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

[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.