What to put on a lick mat

A lick mat holds soft food in a pattern so it comes off slowly. Almost anything soft your dog already eats will work on one. The useful questions are what spreads well, what should never go on it, and how to make one last more than a minute.

The rule that comes first

Only put on a lick mat what your dog already eats safely. A lick mat is a way of serving food, not a reason to introduce a new one. If you want to try something your dog has not had before, ask your vet first, and never on the same day you are also changing their normal food.

Never

These are toxic to dogs and must not go on a lick mat in any quantity:

• Xylitol (also sold as birch sugar), which appears in sugar-free peanut butter, sugar-free yoghurt and many reduced-sugar products. Read the label every time — recipes change.
• Chocolate and anything containing cocoa.
• Grapes and raisins, including in trail mixes and baked goods.
• Onion and garlic in any form, including powder in savoury spreads.

Beyond the toxic list, avoid anything heavily salted, and anything with added sugar or sweetener of any kind.

What works well

Your dog's own wet food. The simplest answer and the best one. It spreads, it is already part of their diet, and it needs no calculation — take it out of the day's ration rather than adding to it.

Plain yoghurt or quark, unsweetened. Check the label for sweeteners. Some dogs do not digest dairy well; a spoonful is a reasonable first test.

Mashed banana or plain cooked pumpkin. Both spread easily and hold their shape when frozen. Pumpkin should be plain — not pie filling, which is sweetened and spiced.

Soaked kibble. Your dog's dry food, soaked in warm water until it breaks down, mashes into a paste that spreads perfectly and costs nothing extra.

Wet food thinned with water or unsalted broth. Thinner spreads go further and take longer to work off the pattern.

Peanut butter, carefully

Peanut butter is the classic lick mat filling and it is also where most mistakes happen. Two conditions: it must contain no xylitol, and you must check the jar you actually own rather than assuming. Beyond that it is very energy-dense, so a thin scrape is a portion and a spoonful is not.

How to make it last

Spread thin, across the whole pattern. A thick pile in the middle comes off in three licks; a thin layer worked into the texture takes far longer, from the same amount of food.

Then freeze it. Spread the mat, lay it flat in the freezer for a couple of hours, and serve it frozen. This is the single change that makes the biggest difference to how long a lick mat lasts, and it costs nothing.

Keep a second mat if you use them often. One in the freezer, one drying by the sink.

Portions

Whatever goes on the mat comes out of the day's food. It is easy to look at a thin smear and treat it as nothing, but a generous layer of wet food is a real part of a small dog's daily intake, and peanut butter especially so.

Cleaning

Soak it in hot water for a few minutes first, then use a dish brush across the pattern. Check before putting a mat in a dishwasher: not every silicone mat carries a rating for one, and ours does not state one. Dried-on food in the texture is the reason lick mats get thrown away, and it is entirely avoidable by washing it the same day.

Supervise

Stay in the room, and check the silicone for bite damage before each use. A mat with a torn edge is a mat a dog can swallow a piece of, and it should be replaced rather than repaired.