Plastic, Ceramic Or Metal Bowls

[piper]

1 dog has a plastic food bowl (1 of the scoff stopper 1s) and the other 2 have stainless steel.

The inside water bowl is stainless steel, 1 outside 1 is ceramic and the other is a plastic clam shell. Jazz was such a problem with water as a pup that at least with the clam shell I knew there would still be water for her and the other 2, prior to that I tried lots of things with no luck. Once she got past the puppy water issue I reintroduced a normal water bowl but they still all like to drink from the clam shell, go figure.

[UpToNoGood]

2 fuzzyard dotted ceramic bowls and one stainless steel, but I think stainless steel bowls is ugly so I dont use it. ceramic bowls keeps the water cool in the summer too :)

[Erny]

Ceramic bowls here.

Strangely enough though, my boy has gone 'off' drinking water from his various ceramics. His favourite drinking vessel was one of those Sebastian ones and I love it - lots of water and keeps it cool in the warmer months - but now he seems to far prefer to drink water from ice-cream containers . I'm not keen on plastic, but there ya go. Does he know something I don't??

Edited May 27, 2012 by Erny

[*kirty*]

Stainless steel here - easy to clean, hard to break.

[minimax]

I use ceramic because they are heavy enough that they stay in the one spot, and the pug doesn't chase them all around the room whilst eating!

[BC Crazy]

Stainless steel food bowls with rubber on the bottom here. Think they are called Durapet. Stops them from skidding around & they have a lifetime warranty. I do like ceramic but they are just a bit heavy for me.

Also for drinking but outside for water OH got a 9 gallon SS beer keg & cut it in half & put garden hose around the cut edge so as pups can't hurt themselves on it. They love it & I think SS does keep the water cooler in Summer.

Edited May 29, 2012 by BC Crazy

[Sydoo]

Ceramic bowls here.

Strangely enough though, my boy has gone 'off' drinking water from his various ceramics. His favourite drinking vessel was one of those Sebastian ones and I love it - lots of water and keeps it cool in the warmer months - but now he seems to far prefer to drink water from ice-cream containers . I'm not keen on plastic, but there ya go. Does he know something I don't??

Billie has one glass water bowl and another ceramic. In hot weather, I put out extra water in stainless bowls. She prefers the glass bowl and only seems to drink from the others if the glass one is empty or inaccessible.

Food goes in ceramic bowls. She is not rough on her dishes and I've not dropped any yet *touch wood*.

[Issy]

Stainless steel for food and water (pet ones) that have the rubber underneath that prevents sliding off the floor.

[OSoSwift]

Stainless Durapet bowls for food, I just throw them in the dishwasher and they come out like new. I like them as they don't make noise on the tiles.

I have my original SS bowls from my Rotti which still look brand new and that was around 18 years ago now.

Water bowl inside is a plastic travel bowl - was good when the kids were younger, and now stops that cat playing in it and splashing water everywhere. Outside a plastic bucket which they don't use often and in their yard they have automatic waterers that are connected to their rainwater tank.

[Maddy]

For water, we have one very large plastic one outside (big enough for feet to be dipped in, seeing as some of the hounds like doing that in summer) and a smaller stainless steel one in the garage.

For food.. I stopped bothering to put it in bowls :p We feed raw so the food is in the bowl only as long as it takes for me to put it on the floor. We feed outside now for this reason- chicken blood is really quite hard to get out of carpet.

When we were using food bowls, it was stainless steel though. The noise of them being pushed across the floor drives me batsh*t but they were easier to clean than plastic and couldn't be chewed.

[Chequeredblackdog]

Food bowls are stainless steel with rubber bottoms.

Water bowls inside are ceramic, did have a metal bucket..... But the kitten kept falling it in. Sigh. The cats prefer to drink from my fish tank :laugh:

Outside we havE an old square sink that holds heaps of water, also bath tubs for the sheep.

[Guest Arcane]

stainless steel for everything here.

plastic is hard to sanitise and can potentially be chewed, swallowed and cause an obstruction

Ceramic or glass can so easily be smashed into lovely sharp shards to slice and dice anyone who decides to jump on it or whatever until it is discovered

Stainless steel is safe, strong, easy to clean, and long lasting

Of course some dogs are very benign about their 'things' and the safety aspect isn't such an issue as with some, but I won't take a chance just incase somehow something gets knocked over and smashed or chewed.

[Skruffy n Flea]

thanks everyone for your replies and sorry for taking so long to come back.

only a couple of you have referenced the use of *safe* plastics and because i don't spend a lot of money on pet bowls, it's unlikely that a great deal of care has been taken in their production, so the plastic type water bowl upstairs is probably the biggest no-no in this house [even if i do change the water in that bowl every morning]...

my dogs don't chew their bowls and it's only when i've *worked* the fluffies on a rigorous walk that they *dig* in their inside water bowl [at which time i redirect them outside to the clam shell]...

colour is a big motivator for me; the plastic bowl upstairs has a funky colourful design and their food bowls are both see-thru but tinted bright pink [for bella] and bright blue [for byron] :) GORGEOUS but at 2 bux a pop, they are probably the worst plastic available

i love Love LOVE the gummi brights [with a metal insert] and one day i'll have them :)

i like the idea of ceramic but the shape concerns me in that the crease between the bottom and the sides creates a haven for build-up surely! i can see me having to brush that crease rigorously BUT as some of you have said, i can put them as well as the metals in the dishwasher *happier*

...

Plastic gives one of our dogs "pimples" around his mouth.

interesting!

I found steel took the fur off my dogs noses.

good lord!

i had my own personal reasons for starting this thread, and neither of my dogs nor my cat have suffered [or appear to be suffering] from having been fed from plastic food/water vessels. having said that and wanting to avoid compromising their health in the short and long term, i'll be changing from plastic to stainless steel and [despite the perils] ceramic :)

again, thank you everyone for your comments :)