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.

When to use pottery containers, plastic containers, and metal containers

Pottery containers: As long as dogs are fed on dry foods, pottery containers serve effectively. But when containers have to be cleaned and handled after each feeding, pottery containers become too heavy and bulky. They, too, can be chipped and broken if handled too roughly. Pottery containers for feeding dogs have largely been replaced by those made from other materials.

Plastic containers: This type of container has some of the advantages of both glass and pottery containers. But it also has some serious faults. While plastic bowls can be thrown around and generally withstand considerable abuse, they are quite vulnerable to a dog's teeth. A determined or bored dog can reduce most plastic containers to a sieve, or worse, a pile of shreds. If these shreds are eaten they may cause serious stomach upsets. Some plastics are made from solvents that are irritating to the stomach's tender lining. In addition, some plastics cannot tolerate boiling water, others have a low resistance to certain chemicals, while still others crack when they get cold or fold and bend when they get too hot.

Metal containers: They are probably the most satisfactory all-round food and water containers available to the dog owner. Their only major disadvantage is the damage inflicted by a dog's teeth. Even this can be reduced to almost zero when seamless stainless steel is used. Most metal containers come in a convenient array of sizes. They are light-weight, easily stacked, can be handled without fear of breakage, and are probably the least expensive if initial cost is spread over the duration of their effective use.

One of the major advantages of metal containers is their adaptability to proper cleaning procedures. They can be washed in hot soapy water, literally thrown into hot, boiling rinse water, and then removed with metal tongs and stacked without too much care on top of each other to drain and air dry. All of this can be done without danger to either the food containers or the dog owner. Another obvious advantage of metal containers is that they can be dropped repeatedly without breaking. Eventually this abuse will cause them to bend and then crack and finally become unserviceable. But given the proper handling and care, metal containers will give many years of satisfactory service.

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