My cats play tiddly-winks...

[bluegargantua]

...with their food bowls.

Actually, it's usually just one food bowl and I suspect that it's just Thorn who gets carried away playing with her kibble and flipping the dish.

So my thought is to find a sold, heavy food dish (ceramic or metal) with a rubber foot to prevent skidding. Then I'll remove the mat the dishes have been sitting on (because the cats tend to ruck it up and pee on it). This won't stop kibble from slopping out onto the floor, but it should reduce the vacuuming kibble time significantly.

The local PetCo had lots of light/flippable cat bowls. There were ceramic bowls for dogs, but I worried the cats would use them as hockey-pucks even if they couldn't flip it. All the metalic bowls (dog or cat) seemed way too light.

I'm going to give the local PetSmart a try next time I buy groceries, but does anyone have other suggestions?

I also need to pick up a toilet paper storage container to...store my toilet paper (or, as the cats like to call it: Mr. Man's FunTime Confetti).

later
Tom

Comments

[spiritseeker.livejournal.com]

When Dargo was doing this, we couldn't find anything heavy enough. We considered bolting his food and water bowls to a large rectangle of plywood and backing it with rubber. Thankfully he grew out of it before we got fed and broke out the power tools.

It would be unfortunate however if you did this and then had the cats pee on the plywood.

[bluegargantua]

Yeah, but our cats, despite their nimble paws and claws just aren't as heavy as Dargo so I think there's a solution out there.

later
Tom

[pfloyd.livejournal.com]

Here's what I did...

Three bowls -- one dry, one water, one wet.
A long plastic drip tray from a planter (plastic works well).
Velcro tape.

Fix the fuzzy side of the velcro tape to the underside of the bowls, and the stiffer side to the tray.
Affix bowls to the tray.

Works nicely. I was planning on fixing the underside of the tray with rubber drawer liner, but the crazy glue didn't hold.
Anyway, the bowls don't spill. However, our kitty likes to splash the water out and pretend to bury it in the floor. I was using one of the smaller Sham-Wows to absorb that, but he pulls it out from under the tray.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

we have a metal cat-bowl that we don't use any more... I mean, I think I can find it, and if so it's yours. It's light, but its of the design that the base is sufficiently wider than the opening, so it would be hard to flip & it has a little rubber ring.

Anyway, let me take a look for it, and then its yours to try and if it doesn't work, pass on.

[rapha.livejournal.com]

I bought a cat sized ceramic food and water (2 bowl) combo from my petsmart that a good sized dog couldn't flip over. Hope that helps

[princess-muffin.livejournal.com]

My cats showed the same annoying habit. I sometimes use an automatic feeder but the little cherubs figured out early on that if they play soccer with the feeder across the kitchen floor, the top will pop open. This solution works like a charm:

1) Find one average sized red masonry brick for each bowl you want to make knock-over-proof. Also find one strip of industrial strength velcro per bowl, at least 2" wide and as long as will fit both the brick and the bottom of the bowl. These supplies can be found rather inexpensively at any Home Depot type store.

2) Apply the velcro to the brick and the bottom of the food bowl. The best way is stick the velcro together, then peel off the back of the fabric strip and stick it to the brick, peel off the other back of the plastic hook strip and line up the bowl, then stick the bowl down. Leave them to let the adhesives set for a while before trying to separate the two surfaces; eventually you'll be able to rip the two velcro strips apart (though it takes some effort) without dislodging the adhesives. Make sure the plastic hook strip is on the bowl and the fabric strip is on the brick so you can still wash/dry the bowls easily.

3) Delight in your ultimate superiority as the cat fails to knock over the bowl... ever again.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

just get a couple of heavy ceramic bowls - it they're heavy enough the cats won't be able to knock them over then they're be heavy enough that they won't knock them around a whole lot.

maybe get some kind of rubber (rubberized) mat - something with sides, you know? because the cloth one is no good. but something non-skid enough to keep the bowls from sliding around a lot might be good. and it's nice not to have a whole lot of catfood all over the bathroom floor. or, it would be nice.

[bluegargantua]

Like a tray or something. I'll look around.

later
Tom

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

yeah. one with LRF tech on the bottom at least, because then it won't slide around.

[ssvanguard.livejournal.com]

Man, I miss having cats.

[bluegargantua]

You want a pair? I'll warn you, they're a bit pissy. ;)

later
Tom