What Do You Put Your Cat's Food On? Extended Version

What Do You Put Your Cat's Food On? Extended Version

Go into any pet or convenience store, walk up to the pet accessory section, and you will find many different “cat bowls”.

There are the traditional plastic ones, with two deep bowls next to each other, one for food, one for water.
There are the raised, trendy-looking metal ones.
There are the cute ones, with smiling cat faces on them.
Their price ranges from about $5 for a plastic one, to about $40 for chic-looking wood and metal ones.

Now, which one do you think your cat would choose if it had the chance to walk the aisle (not that that is a good idea in any way shape or form)?

It would, given that it is a cat, most likely look at them, sniff, sit down, have a bit of a groom, then walk straight to the staff kitchen and ask for (demand?) a flat plate.

Now - why would they choose this?
Let’s look at the options for choosing a dish through a cat’s eyes. Let’s call the cat Ginger (our mascot).

NATURAL BEHAVIOUR

At WellCat we like to consider how a cat lives naturally in the wild.
A wild cat would not look for a conveniently raised rock to put their food on before they ate it.
They would not look for a bit of plastic to put their food on.
And they would not have their food in a round divot in the ground.
And they would not eat right next to their water source.

Although Ginger lives in a comfortable home, many of these instinctive behaviours are still there.

SINGLE OR DOUBLE?

Many of the cat food bowls available are double…two bowls connected to each other (one side for water and the other for food). However, cats prefer not to drink next to their food dish.1

“Cats are biologically programmed not to drink water which is near their food or near their toileting area - this is thought to be their instinctive avoidance of contaminating their water with potential sources of bacteria”2.

The International Cat Care group (ICC), a great bunch of cat lovers based in the UK, also advises avoiding double bowls as your cat will drink more if food and water are offered in separate locations3.
We have been conditioned by convenience and marketing, where it seems normal to have the two together.
So….Ginger would choose a single plate for their food, placed well away from their water. But what shape?

SHAPE OF BOWL

One of the most distinguishing features of a cat sits right in the middle of the lovely faces - their whiskers.
The whiskers of a cat are very sensitive, and they assist a cat “in making spatial and environmental assessments”4. Scientifically, “Whiskers are sophisticated and complex structures that include functional blood vessels and vibrissa afferents in the trigeminal inter-polar nucleus to distinctly process orofacial sensory information”5. 🙀WOW🙀.
When a cat eats from a bowl, the whiskers touch the sides. Many animal behaviourists, scientists, and veterinarians (including me) feel that this stimulation of the whiskers can lead to distress, and a condition called “whisker stress, of fatigue”.

It sort of makes sense.

The Science Bit

However, no one had scientifically tested this theory until 2021, when a report set out “to determine if cats fed from a commercially advertised whisker-friendly dish vs their normal food dish would spend more time at the food dish, eat more and drop less food.”5. That is, whether or not cats prefer to eat from a “whisker-friendly dish” over their normal dish.
The findings?

They found that the eating habits of the cats did not change due to the type of dish - not supporting a finding of whisker stress4. However, there were some complicating factors.

These included:
1. Some cats were so greedy that they ate all of the food no matter what it was on.
2. The cats were fasted for 12 hours before being offered food…this may have made them starving enough to eat from any type of dish - despite any whisker stress. Mine would eat food from a shoe after that period of time.
3. And, in my opinion, one of the whisker-friendly options still has a curve, is raised, and is made of metal.

In conclusion, the authors found that:

  1. Cats did not eat more food, spend more time at the dish, or drop less food at whisker-friendly dishes.

  2. But they did prefer the whisker-friendly dishes.

  3. However further research is warranted to investigate if whisker-friendly dishes are useful in cats.

So…although more cats prefer to eat from a flat, whisker-friendly dish, this has not been scientifically proven. But it still makes sense.
So….we know Ginger would choose a dish that is single and flat…but what should it be made of?

MATERIAL OF BOWL?

