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What type of bowls do you use???

post #1 of 35
7/31/09 at 4:46pm
Thread Starter 
I wasn't sure exactly where to put this, so I put it here. Mods- if it's in the wrong place, move it cuz I'm not sure if this is the right place.

I was just wondering what type of food/water bowls everyone uses. Or if you use a different type for each type of food and a different type for water.

I use a lot of different types. For water, I use larger ceramic-type bowls. Not like dog bowls, they're like medium sized because Pirate likes to dip his little footsies in it . And I can throw them in the dishwasher. Plus Taylor has the tendency to pull/push it since her depth and coordination is WAY off when she goes to uncover it (you know how they try to dig at their food/water). I can also get them in all different colors/patterns, which is totally cool. And for the dry food, most of the time I use smaller ceramic bowls, basically becuz they're heavy and pretty . I do have a few melamine (sp?) bowls that are made from recycled plastic, being the hippy that I am that I occasionally use .

And for their wet, I use those Bamboo brand bowls, with the plastic bowl that you insert into the holder-thingy. Here's a link : http://www.catclaws.com/products/bamboo-cat-bowls.php . They're easy to use, and I can buy tons of those plastic bowls and then I don't have to wash them every night, I just use a different one every night and wash them every week or so. Unfortunately I can't put the plastic bowl part of it into the dishwasher though, but the holder part can go in, which is great for sterilization.

So, what do you use? What type is the best? I've heard that stainless steel is best, but that wouldn't be good with Taylor- she'd knock it over or move it I'm sure.
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post #2 of 35
7/31/09 at 6:06pm
I gave up everything plastic other than the water fountains a long time ago when Pinky got chin acne pretty bad. I have stainless water bowls (large dog sized so they can't knock them over), large ceramic bowls for their dry food, and small ceramic bowls for when they get their wet (each has their own bowl).
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post #3 of 35
7/31/09 at 6:22pm
Yup, we don't do plastic either. We use medium sized stainless steel bowls for water and the dry food for free feeding. We use our ceramic cereal bowls for their wet meal every day - wash up afterwards and put back in the stack with our dishes.
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post #4 of 35
7/31/09 at 7:01pm
Jake eats out of his own small human plate for his wet food.. For his dry he has a ceramic bowl with no decorations, which is where the lead is supposed to be. He drinks out of one of those fountains.
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post #5 of 35
7/31/09 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ut0pia View Post
Jake eats out of his own small human plate for his wet food.. For his dry he has a ceramic bowl with no decorations, which is where the lead is supposed to be. He drinks out of one of those fountains.
I always make sure that the decorations are on the outside of the bowl, not on the inside because I have heard of that with the lead.

And with the plastic bowls... To clean them I put them in boiling-hot water and scrub them to sterilize them, or I just throw them out and use the refill ones.
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post #6 of 35
7/31/09 at 8:30pm
acrylic for water and dry ... my dishes for wet
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post #7 of 35
7/31/09 at 8:32pm
With a new total of 13 cats in the house, I use both a gravity waterer and gravity feeder for the herd. The waterer is plastic but breaks down into 3 parts that can be run through the dishwasher, or hand washed and sanitized. The plastic gravity feeder holds 10 lbs of dry food, and it gets a good washing once a week, to once every week and a half, when it gets empty. Depends on how hungry everyone's been. For wet feeding, I use either ceramic saucers or paper plates, depending on whether or not I really want to wash that many saucers. The good thing about the waterer is that it holds a gallon of water, so that unless it's empty, Prissy can't dig in it and move it all the way across the kitchen. (If that bowl is empty, I know about it pretty quickly. I swear if she could figure out how to carry it to my bed, she would. ) When it was just Prissy here, she had a ceramic soup bowl for her water, and another for her dry food.
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post #8 of 35
7/31/09 at 8:40pm
I use glass bowls for the food and water in the kitchen and stainless steel bowls for the food and water in the office.
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post #9 of 35
7/31/09 at 9:58pm
Well, since I use an automated feeder and a water fountain, those are plastic.
For wet I use ceramic, my own dessert dishes.
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post #10 of 35
7/31/09 at 10:05pm
3 fountains, used to have a few ceramic water bowls but they just drink from the fountains now.

They eat off ceramic 'people' dinner plates or stainless bowls.
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post #11 of 35
7/31/09 at 11:13pm
Hi mismaris I hope I don't get flack for this but for the water dish I use a very heavy glazed ceramic windowbox type planter as a base and then inside i use a rubbermaid/glad type of plastic container (sold in supermarkets to store human leftovers)

The windowbox is so heavy the cats can't tip it over
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post #12 of 35
8/1/09 at 12:48am
I use a stainless steel bowl for water and up until recently, glass bowls for food, both dry and wet. However, since I started noticing chin acne lately, I've started feeding wet on ceramic plates made in France.
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post #13 of 35
8/1/09 at 2:26am
I use glass. $1/bowl at the dollar store
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post #14 of 35
8/1/09 at 2:35am
Schweppie uses stainless steel bowls in his double feeder for his wet and dry and a small ceramic bowl for his water. Little Guy uses the flatter stainless steel bowls with the rubber at the bottom because he eats on top of my laundry hanger/dryer thingy. He drinks out of a big ceramic bowl that he shares with my dog. I'm kind of wary about the ceramic especially when they're made in China but both do not have any designs on them. All bowls get washed at every feeding - water bowls once a day.
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post #15 of 35
8/1/09 at 10:48am
For water, I have large stainless steel dog bowls plus their fountain.

For dry food, they have small stainless steel dishes.

