About LICKIMAT®
The LickiMat® story begins long before the LickiMat with the OH Bowl®. We had been working with two vets to design a product to improve the Oral Hygiene and Oral Health (hence OH) of our dog.
The portion of vet costs associated with pet dental work had been increasing for lots of reasons and was a serious health issue that needed to be addressed. We worked on two principles: stimulating the tongue to produce more saliva that in turn leads to healthier teeth and gums; and scraping the tongue to reduce undigested food particles and odor-causing bacteria.
The solution was similar to humans - when your dentist tells you to scrape your tongue using the back of your toothbrush or a tongue scraper, but you forget to do so most of the time! No forgetting with OH Bowl as the tongue is naturally scraped at the end of every meal without requiring extra effort from the pet guardian.
The LickiMat range takes the same principles and applies them to the entire rubber surface of the mat. It challenges the dog or cat to lick in order get the reward that has been spread onto the LickiMat. This resulted in a lot of licking, a lot of interest and fun! The licking action also produces endorphins that soothe and calm your pet, and it is now recognised as a leading anti-anxiety tool.
As dogs and dog trainers started using LickiMats and experimenting, we discovered dozens of new uses for LickiMats and developed new models based on feedback.
More amazingly, we started hearing stories and seeing posts on social media of cats using LickiMats, so we explored this with our vets and perfected LickiMat designs to suit cats - we now have 10 unique products and 36 variants. It turned out that cats like licking too, and that the licking action releases endorphins in cats too. We discovered that many cats also suffered from anxiety and their human companions were looking for solutions.
All the licking action in cats and dogs was creating more saliva and helping protect their teeth and gums, and freshening their breath by scraping odour-causing bacteria off their tongues. We find that it generally takes 3-4 days of using a LickiMat to notice an improvement in breath.
LickiMat was initially designed by vets to help your dog feel less anxious when you left home. It has since evolved to do so much more: training aid, crate training aid, raw food dispenser and all-round food and snack enrichment enabler.
Eco-Credentials
- We run a zero-net cardboard warehouse. We even take cardboard and other packaging materials from home to the warehouse and never buy cardboard, instead re-using everything to ship again. We may need to buy some cardboard to support our Christmas package in 2020 but we will make sure it is made from renewable and recyclable materials.
- Our LickiMat® products are made from recyclable TPR (Thermo Plastic Rubber) that is a human grade product, and in two products (the Tuff series and Slomo) we use recyclable Polypropylene to strengthen the product to make it chew resistant, and also 100% dishwasher-safe.
- We never use silicone in our products, which is terrifyingly bad for the environment. We also never use TPE (Thermo Plastic Elastomer) in our products where the actual Elastomer compounds are a mystery and it is uncertain if they are recyclable or even safe.
- We minimise our Carbon footprint in all our activities.
About Innovative Pet Products
Innovative Pet Products is an Australian company that brings you an innovative range of quality goods for pets. We are passionate about pet’s health, play and fitness, so we created a variety of unique pet accessories and products to fit into every stage of a cat or dog’s life.
Our principle products are either patented or patent application are in progress. This means all of our products are original inventions and designs. We offer you unique new, freshly invented pet products not offered by any other organisation. From our revolutionary slow feeders, our unique cat hairball removing bowls, our oral and dental health pet bowls, through to the most versatile ball thrower in the world; we guarantee that you and your customers will love our unique, premium products.
With sales in Australia, USA, UK, Germany and many other parts of the world, our brand is known for quality and innovation. We insist that every pet accessory that we wholesale is made using the absolute highest quality materials available, and constructed with the best manufacturing techniques. For example, our rubber balls are made from pure, non-toxic, natural rubber. This makes them tough and durable, suitable for puppies right through to large dogs. Our balls are tough enough for chew-loving breeds like Staffies. We do not use filling compounds with our rubber, like many other pet balls on the market. Even our pet bowls, slow feeders and boredom busters are made from human food grade plastics and silicone, making them non-toxic, safe and compliant for sale in all countries.
Our designers and graphics people are only too aware of the competition on the shelf for products, with the customer’s eye only engaged for a moment. We insist that our products are attractively presented in well-designed, eye-catching and self-explanatory way. You can be sure we have carefully considered space saving retail display and shipping economies. We create products and pack them with attractive, eye-catching, functional appeal that suit the demands of modern living and contemporary taste. We make them jump from the shelf.
We are aware that today’s pet owners understand the importance of pet health, safety, play and the interaction with their pets. At Innovative Pet Products dogs and cats are our passion. We are all pet lovers and owners and we enjoy developing pet products to suit every stage of their life. We feel it is important to offer pet owners the best quality products and to nurture brand loyalty.