# Cleaning food/water bowls - frequency



## ChrisFromOC (Sep 19, 2018)

I’d like to hear any thoughts the forum has on how often our dogs’ food and water bowls should be cleaned. 

Thanks.

Chris


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## hahuston (Jul 5, 2017)

I wash our dogs dishes daily.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

Good question. I will be following this. I usually pour out the water every morning, rinse and refill. I feed Rukie from a maze bowl and I used to moisten his food and wash his bowl every day. Now I am putting the kibble in dry and wondering how often to wash it. If I was feeding my any canned food I would wash it every time.


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## Maggie'sVoice (Apr 4, 2018)

I wash them everyday. I have stainless steel bowls. Those along with ceramic are the most sanitary as plastic bowls get scratches and can harbor bacteria and such pretty easily. Not cleaning everyday can lead to the puppy acne or pimples on their chins as well.


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## ChrisFromOC (Sep 19, 2018)

cwag said:


> Good question. I will be following this. I usually pour out the water every morning, rinse and refill. I feed Rukie from a maze bowl and I used to moisten his food and wash his bowl every day. Now I am putting the kibble in dry and wondering how often to wash it. If I was feeding my any canned food I would wash it every time.


That’s why I was asking, as I normally rinse and refill water bowl daily like you, but much less diligent on the food bowl. I want to GE an idea of what seems to be working for most people and then buy enough stainless bowls to put this into practice.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

I wash my adult dog's food bowls on average of every 2 or 3 days, my puppy's bowl is washed every day. Their water bowl is thoroughly washed at least every other day. 

A couple of articles on the topic. 

https://www.doggiesolutions.co.uk/b...en-should-i-wash-my-dogs-food-and-water-bowls

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/slime-in-dog-water-bowl/


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I was at least once a day, usually twice. However, I will occasionally slack when they get a kibble based meal (they normally are fed raw but I do also feed kibble so their systems can handle it when they are not at home - for instance -- if a dog has to be hospitalized my vet clinic will not accept raw food).


Inside water bowl is washed daily, outside bowls are washed before they are used


ETA: Indoor bowls are crock/ceramic, outdoor bowls are stainless steel.


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## puddles everywhere (May 13, 2016)

Have you ever noticed how slimmy a tennis ball gets? The bowls get that way too, I wash after every meal. Metal bowls (only a buck at dollar general) and have a crock bowl for water. Because I have multiple dogs I want to be sure nothing is getting shared between them 

LOL I like a clean plate with each meal... why wouldn't you do the same for the dog?


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

More often than I do probably. 

I recently read that while people assume the food bowl is the one that gets dirtier (I always assumed this), the water dish is the one that needs to be cleaned more often. I dump out the water and rinse the water dish daily, but I was always putting the dog food bowl in the dishwasher FAR more often. Now I put in both anytime I am running it and they fit. If only one fits, I now make it the water dish.


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## ChrisFromOC (Sep 19, 2018)

I would have guessed the food bowl would get dirtier than the water bowl too.


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## puddles everywhere (May 13, 2016)

Chris, not really... bacteria is in the saliva. Of course if you feed a wet food it can be pretty messy.

I saw a 2nd post about metal bowls. I tend to be very frugal and purchase from Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family dollar... these types of stores. They are dishwasher safe, cheap so if they get banged up or left somewhere it's not a problem. 

I pick the bowls up after every meal and wash, then store the dried bowl until the next meal. If I'm not fast enough, my golden picks up all the bowls and brings them to me (wherever I am in the house) ... guess she can't reach the sink?

The crock water bowl is heavy, won't tip over and was a gift from a client. Not sure I would have paid the bucks for one but it's been over 5 yrs and lots of dog use, relocation to new house and still in perfect condition so maybe it was worth the price.


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## ChrisFromOC (Sep 19, 2018)

puddles everywhere said:


> Chris, not really... bacteria is in the saliva. Of course if you feed a wet food it can be pretty messy.
> 
> I saw a 2nd post about metal bowls. I tend to be very frugal and purchase from Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family dollar... these types of stores. They are dishwasher safe, cheap so if they get banged up or left somewhere it's not a problem.
> 
> ...


I plan to feed kibble, which we’ve always used for our dogs in the past. Based on what Ive read here I will be more diligent about regular washings to keep the funk out of the bowls. Thanks!


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## Mirinde (Jun 8, 2011)

I def do not wash either as often as I should.

He eats out of a kong wobbler so that just gets the kibble crumbs wiped out if there's any in there. Sometimes I stick the top part in the dishwasher. The water bowl gets rinsed out daily. I put down a clean one and put the dirty one in the dishwasher about once a week or more frequently if there's extra room in the dishwasher. I should probably pick up a couple more water dishes so that I can do that a few times a week. Going in my Amazon cart now


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

I haven't been able to locate the article I read recently on biofilm- which is what the unclean bowls grow after they are licked.It was frightening in that it associated biofilm with disease. 
Perhaps someone else read it and can say what diseases, but it got me to dishwash my water buckets every other day (they are hand rinsed and brushed probably twice a day as well and have been always) and my food dishes probably every other day- I do the kennel bowls one day and the house bowls the next. Prior to reading the article, they always got rinsed but were dishwasher treated weekly.


