Does your dog practically inhale their dinner? The best slow feed dog bowl for your pet will get your dog to calm down and chew their food.
Slow feed dog bowls use a variety of designs with crevices, bumps, and dividers to spread out your dog’s dry or wet food and keep them from finishing meals in a few seconds.
Are you trying to find the best slow feed bowl for your dog? We reviewed several different types of slow feed bowls. Read on to learn more about them.
Improved Digestion
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In addition to vomiting, gulping down food may lead to extra gas, choking, and other uncomfortable gastrointestinal issues for your dog. Slowing down meals will improve your dog’s digestion, and perhaps they won’t fart quite as much (no guarantees on that one, though).
Vomiting isn’t great, but it’s not the very worst thing that can happen to a dog that eats too quickly. Bloat, also known as gastric dilation-volvulus (GDV), is a medical condition that can kill a dog in just a few hours. Essentially, bloat occurs when a dog’s stomach fills with air and twists, cutting off blood circulation.
Bloat is known to happen when a dog eats a meal or drinks a lot of water quickly before or after exercise (though it is still a rare condition). Though all dogs could potentially develop bloat, it is more common in large dog breeds with deep chests, like Great Danes or German Shepards.
Gulping down food (sometimes without even chewing) can hurt your dog. If you’re concerned about how fast your dog eats, a slow feed bowl can help.
Mental Stimulation
Dogs need stimulation to keep them busy and mentally satisfied, kind of how we humans enjoy filling out sudoku and crossword puzzles. In the wild, wolves are social pack animals that forage and hunt for their food, so finding ways for dogs to fulfill some sort of innate foraging behavior will help them be happier overall.
Slow feed bowls make your dog use their brain to figure out how get their food from the bowl. Focusing on using their brainpower makes your dog eat slower and more deliberately. Eating slower in this way not only helps their digestion, but it gives their brain a workout and makes eating more stimulating.
Keepin’ it Clean
Your dog may roll in the mud and try to eat garbage while you’re out for a walk (or is that just my dog?), so perhaps they don’t care if their food bowl is spotless. Regardless, it’s essential to regularly clean slow feed bowls, maybe even more important than traditional ones. Why? Slow feed bowls have lots of crevices, so saliva, dirt, and everyday grime tends to accumulate faster in them.
The good news is that most of the slow feed bowls we’ve reviewed here are dishwasher safe and will clean up quite nicely in there. Washing by hand with warm, soapy water works too (and will ensure your bowl lasts longer), but some of these bowls have narrower crevices that make scrubbing them a little more of a chore.
No matter how you wash them, the bowls we reviewed are made with heavy-duty plastic that can tolerate both dishwashers and the kitchen sink.
Slow Feed Bowl Reviews
Slow Feeder Puzzle Bowl by Siensync
This slow feeder bowl comes with swirled ridges to prevent your dog from eating their dinner in a few seconds. The ridges will encourage your dog to forage for their wet or dry food.
The mental stimulation from foraging will make mealtimes more interesting and encourage your dog to notice when they are full.
No matter how quickly your dog eats, this bowl is sure to slow them down enough to reduce vomiting, gas, and other digestive issues.
Pros
- Holds up to 2 cups of food at once, making it suitable for most dogs.
- Non-skid rubber feet on the bottom of the bowl will keep it in one place.
- Can be washed in the sink or the top rack of your dishwasher. The ridges are wide enough to squeeze a sponge in for cleaning.
Cons
- The ridges of this bowl might be too narrow for some larger dog breeds or if your dog has a flatter snout (like a pug or bulldog).
- The rubber feet are detachable, which may be useful for cleaning, but otherwise, they can fall off the bowl and become lost.
Go Slow Anti-Gulping Dog Dish by Dogit
Dogit’s anti-gulping bowl is suitable for food (wet or dry) or water, depending on which one your dog seems to consume too quickly for their own good.
Instead of puzzle-like ridges, the ‘nubs’ in this bowl will ensure your dog’s meal is evenly spread out, encouraging smaller mouthfuls and chewing.
This dishwasher-friendly bowl comes in a couple of different colors and sizes so that you can get the right-sized bowl for your pet.
Pros
- Easy to clean, either by hand or in the dishwasher.
- Suitable for use with food or water.
- Available in 4 different sizes.
- The weighted bottom means this bowl won’t move or tip over easily.
