I notice I keep running into the advice that one should use stainless steel dog bowls for food and water, and I'm not sure why stainless steel is stressed so much (worries about breakage, I'm assuming), but I bought a couple from the pet store and they aren't working out at all for the food... too light, without a non-skid bottom, so they just get pushed around when she tries to eat.
Up to now, I've just been using a couple of large, heavy china bowls from my regular set because I'm not a big shopper, and haven't come across anything suitable so far, but a couple of days ago, I had a brainstorm. The best Greek yogurt here comes in these nice, heavy terracotta containers with glazed interiors, and I realized the large size is just about perfect as a food bowl. It's about seven inches wide and three inches high, with a flat bottom, and very sturdy (and cute! I'm a sucker for terracotta). I don't usually buy this style of yogurt because it's pretty pricey, but compared to buying another food bowl, it's like buying a bowl and getting the (fabulous) yogurt for free. So this is what we are using now for food, and I'm using the stainless steel bowls for water. If it continues to work out as well as I think, I'll pick up one or two more because I wash the food bowls every day, usually when I pick up the empty dish from the homemade meal and put down a new dish of kibble, and it's convenient to have a clean one waiting.
The theory is to use containers that are made of inert materials - glass, stainless steel, crocks (terracotta!), etc. In other words - don't use plastic. It can give the food/water a funny taste (off-gassing, I presume) and put the animal off of it's food/water. It can give cats acne, but I don't know if dogs are susceptible to it. Our dog's dish is a crock as are the water bowls. We feed the cats in big glass bowls.
Posted by: deborah | 06/28/2008 at 10:44 AM