I have two dogs, one large and one medium, and I’m looking for suggestions about the ideal bowl shape to keep them from throwing their crunchies all over the kitchen floor.
I was using the standard dog dish shape(not this dish, but this shape) for years and after sweeping up crunchies (or tossing them back in the bowl), it occurred to me that maybe the shape of the bowl was contributing to the problem. This has started with both dogs in the last couple of years, so maybe it’s due to age? One dog is about 8, the other is about 12 (I say “about,” because both were found dogs… or, I should say, I was their “found” person. They are GREAT dogs.)
I switched to a flat, wide pyrex pie plate (picked up two at Goodwill), Didn’t solve the problem-- crunchies everywhere.
Yesterday I switched to deep, straight-sided bowlslike this shape (actually, they’re cake pans). Still came into the kitchen with crunchies all over.
I just got this bowlfor my elderly cat who was having trouble digging wet food out of the rounded corners of his dish. Would this help with the crunchie-tossing problem of the doggies?
Since I mix together two types of dry dog food (one is prescription), maybe they’re just looking for the ones they prefer-- like my book club friend who holds the bowl of trail mix in her lap during book discussions and picks out the stuff she likes.
If you think the problem is not the bowl shape, by all means, suggest something else.
I feed our three dogs twice a day. They eat every drop of food in the bowl. I’m also able to tweak the amount I feed each dog so that their weights are perfect.
Just a thought. It sounds like you feed yours free choice.
Do you not watch them when they eat? That would go a long way to determining how the food gets on the floor. Since you’re mixing two types of food, the first thing you should do is look at what’s ending up on the floor. If it’s all the same type of stuff (they eat the “bits” and discard the “kibbles”, say), then your dogs are rooting through the bowls for their favorite yummies and tossing the rest out in the process.
I don’t know if this is a factor in your case, but: we have a big loose-lipped dog (St. Bernard). When she takes a mouthful of food, some just falls right out of her big floppy jowls; she just can’t help it. If that’s the case with either of your dogs, bowl shape won’t matter.
I’m not quite sure how “not being hungry enough” relates to tossing crunchies out of the bowl. And no, I haven’t actually watched them eat. Good suggestion.
I put food out when we come back from our walk around 5 pm. They promptly eat about 90% of the crunchies at that time. Later in the evening, one or the other (or both) will go back in the kitchen and eat the rest. Late in the evening the bigger one will come to me and want more, so I put about 1/4 cup in each bowl. The bowls do not have food in them all day.
I would start out by decreasing what you are feeding by 10%. My dogs know they have 10 minutes uninterrupted feeding time, then that’s it for that feeding.
I have a cat who also tosses his dry food everywhere. I think the advice for my cat may help you too. First, he’s just a messy eater. He will pick up a bit too much food in his mouth and some will simply fall out. Or he’ll shake his head from a ticklish ear and some food will go flying everywhere. Then, he also has a habit of using the bowl to scoop food into his mouth. He’ll shove his chin down into the bowl and then forward, to scoop the food in. But naturally when he gets to the lip, some food tips in and some tips out. So there’ll be a ring all around the backside of the bowl of food that got pushed out from this method. No bowl fixes either issue.
I’d recommend watching them eat to see if it’s just not solvable. I know, I have a food disaster twice a day every day from his messy habits, but sometimes that just is what it is.
We use the type of bowls in the OP, but we add enough (warm) water to the kibble, wet food and veggies to make a nice stew and it all goes down. If a stray kibble escapes, it don’t git far. Amazing how clean the bowls are after all this.
A mere foot away? The German Shepherd From Hell, now sadly departed, would upon emptying her bowl proceed to inspect every square inch of floor within about a 15-foot radius on the off-chance a single stray piece of kibble might possibly be hiding somewhere (and if the kibble rolled under a piece of furniture, she’d attempt to rearrange the furniture to clear her path to it).
I use an elevated feeder like this one, but even putting the food bowl on top of a box might help, particularly if your dogs have any arthritis or similar issues.
My golden retriever was known to pick out pieces she didn’t like and spit them out if she didn’t like them, but otherwise eat the rest. I would say it happened because she got older but I didn’t start messing with her food until she got older.
My brother’s dog has always done this - left a damn mess on the floor after she eats. She often takes a mouthfull then walks a foot or so away and crunches it up while some fall to the floor. She is just a weird dog, that is how she is.
Have you considered switching food? Not all food has different types of pieces. Many foods are just uniform pieces that the dogs would not feel the need to pick through.
I also agree that if they are leaving 10% then they are getting 10% too much.
One of our cats gets wet food, so he’s fine, but the other one gets dry food and does the same sorts of things. I bought one of those rubber floor mats, a solid one, not the ones with the holes, it’s like 2’x3’ I think, and feeding her on that seems to at least contain the great majority of the mess to the direct vicinity of the bowl.
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If you don’t like slobber, this type dog is not for you. He is perfect for me.
Free range dog, brings home illegal deer kill parts or feeds with neighbor dogs. Food is something he knows how/where to get.
I use a big bowl. Bawahahaha He still makes a mess.
We have a lab who gobbles his food, so we got one of these to slow him down. I bet it would make less mess also, but I wouldn’t know from our dog, he eats every crumb, in or out of the bowl.
They are GREAT dogs.)
