A $9 Australian textured lick mat that calms anxious pets, whose TikTok-era social explosion made it the category-defining name in pet enrichment worldwide.
The LickiMat is a flexible thermoplastic-rubber mat with textured surfaces and grooves that trap soft food, stretching a treat from seconds to 20-90 minutes of licking. Licking releases endorphins and serotonin, calming pets during baths, nail trims, fireworks, and time alone, while slow-feeding variants cut bloat and improve digestion. Classic mats sell for roughly $9-$15, with a full range of keepers, slow feeders, UFO bowls, and cat-specific designs expanding the line, sold via Amazon, Petbarn, Pets at Home, and vets globally. Its difference is simplicity: unlike puzzle toys or snuffle mats, there is nothing to learn, clean parts are dishwasher-safe, and the price point makes it an impulse buy. The brand also engineered the category's trust layer, holding trademarks, design registrations, and vet endorsements that generic copycats lack.
Joe and Hazel Clarke had already built and sold a pet accessory business before founding Innovative Pet Products on Australia's Gold Coast in 2012. Drawing on an earlier textured feeding bowl designed with vets, they launched the LickiMat in 2016 as a simple anti-anxiety mat, and it took about a year to catch on. By 2018 the couple was shipping 160,000 units a month, had Amazon UK ordering 24,000 units at a time, and even earned unofficial royal attention from the Duke of York. The bigger explosion came with short-form video: lick-mat recipe videos, especially frozen-layer 'puppy calm-down' routines, became a staple of pet TikTok and Instagram, with the #lickmat hashtag alone amassing roughly 196 million views and search interest climbing sharply through 2024. The brand rode the wave with continuous innovation, winning the top New Product Showcase award at the UK's PATS 2024 trade show for its cat-specific LickiMat Kitty. Today LickiMat claims more than 13 million customers worldwide, exported globally, still run by a small family-led team with staff across research, manufacturing coordination, and international sales.
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