The options for dishes in the shops are mostly plastic, or metal.
Now…think of what you eat off at home. Plastic plates? Metal bowls? There is a reason why we do not use these for ourselves….why should we feed our cats on them?
The ICC (mentioned before) advise feeding cats from glass or ceramic dishes as “plastic bowls can pick up odours (which may be unpleasant and become tainted)5.
Plastic bowls have also been associated with chin acne. Now, chin acne is a complex condition where the sebaceous glands on the chin overreact, leading to “excessive greasiness of the overlying fur and skin.”7.
Purina, the cat food company (should know a few things about cats) stated it has been noticed in cats that use plastic bowls for food and water8, and ICC advised that the use of ceramic (or metal) rather than plastic food bowls have been reported to help in some cases7.
Metal however has its own concerns. A study from Italy in 2023 found that metal dishes had a higher chance of bacterial contamination than plastic dishes 9.

Most of the other information I could find was from the manufacturers of the metal dishes….not always the best source.

So…Ginger wants single, flat, and ceramic. But what about being raised?

ELEVATED BOWL?

Raised bowls have come to prominence lately. It was not something I remember being taught at veterinary school, so I did some searching online. I squirrelled down into Pubmed and found no studies. I searched on VIN (Veterinary Information Network - a forum for veterinarians) and found that there were no scientific peer-reviewed studies, and most of the information, even veterinary recommended articles, did not mention the veterinarians involved. (NOTE - if anyone has any studies I would be more than happy to see them - please forward them to me).
It seems to be more of a marketing ploy, as, again to think like a cat, wild cats do not seek out large rocks to eat their food on.

So, thinks Ginger: what is single, flat, ceramic, and on the ground?
A plate.

When choosing a dish for our cats we are faced with many choices.

We can stay with our familiar methods of feeding our cats - what we have always used, or we can be swayed by marketing to spend money on the new, latest, super-fancy cute way of helping our cats.

But if we go back to basics, think about our cats in the wild, and listen to Ginger, we can pare it back and go simple - we can use a plate.
NOTE 1. Buying a plate is cheaper as well….you probably already have one at home, and if not, you could get one from a charity shop for the princely sum of 20c.

NOTE 2. At WellCat we only sell one bowl….click here to see it. Buy it if you dare. https://www.wellcat.com.au/product-page/cat-bowl

 

REFERENCES

1. Cat Professional, 2024, Encouraging your cat to take in more fluids;  https://www.vetprofessionals.com/site/downloads/free/Tips for encouraging your cat to drink.pdf
2. Cats Protection, 2024, Is your cat drinking enough water?; https://www.cats.org.uk/northherts/feature-pages/is-your-cat-drinking-enough-water
3. International Cat Care, 2 December, 2019, How to encourage your cat to drink,  https://icatcare.org/advice/how-to-encourage-your-cat-to-drink/
4. Neurosci Behav Physiol 2000; 30: 611–615. Aleksandrov AA: Afferent inhibition and the functional properties of neurons in the projection zone of the whiskers in the somatosensory cortex of the cat.
5. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 2021:23(4): 389-392; Slovak JE, Foster TE; Evaluation fo whisker stress in cats.
6. International Cat Care; 24 July, 2018; Feeding Your Cat Or Kitten, https://icatcare.org/advice/feeding-your-cat-or-kitten/
7. International Cat Care, 25th July, 2018,  Acne and Stud Tail; https://icatcare.org/advice/feline-acne-and-stud-tail/#:~:text=Overactivity of the submental organ,as a yellow, greasy discolouration.
8. Purina, 2024, Cat Acne and How to Treat It; https://www.purina.co.uk/articles/cats/health/skin-fur-ears/cat-acne
9. BMC veterinary research, Raspa, Federica et al. vol. 19,1 261. 7 Dec. 2023, doi:10.1186/s12917-023-03823-w; “Pet feeding habits and the microbiological contamination of dog food bowls: effect of feed type, cleaning method and bowl material.”

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