Dog/Cat treat dispenser

thingiverse

A dispenser for small dog/cat dry food to keep your pet amused. Designed it originally for my daughter's puppy, but works well with our cocker spaniel as well. You put the treats in the open end where they sit in the centre cavity. When your pet rolls it along the floor, the treats are guided through a helix at either end and pop out on the floor for them to eat. Would only recommend using it under supervision as initially our spaniel thought that it may be easier to take it out onto the lawn and attempt to bite it to break it open. They are made out of PLA, so I don't think that would be too pleasant on the dog's mouth if they crunched it. So watch out using it with dogs that have a big enough bite to break the plastic. I made a couple out of clear PLA, but that probably isn't necessary for the pets as they smell the food inside. The toy is 75mm (3") diameter and 125mm (4.9") long Instructions I printed it with clear PLA using a fill of 0.6, but it probably doesn't matter too much as most surfaces are too thin to use the fill function. Because it is printed on its side, I sliced it without supports (no way of removing them inside) and instead added some initial rafting and support for the lower part of the curve. It printed surprising well and took my Printrbot 7.5 hours to do the print. After printing I cut the supports and raft off and then sanded it smooth enough to make it roundish.