What to Put on a Dog Lick Mat (Safe Ideas and What to Avoid)

ByPawtrove

A lick mat is a flat silicone mat covered in little grooves. You spread something soft on top, your dog licks it out, and a meal that took ten seconds now takes twenty minutes. The only real question is what to spread on it — so here is a long list of things that are safe, a short list of things that are not, and how to stop it turning into a mess.

The short answer Anything soft, spreadable and safe for dogs. Wet dog food is the easiest and cheapest, because it is food they were having anyway. Freeze it and it lasts three or four times longer.
Infographic of six safe lick mat toppings for dogs - wet dog food, plain yoghurt, peanut butter, pumpkin puree, mashed banana and bone broth - and a warning never to use xylitol, chocolate, grapes or onion
Six safe toppings, and the four to never use. Check peanut butter labels for xylitol.

The safe list

You almost certainly have two or three of these in the house already.

Wet dog food

The best one to start with. It is already balanced for dogs, so you can use their actual dinner instead of adding extra calories.

Plain yoghurt

Natural or Greek, with no added sugar and definitely no sweetener. Start with a small amount — some dogs do not handle dairy well.

Peanut butter

Check the label for xylitol (sometimes written as birch sugar). It is poisonous to dogs. If it is not listed, you are fine.

Pumpkin puree

Plain tinned pumpkin, not pie filling. It is bland, dogs like it, and it spreads beautifully into the grooves.

Also fine, and worth rotating so it stays interesting:

  • Mashed banana — sweet, sticky, and stays put.
  • Bone broth — the dog kind, or a homemade one with no onion or garlic. Freeze it or it runs straight off.
  • Cottage cheese — plain, and only a spoonful.
  • Soaked kibble — add warm water, mash it, spread it. Free, if you already feed dry food.
  • Mashed sweet potato or carrot — cooked plain, no butter or salt.
  • Unsweetened apple sauce — check there is no added sweetener.
  • Wet food thinned with water — makes a small amount cover the whole mat.

The never list

This part matters more than the rest of the article. These are not “probably fine in small amounts”. They are genuinely dangerous.

Do not put these on a lick mat Xylitol (also called birch sugar) — in some peanut butters, and seriously toxic. Chocolate of any kind. Grapes and raisins. Onion and garlic, including powders hiding in gravy and stock cubes. Macadamia nuts. Anything with added sweetener, because that is usually where xylitol turns up. If your dog eats any of these, ring your vet rather than waiting to see what happens.

Two more that are not poisonous but are still a bad idea: very salty things like stock cubes and gravy granules, and anything greasy such as leftover meat fat, which can upset a dog badly.

If you would not put it in their bowl, do not put it on their mat.

How to make it last longer

2 minSpread on, not frozen
20 minSame food, frozen
1 tbspUsually enough
10%Max of daily food from extras

Freeze it. This is the whole trick. Spread the topping, put the mat flat in the freezer for an hour or two, then hand it over. A mat that would have been licked clean in two minutes now takes twenty.

Use less than you think. One tablespoon spread thin covers a whole mat. The grooves are doing the work, not the quantity.

Count it as food. Anything that is not their normal dinner is a treat, and treats should stay under about a tenth of what they eat in a day. If you use a mat daily, take a little out of their bowl to balance it.

Keeping it clean and still

Two complaints come up more than any other, and both have easy fixes.

“My dog drags it around the house.” Get one with suction cups on the back and press it onto something smooth — tile, the side of the bath, a glass door. Our dog lick mat sticks to all three, which is why it works well at bath time.

“It is a nightmare to wash.” Soak it in warm soapy water for a few minutes first and the grooves let go on their own. Most silicone mats, ours included, also go in the dishwasher on the top shelf.

When a lick mat is the wrong tool

A lick mat is for wet food and for slowing a dog down while they are busy with something else. It is not much use for dry kibble, because it will not stick.

If dry food is the problem — a dog who empties a bowl of biscuits in ten seconds — you want a slow feeder bowl or an insert for the bowl you already own instead. We wrote about that in why does my dog eat so fast.

Quick answers

How often can I use one? Daily is fine, as long as what goes on it is counted as part of their food rather than added on top.

Can puppies use them? Yes, from weaning onwards. Use their own puppy food, keep sessions short, and stay in the room while they get the hang of it.

Will it help with anxiety? Licking is a settling, repetitive activity and a lot of owners use mats at times their dog finds hard — fireworks, being left alone, the bath. It is a distraction and it helps some dogs a great deal, but it is not a treatment for genuine separation anxiety. If your dog panics when you leave, speak to your vet or a qualified behaviourist.

Can I use raw food? Yes. Wash the mat straight afterwards in hot soapy water, the same as you would a bowl.

My dog chews the mat instead of licking it. Take it away and stay in the room next time. Silicone is not meant to be eaten. Determined chewers do better with a treat dispensing toy, which is built to be bitten.

How long should one session be? Until it is clean. Most dogs give up on the last traces after ten or fifteen minutes — that is normal, not a failure.

One mat, a hundred dinners

Suction-backed silicone lick mats from £10.99, freezer and dishwasher safe, with free UK delivery.

Shop feeding & bowls →

General advice, not veterinary advice. If you think your dog has eaten something toxic, ring your vet or the Animal PoisonLine straight away rather than waiting for symptoms.

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