Cons
- If your dog is anything like mine, a few nubs sticking out of the bowl won’t slow them down! A ‘puzzle’ bowl may work best for your dog if they eat or drink unnaturally fast.
- A simple design means your dog will probably figure out how to eat more quickly after using this bowl a few times.
Slow Feeder Bowl by Noyal
This bowl uses a swirl and flower(ish) design to slow down your dog’s mealtimes.
Able to hold up to 1½ cups of dry kibble, this bowl will encourage your dog to slow down by spreading out the food and making them ‘work’ for their dinner. Your dog’s stomach will not only feel better after eating from their bowl digestive-wise, but they’ll also be more mentally satisfied.
Noyal’s swirl flower bowl comes in a few different colors and is suitable for small and medium-sized dogs.
Pros
- Available in a few pastel colors.
- Includes attachable non-slip rubber feet, as well as suction cups, to give the bowl a better grip on your kitchen floor.
- Provides greater mental stimulation and entertainment during mealtimes.
Cons
- This bowl is on the lighter side, so even with the rubber feet and suction cups, it may be easy for your dog to push around the kitchen.
- Not suitable young puppies, as the ridges may be too deep for their little snouts to reach in.
- The rubber feet come off easily and may serve as a chewing or choking hazard for dogs who like to chew anything and everything.
Fun Feeder Dog Bowl by Outward Hound
This bowl comes in several different sizes and colors, with each color corresponding to a different puzzle design to slow down your dog’s eating habits (ex. orange is a spiral, purple is a flower).
Not only can you buy a bowl that is the right size for your dog, but also in a design that will provide the most mentally stimulating entertainment.
Your dog will be using their brain and fulfilling more natural behaviors when eating from one of these dishes.
These bowls have a lot of crevices in them, which can make them a little bit difficult to clean by hand. Thankfully, they are dishwasher safe.
Pros
- The x-small holds up to ¾ cups of food, the small holds up to 2 cups, and the large holds up to 4.
- Available in several different designs. Each bowl color associated with a ridge design.
- The ridge designs in this bowl will spread out the food in a thinner layer, so your dog will only eat a few pieces of kibble at a time.
Cons
- Bowls with lots of ridges like these can get a bit…slimy. Make sure you clean these bowls well and regularly.
- These bowls are shallow and spread kibble out. That means they also take up more space on the floor than other dog bowls.
Elevated Slow Feeder Bowl by Neater Pet Brands
This slow feeder bowl is a little different than the others we’ve reviewed here. Instead of a puzzle to slow down your dog, this bowl uses rounded nubs and pockets in between the nubs. This portions out small handfuls of kibble in the pockets, encouraging your dog to take small mouthfuls and relax while eating.
The bowl comes with an elevated tray for it to sit up in, but you can remove the bowl and set it on the floor. The tray also doubles as a large water bowl!
This elevated dog bowl is also available in a ‘Double Diner’ style. Though the food bowl holds a little less than half the original bowl, it elevates both your dog’s kibble and water.
Pros
- This dog bowl holds up to 6 cups of kibble, making this bowl best suited to large and giant breeds.
- The rounded nubs won’t hurt your dog’s teeth or gums, and it’s suitable even for use with dogs that have flatter snouts.
- Available in a few neutral, easy-on-the-eye colors.
- An elevated bowl is useful for older dogs or those with medical conditions that make floor-eating uncomfortable.
Cons
- Noticeably pricier than the other slow feeder bowls we’ve reviewed here.
- Not appropriate for medium and small dogs.
- The shallow pocket design might not slow down all dogs. Some require more of a challenge to slow down the inhalation of their food.
Our Choice
Out of the slow feed bowls we’ve reviewed here, we like Outward Hound’s the most. We like these bowls because they’re available in a variety of sizes and slower-eating designs. Each design has a different difficulty level, so you’ll be able to find the right one for your dog. The bowl is rather large, but the plus side of this is that your dog’s kibble gets spread out in a thin layer.
Some of the other bowls we’ve reviewed here spread out food, but if you’re feeding a larger dog, the kibble will pile up and provide your dog less of a mental workout to eat. Outward Hound’s shallow bowls ensure your small, medium, or large dog won’t be gobbling up their food and taking in a bunch of air with it.
Overall, picking the best slow feed bowl for your dog will come down to what will provide them enough of a challenge without being too frustrating. We hope you’ll like Outward Hound’s slow feed bowls as much as we do!