Store the mat out of reach between sessions so it stays special — a mat left on the floor all day becomes furniture, not a game. And always supervise, especially at first: a pet that chews fabric instead of foraging needs a different enrichment game, not a bigger mat.
The Ontario SPCA's guide to making snuffle mats gives the same supervised-use warning and the same basic build, and it is a good source to share with a shelter or rescue group. Start with the towel roll tonight — it takes two minutes, and most pets are snuffling happily within five.
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