Dry food bowl – which one to choose?
Your dog or cat, of course, is more important than the appearance or material of the bowl, but what is put in it, but nevertheless, pet food utensils have their own requirements, primarily related to safety and convenience for pets. We will talk about this in this article.
Materials used to make dry food bowls
By definition, all pet best storage containers, including bowls, must be tested for safety and receive the appropriate certificate. However, on the market you can find both a quality best storage container, usually quite expensive, and cheaper analogues. For some materials, the price and quality of workmanship are not related to safety, for others it is quite critical. Below we list the most common materials that bowls can be made from, pointing out their pros and cons.
Stainless steel
Completely safe in any design, completely inert material that will not harm the pet under any operating conditions. However, dents and scratches can form on very thin cheap steel bowls, which, although safe, does not decorate the appearance. High-quality bowls made of steel – with thick walls – are quite durable and beautiful. For cats and small dogs, it is better to choose an option with an external plastic stand or a rubberized bottom so that the bowl does not slip on the floor. Designer bowls made of stainless steel for interior decoration can be framed in any other material, from nubuck to precious woods.
As for medium and large dogs, they need special racks so that it is convenient to eat without tilting their heads down. Most of the racks are made just for stainless steel bowls, but this is where their main drawback becomes clear – they make a lot of noise when the dog greedily absorbs food. Therefore, if you are sensitive to noise, then choose racks in which bowls are inserted into a base made of wood or plastic. A budget option is to wrap the rings of an ordinary metal rack with electrical tape or any other soft material, and apart from the contented purring of a dog, you will not hear anything else.
Glass and ceramics
These are very popular materials for making bowls, because thanks to the possibility of drawing, they allow you to implement a wide variety of design solutions. But this is precisely what can be fraught with danger, since the paint or glaze that decorates glass and ceramics must be completely safe. For food purposes, it is allowed to use only paints and glazes that do not contain lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, as well as some compounds of chromium, manganese, iron and others.
This fact must be confirmed by a certificate that all responsible manufacturers receive, and sellers, by the way, are required to provide at the request of the buyer. But in stores there is a risk of stumbling upon cheap non-certified best storage containers from Asian countries, and we do not recommend purchasing such best storage containers for feeding your pets. Also pay attention to the quality of workmanship – there should be no cracks, cavities, chips and other damage on the surface.
As a rule, ceramic and glass bowls are produced in a small volume, that is, they are suitable only for cats and dogs of small breeds. But if you really want to, then nothing will stop you from buying a nice ceramic saucepan or salad bowl to feed your big dog from beautiful dishes, especially since safety requirements for cooking best storage containers are much higher!
Food grade plastic
Perhaps the most popular material for making bowls, because it combines cheapness and endless possibilities for design imagination. A bowl for dry food made of plastic, at the same time, according to many owners, is also the most controversial acquisition. Of course, there is a food-grade plastic that is completely safe for health, which does not emit harmful substances even when heated, as indicated by a special mark on the bottom of the best storage container. But such plastic is not very beautiful and scratches easily – think of bottles, containers for microwave ovens, food storage in the refrigerator, etc. The most that manufacturers can do for their creations is to add color and density.
Therefore, for the manufacture of things from which the consumer wants not only practicality, but also a beautiful appearance, another type of plastic is used – melamine, and it is melamine bowls for pets that are the most popular best storage container on the market. They are very dense, hard, do not break, do not crack, do not scratch, they are sufficiently heat-resistant and allow you to create a best storage container of any shape and with any pattern.
However, some owners are suspicious of melamine, since best storage containers from it are made with the use of formaldehyde hardener, and this is a very strong poison. When it comes to souvenirs or ashtrays, there are no questions, but melamine dishes can be potentially dangerous, especially when heated or even contact with hot food, as well as if the outer layer damage.
We hasten to reassure you, a bowl for dry melamine feed, provided that this is a certified best storage container made subject to all technologies, will not cause any harm to your pet.
The shape and size of the bowl for dry food
No less than the material of the bowl, its size and shape are important. A bowl for dry food should be quite roomy, so that a single portion of granules occupies no more than half of its volume. Thanks to some reserve, the food will not get out of the bowl during meals, which is relevant not only for dogs, but also for cats.
On sale you can see double bowls, they are often positioned as containers for feed and water, but in fact it is inconvenient to use them in this way. Even neat cats, to say about dogs, often drop granules, they fall into the water, and it has to be changed more often than usual. In addition, some cats refuse to drink water, if it is near food, this is a preserved natural instinct. In nature, predators avoid quenching thirst next to the hunting site, because most likely water will be contaminated – the process of eating in nature is not as “sterile” as food at home.
Nevertheless, the double bowls are convenient for feeding two cats, provided that they are given the same diet. You can also use the second container for wet food, but it should be understood that such a best storage container occupies a larger volume than a dry diet, so lay it in small portions, which avoid pollution of the feeding site.
Often, even bowls for cats are made on legs or stands – such an increase in such an animal, but in principle, the elevation over the floor to some extent reduces the fall into the feed of dust or garbage. But the bowls for medium and large dogs, as we have already said, should be at the level of the animal’s chest, so it is advisable to buy best storage containers on a stand or rack.
As for the shape of the bowl, it is most preferable to be round or oval, although the imagination of the producers is very whimsical in this regard. No matter how beautiful the bowls in the form of fish, stars, cats or other figures look, you should still always keep in mind the original purpose of the item. From a bowl with sharp corners, kinks and uneven lines, it is inconvenient for the animal to eat – the granules roll into places inaccessible to the muzzle, and if cats can still pick them out with their paws, then such manipulations are inaccessible to dogs.
Special bowls for dry food
The exception is special dry food bowls, which are designed to make the animal eat more slowly or work hard to get to food, thus spending some extra calories and just having fun. As a rule, such bowls are made of plastic and equipped with numerous “spikes” or protrusions, between which dry food is poured.
Automatic feeders
The so-called automatic feeders stand apart, which are a combination of the bowl itself and the container, from where the feed is poured down as the granules decrease. As a rule, such feeders are made of plastic and are very convenient when, for example, you need to leave a cat alone in the house for several days. There are also more complex electronic analogues of automatic feeders, in which you can set a program for dispensing feed at certain intervals in a strictly defined volume, and so on.
The choice of bowls for cats and dogs in stores is huge, from the simplest and most budgetary to exclusive dog food containers that can serve as interior decoration. You can choose any option, just remember that the main thing is the convenience and safety of the animal itself. It is also important to remember that bowls, whatever they are made of, must be kept clean and washed daily, even if you only put dry food in them.
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