How Long Does the Kong Marathon Last?

I recently purchased our second Kong Marathon toy, the first was a small Bone and the new one is a Large Ball. With Kong products I have learned that bigger is better. The bigger the toy, the longer it lasts. The same holds true for the Marathon toys.

Photo by Erin Koski

We have been through several treat refills for our small Kong Marathon toy, and those tend to last 40-pound Brisbane about 10-15 minutes now that he understands how the toy works. He likes to remove the treat from the toy first, and then swallow it.

The Large Ball takes him much longer to empty because it is much too large for him to get his mouth around. Without that leverage, he must spend a significantly longer time licking and gnawing. This makes it a 50+ minute project.

Getting the treat itself into the toy can be a bit tricky. It slides in most of the way and then seems impossible to fit that last edge under the lip of the toy. Kong recommends using a spoon to pop the lip out and over the treat, and that has worked extremely well for me.

Another severely under publicized bit of info about these toys is that they are HOLLOW. I neglected to mention this in my original review because I didn't realize it until I went to refill the toy with a new treat. The fact that the Marathon toys are hollow means they can be used for more than just holding Kong Marathon treats. This puts them on par with the Starmark Everlasting Treat products. Our Small Bong holds at least a quarter cup of kibble, the Large Ball holds at least a cup. I could also smear the innards of these with peanut butter, or stuff in cheese or assorted other goodies before loading up the Marathon treat. I think the toys could also be used as food dispensers without the Kong treat, but putting the treat in the toy means that Brisbane has to chew all the way through that to get to the goodies inside.