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Food And Water Containers: Part 1

No food should ever be fed to a dog unless that food is put into some type of a container. The practice of putting food on newspapers or directly on a cage floor or the ground serves no purpose except to contaminate the food from the surroundings. This method also contaminates the surroundings from the food, draw flies, increase parasite transmission and soil the dog's coat. The money, time and energy a dog owner thinks he is saving by such feeding practices are completely wiped out by the loss of the dog, the time spent to clean floors and combat insects, or the effort needed to put a food-soiled coat back into show condition.

Feeding Bowls: No feeding bowl should be used unless it meets the following criteria:
1) It is the correct size for the dog that is using the container.
2) It is designed so that it is easily washed, drained and dried, or can be thrown away after each use.
3) It is made from satisfactory materials.

Feeding containers are made from a large number of materials, some good and some bad. An ideal material from which a dog's food container is made should:
1. Never be toxic to a dog. This includes the body of the feeding bowl, its coverings, and any paint, decals, printing or other decorations.
2. Capable of withstanding a reasonable amount of abuse from a dog's teeth.
3. Made of a substance that is non-corrosive to dog foods, dog urine and the other substances to which a feeding container normally may be subjected.
4. Resistant to soaps, detergents, water, grease and disinfectant solutions.
5. Resistant to breakage, cracking or similar damage under normal wear and tear.
6. Reasonably priced.

A material that meets every one of these specifications can be quite difficult to find. However, there are four materials that meet enough to be considered as suitable for dog food containers. These are glass, pottery, plastic and metal.

Glass containers are the least suitable of the four. They are unfit for kennels or breeder operations. Their fragile nature makes them unsuitable. The feeding bowl used for one house dog usually is handled individually at each feeding, just as the family's dishes and bowls are. Under such restricted conditions of handling, glass containers rarely are subject to breakage. And because of their low cost and attractive nature, glass feeding and watering bowls make satisfactory household food containers.