Chloe is always smiling and getting into mischief. She loves belly rubs, chasing the four wheeler and tries to devour Fiona (our next tester) whenever she gets a chance. 4. Fiona An anti gulp dog bowl uses smart inserts in the bowl meaning your dog has to work around them to reach their food, extending their meal times and keeping their tail wagging. They work perfectly with wet or dry food and are tough enough to cope with those jaws that don't know when to stop at the bottom of the bowl. When it comes to stainless steel dog bowls, this is as good as it gets. Mr. Peanut’s is a family-owned business that tests all the products they manufacture on their own dogs… And, it shows. The slow-feeder bowls that extended our dogs’ eating by the largest amount of time were the winners. Now that we had our pile of slow-feeder dog bowls, it was time to compare them to each other, to determine which was truly the best.

There are many reasons why dog owners prefer stainless steel to plastic. Not only are they easy to clean, but they are virtually indestructible. Perfect for those unstoppable chewers who have to gnaw on everything in sight. Measure how much food your dog eats at one meal then buy a bowl that holds at least that much. If the bowl is too small, then the food will be piled on top, which defeats the purpose of slowing down your pup at dinnertime. To make it more challenging, buy the next size up from what you would normally feed. I found the product to be sturdy and well-designed. However, the edges of the bowl and ridges on the inside made it too difficult for Olivia, our flat-faced dog, to reach the food. Slow feeders come in a ridiculous amount of shapes, sizes and colors. They come with prongs, wedges, valleys and mazes. They come in jumbo, extra small and every size in between. There are flat-feeder mats and feeders with high sides. They come in plastic, stainless steel or ceramic. The options are seemingly endless. We heard a similar story from a Bloodhound owner. His dog didn’t understand how to get the food out of his slow feed bowl and with each bite, would clamp down on the edges of the bowl which resulted in chipping a tooth.The pattern on the purple bowl featured lower ridges and shallow valleys and was the only style that every dog we tested with could comfortably and confidently eat from. However, just because a dog has arthritis doesn’t mean that he won’t gulp down his meal when given the chance. Without easy access to his food, your dog can only eat small amounts at a time, extending his mealtime. The grooves are quite deep and the gaps fairly slim which kept Gau Gau entertained and engrossed in accessing his food for a considerable amount of time. Much, much, much longer than the standard round bowls we normally use to feed our dogs. Gau Gau was then joined by Alex who helped him polish off the biscuits. Yes the bowl is big enough for sharing and keeping two dogs focused and busy enjoying meal time. Now, this isn’t to say we are opposed to ceramic slow-feed bowls. If a better performing ceramic slow feeder is released in the future, I’ll declare it the winner of this category.

The Animal Planet Maze Feeder is somewhat of a hidden gem. No consumer or storekeeper we interviewed was aware of the product. Lucy is never sad. She lives on a horse farm and is quite convinced that she actually is a horse. She enjoys pizza crust and galloping around the yard doing her best imitation of a horse. 3. ChloeFirst impressions from us humans as we took the Dogit Go Slow bowl out of it’s box were that it’s sturdy and solid with a decent weight to it. It’s the dogs opinions that really matter though and although we were more than prepared to get on all fours and eat our lunch from this smart looking bowl we thought best to hand over to the professionals….. our dogs! Daisy helping to test the bowl

All did not end well for the Smarter Paws Slow Feeding bowl but Nero is one of a kind so don’t let this put you off the bowl. It isn’t as sturdy as some of the others our dogs tested, but this is reflected in the price. For a starter slow feeder and for dogs who enjoy a challenge at the same time, this bowl would be a good one to start with. Well, neither would we. That’s why we decided to test how much time each slow-feed bowl added to feeding time. If choosing a plastic or silicone item, make sure it's nontoxic and free from BPA, phthalates, and other potentially hazardous materials. If your dog likes to chew, these might not always be the best choice because they can gnaw off pieces.

We then compared this with the time it took to eat from each slow feeder on this list. Again, we did this over multiple meals. With this in mind, we decided that the time taken to eat a meal should be the number-one ranking factor. From a human perspective (yes we are the ones having to do the washing up, boo hoo), this bowl is more fiddly to clean than a standard round bowl. We feed our dogs dry biscuits so this is a minor point, but if using wet food or raw food the washing part may keep the humans out of trouble for a few minutes too. Details Once our mountain of slow-feed dog bowls arrived, it was time to test them! How did we test the slow-feeder dog bowls? Also answers to Liv. Enjoys beach vacations and the dog park. She also loves to wiggle and is always happy, even if you can’t tell. This is her happy face! 8. Chelsie