Feeding your pet

It goes without saying that we love our dogs. They bring joy into our lives and for that we do our best to give them the very best. We buy our dogs toys, treats, fancy collars, and high quality food but often don't give much thought to what we use to feed them, their bowl.

For years I have been using generic stainless steel non-tip bowls (you know, the kind that look like steel volcanos with a plastic ring around the bottom). They have worked fine but required more scrubbing because of the brushed finish and the non-skid rings fell off when I washed them after every meal. Plus, I disliked them because they take up so much space in the dishwasher.

So I decided it was time for new bowls and there are a lot of options. The ceramic bowls look nice but they're very heavy and I worry about durability not just because greyhounds are big dogs but also because I tend to be rather clumsy. Having ruled out ceramic bowls I then looked at plastic bowls. They are strong, come in a variety of colors, have a nice weight to them and you can even buy some that are made, in part, from recycled materials. My big concern is that plastics are rather soft and with repeated scrubbing they will scratch which not only makes it harder to clean but can trap food particles and lead to a buildup of bacteria. This can cause some health problems in cats although thus far it seems to have no effect on dogs. For me, it wasn't worth the risk so the only remaining option was stainless steel.

I hate the tinny-cheap feeling of a lot of stainless steel bowls so I went to half a dozen pet stores looking for the perfect bowl. I wanted a regular flat-bottom bowl that had a good heft and hopefully was non-skid so it didn't get pushed around during meal times. What I ended up with were Durapet Bowls. They are a heavy-guage stainless steel bowl with a permanently bonded soft rubber ring around the bottom. The inside of the bowl is mirror polished making cleaning really quick and easy and they're dishwasher safe if you are so inclined.

Picking the right sized bowl is also important. If your dog eats really quickly and is prone to choking or gaging a larger bowl is preferable. My greyhounds are relatively civilized so I bought the 40 ounce bowls with should be more than large enough for an average sized greyhounds. I feed a combination of home-cooked food and kibble. Keep in mind that home-cooked food has a much high moisture content than kibble and with the recipe I gave previously 1 cup of home-cooked food has a nutritional content similar to 1/2 cup of premium kibble. The 40 ounce bowl is just right for my high-stress 80 pound boy who literally eats twice as much as other greyhounds his size.

The neat thing is that Durapet also makes a bowl specifically designed to slow down fast eaters. It is essentially the same as their regular bowl except that there is a bulge in the middle kind of like a bunt-pan so the dog has to eat around the obstacle. Click here and here to be taken to a website where you can get more information or order the bowls.

* This review is not an endorsement by Oregon Greyhound Adoption, it reflects the experience of one person only. All information contained is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.