For wet food, I have human salad plates, with raised sides. I used to just use small plates from our set, but they made a mess with the small ones and we never had dishes for ourselves when we used the big ones. These ones are a little bigger and are half way between a plate and bowl, so it reduces the amount of wet that is pushed off the plate.
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post #16 of 35
8/1/09 at 11:01am
For water I use large stainless steel bowls,
stainless steel bowls with very low sides for wet food
and a ceramic bowl for dry food.
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post #17 of 35
8/1/09 at 1:21pm
my cat ate in plastic bowls (that I washed with soap & water before & after every meal), but when I started feeding raw, I switched to a small salad ceramic dinner plate. My boyfriend rolls his eyes at me, because the cat eats off our own plates. But considering the options out there ($1 for plastic bowl or $26 for stainless steel at my local pet store?) it's the most affordable and sanitary.

water is offered in a large ceramic bowl which he neeeeverrr touches.......
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post #18 of 35
8/1/09 at 6:52pm
I've got a fountain, which is plastic, but ceramic bowls for food - slightly larger for dry, and smaller for wet - and those all go into the dishwasher. Although Dharma likes to paw her food out on to the floor to nibble on, so the floor gets cleaned nightly as well - what can you do?
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post #19 of 35
8/2/09 at 6:07am
Hi! I use stainless steel for water, dry and wet. I used to use a ceramic people saucer for the wet, but when she wouldn't finish her food, I would constantly be covering the plate with plastic wrap and refrigerating. I wanted something more permanent. I found a stainless steel bowl with a lid, that if I turned over became a stainless steel plate with a dome lid So that's a little more convenient. HOWEVER, anyone know if there's any harm in refrigerating something in stainless steel and then feeding it again? (same day only). I remember years ago my mother told me never to put a can in the refrigerator, always transfer food to another container before refrigerating. Will the food react to something in the steel? I put a plastic lid on the cans of cat food, is that any different?
I would LOVE to find some sort of ceramic cat plate/bowl that has a plastic lid to fit! Maybe I should invent it
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post #20 of 35
8/2/09 at 6:09am
I use ceramic.
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post #21 of 35
8/3/09 at 6:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Allmycats View Post
HOWEVER, anyone know if there's any harm in refrigerating something in stainless steel and then feeding it again? (same day only). I remember years ago my mother told me never to put a can in the refrigerator, always transfer food to another container before refrigerating. Will the food react to something in the steel? I put a plastic lid on the cans of cat food, is that any different?
I would LOVE to find some sort of ceramic cat plate/bowl that has a plastic lid to fit! Maybe I should invent it
I used to be told that as well about cans. After a bit of research, it does appear that most aluminum cans are now treated on the inside to reduce the reaction of the food with the can. The most concern is with highly acidic foods (citrus fruits, tomatoes), and most of it appears to be a taste issue, moreso than a long term health issue. Another concern seems to be that covering a can is usually not "air tight", which can contribute to spoilage of food and increased reactions.

Storing cat food in cans seems to be fine. If I recall, the insides of all the cans I have used have always had a coating on the inside anyway. I always use airtight lids that are made for cans.

As for stainless steel, short term storage seems to be fine, from a google search. It seems that companies are beginning to develop lines of stainless steel storable containers.
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post #22 of 35
8/3/09 at 10:26am
Corelle cereal bowls for eating and drinking. One very large heavy ceramic bowl with water for the dog (which the cats like drinking from in the kitchen).
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post #23 of 35
8/3/09 at 5:52pm
After an acne breakout we switched over to stainless steel.

The water bowls are a small dog size, and the food bowls hold bout 3/4-1cup of food.

So far, no more acne
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post #24 of 35
8/3/09 at 6:30pm
Stainless steel from the dollar store. I have about a dozen of them so they go into the dishwasher after each use. I don't use ceramic because the glaze can get cracks and scratches and hold bacteria the same as the plastic dishes.
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post #25 of 35
8/3/09 at 7:19pm
Stainless steel bowls here. We were using small glass ones, but when we added wet to the diet, they were too difficult to eat out of. On top of that when his mouth was at it's worst, Cotton seemed to be associating 'bad' with his bowl, so new food bowls it was. So far I'm happy with the stainless - easy to clean, the cats love the fct that they're wider, and they're non-slip so they don't end up half-way accross the kitchen at night.
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post #26 of 35
8/6/09 at 6:00pm
small ceramic bowls for dry, ceramic salad plates for wet, drinkwell fountains [2].
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post #27 of 35
8/6/09 at 6:34pm
I use Durapet stainless steel bowls. They have a rubberized ring on the outside of the bottom so they don't slip around at all. They also clean easy too. I use a 2" height one for their dry and a shallow bowl for their wet. I got them petfooddirect.com for reasonable prices.
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post #28 of 35
8/6/09 at 10:21pm
They have their own people plates for their raw food, wet, and dry. However they have plastic waterers because there are so many cats that i can't manage to keep enough water available for them otherwise.
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post #29 of 35
8/8/09 at 6:04pm
Stainless steel bowls for meal time. Easy to clean, hygenic and don't break. Catit drinking fountain for water.
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post #30 of 35
8/9/09 at 6:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lovemykitty3 View Post
I use Durapet stainless steel bowls. They have a rubberized ring on the outside of the bottom so they don't slip around at all. They also clean easy too. I use a 2" height one for their dry and a shallow bowl for their wet. I got them petfooddirect.com for reasonable prices.
I got these as well - from the dollar store. I got about a dozen so there are at least 6 in the dishwasher at any one time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimberleigh View Post
Stainless steel bowls for meal time. Easy to clean, hygenic and don't break. Catit drinking fountain for water.
The kits love our CatIt fountain.
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