The Inside Scoop on Food Bowls
With the vast and sometimes overwhelming selection of food, toys, and furniture on the market for your pets, it’s nice to take it easy on the basics — a dog bowl, after all, is just a dog bowl. Or is it? Actually, the array of food bowls available is staggering, ranging from ceramic to silicone to even disposable bowls made of paper or sugar cane.
So how can you know which bowl is right for your pooch? The Raise a Green Dog! blog put a multitude of options to the test, and discovered that some choices are a lot safer than others. One of the worst choices turned out to be something extremely simple, yet somehow unsurprising — the plastic bowl–for a multitude of reasons:
One reason is that plastics scratch and those little crevices can harbor unhealthy bacteria, that even a good safe cleaning can’t deter.
In addition, there are many reports in the news that plastics can emit chemicals like Bisphenal A, or BPA. Every few years, articles regarding the safety of plastics hit the news headlines – most recently in the form of reports of a chemical found in baby and sports bottles: Bisphenal A, or BPA.
What is BPA? The EWG says, “bisphenol a (BPA), a synthetic estrogen used to harden polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin, is the focus of a growing number of research studies and legislative actions, reflecting mounting scientific evidence that it causes serious and sometimes irreversible damage to health, even at the low doses to which people are routinely exposed.”
Prolonged trace BPA exposure is thought to cause a variety of problems ranging from chromosomal disorders to chemotherapy-resistant cancers. Not something you want yourself ingesting, let alone your best buddy! So, in contrast, which dog bowl came out ahead of the pack? Another classic: the stainless steel bowl.
We recommend going stainless steel. It is widely believed to be the absolute safest dog food and water dispensing bowl. It’s what we use for all our meals and water, whether at home or on the road, for us pups and our kittie bros.
Durable, sanitary, and rust-free — when it comes to pet bowls, the simplest option is also the safest and best you can give for your pets.
