The time started with the dog’s first bite and stopped once the last piece of kibble entered the dog’s mouth. Make sure the size of the dish is appropriate for your dog’s size and will adequately hold the amount of food in their meals,” Denise Lott, veterinarian assistant at Hello Ralphie, a pet telehealth company, told The Spruce Pets. Other stainless steel bowls either made the gap too wide, allowing dogs easy access to the food, or too tight, preventing them from eating altogether. The Animal Planet Maze Feeder is somewhat of a hidden gem. No consumer or storekeeper we interviewed was aware of the product. The shape and spacing of the ridges in a slow feeder bowl will impact how hard it is to use. If your dog gets frustrated easily, you might want to choose a dish with fewer obstacles. If your dog likes puzzles and challenges, then opt for a bowl with deeper grooves and more complex patterns.

First, ceramic slow feeders are much more expensive than their plastic or metal counterparts. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am happy to pay more for a product that performs. But the ceramic slow-feed dog bowls I tested did anything but. Every ceramic bowl was flawed. Again, a slow feeder is the simple solution to air gulping. Does your dog steal from other dogs at mealtime?

Based on the name, JW Skid Stop Slow-Feed Bowl, you would assume this slow feeder doesn’t skid, right? Well, let me assure you that this is one of the slipperiest slow feeders we tested, sliding over tiles, wood and concrete with minimal effort from our dogs.

The non-skid silicone base did exactly what it claimed, preventing our dogs from pushing their bowl across the floor. You will have to add the anti-moving strips yourself to the bottom of the bowl, but it only takes a moment.

SHOP BY PET

Because of this, we broke down the performance of slow feeders into different categories, awarding a winner in each.

It turned out that a slow-feed bowl was as much puzzle as she could handle – it honestly added 30 minutes to her feeding time. Me – lover of dogs and coffee! Dropper of the 40-pound bag of food. Unprofessional photographer and enthusiastic reviewer. Two different sizes of kibble were used during testing – one for small dogs and the other for medium to large.This bowl is much lighter than some of the others our dogs reviewed and has raised grooves of different heights that create small compartments for the dog food. Alex did take much longer than normal to eat but by the end he became frustrated and tipped the bowl over using his paw. A massive positive that us humans noticed is that this bowl is eco-friendly and made from 100% non toxic materials. Details The best-performing ceramic slow feeder, the Magisso Happy Pet Project Ceramic Bowl, was unsuited for wider snouts and flat faces. The sizing also ran small making this bowl unsuitable for larger dogs.

We heard on more than one occasion that some dogs refused to play the slow-feeder game. When presented with a slow-feed bowl filled with food, the fussy canine simply chose to flip the bowl instead. However, right now, I see no good reason to choose a ceramic slow feeder over our other recommendations.My only concern is that Mr. Peanut’s only offers two sizes – medium and large. While the medium size still slowed down small dogs, I cannot help but feel that a smaller size would work better.