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## joro32000 (Feb 25, 2017)

I wash the food bowls after every meal. I wash the water bowl multiple times during the day, more than I wish to, but don’t have much choice. They won’t drink even if a tiny particle of food/saliva is in the water or if the water is not cold enough (directly from the fridge). They stare at the water bowl, stare at me and walk away. I tried my best to ignore it, but they wouldn’t drink this water for a whole day, choosing instead a rain water, pool, pond whatever else they could find. For us it is a little bit of a hassle as we don’t use tap water for drinking so my husband has to haul liters of water in the containers every week and majority of it goes to the drain.


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## Maggie'sVoice (Apr 4, 2018)

joro32000 said:


> I wash the food bowls after every meal. I wash the water bowl multiple times during the day, more than I wish to, but don’t have much choice. They won’t drink even if a tiny particle of food/saliva is in the water or if the water is not cold enough (directly from the fridge). They stare at the water bowl, stare at me and walk away. I tried my best to ignore it, but they wouldn’t drink this water for a whole day, choosing instead a rain water, pool, pond whatever else they could find. For us it is a little bit of a hassle as we don’t use tap water for drinking so my husband has to haul liters of water in the containers every week and majority of it goes to the drain.



HAHA your dogs certainly have first world problems!


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## Neeko13 (Jul 10, 2010)

Yikes, I've got to up my game and wash Neeko s bowls more often...:frown2:


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## ChrisFromOC (Sep 19, 2018)

Neeko13 said:


> Yikes, I've got to up my game and wash Neeko s bowls more often...:frown2:


Yep I think I inadvertently made a bunch of us all feel like bad doggie parents ...


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

Or, you have now made us better doggy parents. I am also planning to do a better job with the washing. Thanks for bringing this subject to our attention.


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## ShashaCruz (Apr 22, 2017)

I clean before each feeding


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

joro32000 said:


> I wash the food bowls after every meal. I wash the water bowl multiple times during the day, more than I wish to, but don’t have much choice. They won’t drink even if a tiny particle of food/saliva is in the water or if the water is not cold enough (directly from the fridge). They stare at the water bowl, stare at me and walk away. I tried my best to ignore it, but they wouldn’t drink this water for a whole day, choosing instead a rain water, pool, pond whatever else they could find. For us it is a little bit of a hassle as we don’t use tap water for drinking so my husband has to haul liters of water in the containers every week and majority of it goes to the drain.


That's hysterical. I have one bucket that NO ONE will drink from. Doesn't matter if it is freshly scrubbed and dishwashed or not. It is a huge gallon sized one (therefore was an expensive bucket to buy) that used to everyone drank from since it's in the yard.. we have been in a drought at my house and I have noticed in the last few months that the crows drink from it. That's also when I noticed the dogs no longer are drinking from it. I've tried everything to get its attractiveness to be increased, but for now I just empty every AM to water my plants between the house and the gate its on and scrub/refill for the crows... since apparently one cannot remove the smell of crow feet on the rim and that smell is anti-Golden on a water bucket. It's all I can think of.


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## joro32000 (Feb 25, 2017)

Prism Goldens said:


> That's hysterical. I have one bucket that NO ONE will drink from. Doesn't matter if it is freshly scrubbed and dishwashed or not. It is a huge gallon sized one (therefore was an expensive bucket to buy) that used to everyone drank from since it's in the yard.. we have been in a drought at my house and I have noticed in the last few months that the crows drink from it. That's also when I noticed the dogs no longer are drinking from it. I've tried everything to get its attractiveness to be increased, but for now I just empty every AM to water my plants between the house and the gate its on and scrub/refill for the crows... since apparently one cannot remove the smell of crow feet on the rim and that smell is anti-Golden on a water bucket. It's all I can think of.


What can we do? 
If fresh water is not provided on request, they go to the 3 gallon water container my husband buys for us and them and lick the container walls forever. They place stuffies around the container, just to get some attention. If I ignore it they will check every toilet up and down in hopes one of the lids is opened because they would rather drink from there.


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

Prism Goldens said:


> That's hysterical. I have one bucket that NO ONE will drink from. Doesn't matter if it is freshly scrubbed and dishwashed or not. It is a huge gallon sized one (therefore was an expensive bucket to buy) that used to everyone drank from since it's in the yard.. we have been in a drought at my house and I have noticed in the last few months that the crows drink from it. That's also when I noticed the dogs no longer are drinking from it. I've tried everything to get its attractiveness to be increased, but for now I just empty every AM to water my plants between the house and the gate its on and scrub/refill for the crows... since apparently one cannot remove the smell of crow feet on the rim and that smell is anti-Golden on a water bucket. It's all I can think of.


If you could contain the crow feet smell and market it as a repellent, you could be rich.:grin2:


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## rounak (Jul 28, 2016)

we wash it twice a day, cant let my boy lead to bad health


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

After reading through this thread, I have started doing a better job of washing the water bowl, I've always given fresh water several times a day, but didn't always wash the bowl. 
I wash the dish I feed my boy in after each feeding. 

My bridge girl was very particular about the water being clean. If it was dirty, she would not drink out of it. She would stand in front of it with her lip curled up then stare at me until I got her fresh clean water. Her brother was the one that dirtied up the water with grass, dirt, or slobber-he could care less.


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