How often do you clean your dog's bowls?

[megapixie]

My Mum says I do it too much. She doesn't clean them very often at all, maybe 4 times a year. I wash them every day. I don't really see why she thinks it's so often for so much effort. I just dump them in the washing up bowl in hot soapy water for 5 mins in the evening then give them a rise after to get all the soap off, leave to try and done.

I know I wouldn't like to eat off the same plate that hadn't been washed!

Is it harder to clean metal bowls then? All ours are plastic.

[SilveryMoon]

How strange. When we had a dog I always cleaned her bowls daily too.
We now have a cat and his bowls get washed out every morning.
I find it very odd not to do it daily.

[emptyshell]

On a highly scientific rotation based on what space I've got left in the dishwasher when I'm bunging on a load.

[Spamspamspam]

I wash her water bowls every day as standing water seems to make any bowl slimy on the bottom, I refresh often during the day and make sure she has clean water as she seems to manage to fill it with food debris, dirt and all sorts! Food bowl tends to be every other day as she is on dried kibble and it doesn't get dirty.

[clam]

Metal bowls here. I rinse his water bowl out every time I refill it. His food bowl gets washed properly every few days, I guess, when it looks a bit smeary. Dried food doesn't create a great mess.

[DogsBestFriend]

Both metal and plastic bowls here, which I put in the dishwasher after each use just as I would my own dishes.

[Pisky]

See, I just don't fancy dog bowls in the dishwasher - at least not without washing by hand first - after which they'd hardly need dishwashing.

[Ephiny]

They go in the dishwasher about once a week (that doesn't sound very often compared to the rest of you ). Though he just has water and dried kibble in them, which doesn't make a lot of mess. We use metal bowls, if that's relevant.

Maybe I should be doing them more often then? I don't have particularly high standards for humans either though, and reuse my water glass/flask, sandwich box, tea mug at work etc without washing...

[DogsBestFriend]

:o I know, lots of people would say the same, Pisky, but they'd happily put in a plate which a small child had licked. [boak]

[spout]

good GOD I read the thread title as "bowels"

[Ephiny]

I don't worry about dog stuff in the dishwasher, you're probably more likely to catch germs from another human, what with being the same species and everything, than from a dog. And I think the dishwasher gets hot enough to kill anything nasty anyway.

Would seem a bit hypocritical to object to the bowls, when I let him lick my face anyway!

[Pisky]

See - I was always told to keep my face well away from dogs and am telling the kids the same.

I did grow up with stinky farm dogs who loved rolling in badger muck.... but even as cute as pup is I don't fancy her lucking my face or me kissing her, especially after I've watched her lick her bottom clean.

OK my kids (DS especially) are gross sometimes (DS often) too but still....

[emptyshell]

If it's not going to explode in there - it goes in the dishwasher. I love the thing, I love my MIL for giving us the thing - last year was shit in terms of bereavments and deaths and grief... I could survive most of it, but when the dishwasher went on the blink I was contemplating bereavement counselling for it and threatened divorce if hubby didn't make it work again! (he did)

I just don't wash them every day because I don't put the dishwasher on every day - rinse out water bowls and the food bowls are kibble anyway.

[superjobee]

mum used to do the dogs dishes (metal) every week but water was emptied and refilled rather than just refilled and she washed them every day if it was wet food she was giving him

[clam]

LOL @ bowels

[MotivatedSperm]

Ours gets washed maybe once a fortnight. He'll eat manky bits of takeaway that have been in alleys for a few days without any problems so a dirty bowl aint gonna hurt him!

[clam]

Mind you, I sometimes wonder why I bother washing his bowls and running him clean fresh chilled tap water when I then see him drinking out of a muddy puddle.

[clam]

x post, sorry. Must refresh more often.

[DogsBestFriend]

"If it's not going to explode in there - it goes in the dishwasher."

:o

That sounds familiar! Dog bowls, specs, dishdrainer, DDs hairbrushes you name it, in it goes!

[midori1999]

When they look like they need doing. Like everything else in the house. Except the oven, which gets done considerably less often than when it looks like it needs doing.

[Cies]

Gosh, I'm a real slattern on this issue, but I don't see the point in cleaning it all out if as another poster said, my dog then goes and eats and drinks whatever she finds around the place.

The water bowl gets rinsed out every day when I fill it up, but I think I have only cleaned her food bowl about twice in two years.

[emptyshell]

I know several people (teachers) who put lego in the dishwasher and washing machine... obviously tied up in a pillow case or something - not stacking individual bricks cos that would be silly (and my husband would still fail to stack THOSE properly).

[Scuttlebutter]

Scrubbed at least daily and often twice, especially in this hot weather (looking out at grey skies, bent trees and diagonally lashing rain!) for food bowls. Waterbowl is emptied and refilled several times a day (messy eaters) but actually scrubbed every three or four days. Metal bowls. However, we are raw (and messy!) feeders and I prefer my kitchen not to have that distinctive "crime scene" look and aroma. "Oh - directional spatter" - can you tell I watch CSI? (places hands on hips, and gazes soulfullly into middle distance while twirling the sunglasses of justice)

And reason No. 587 for liking Ikea. I use their bendy thin plastic place mats under the waterbowl and feed bowls - very easy to keep clean and scrub and when worn/battered just replace as they are cheap as chips. Having said that the current lot are apparently indesctructible.

[emptyshell]

LOL at CSI. My step-father actually found a dead body the other year (they live on a riverbank track and someone had jumped from the road bridge above) and of course the police were called, blocked the track along to their house for investigations... mother showed up and was stuck unable to get home till 2am sat on the pub's outdoor picnic tables - and proceeded to tell them all how to do it based on her CSI watching.

As for Ikea - their floor protectors for stopping office chairs wreck yer carpet work wonders cut down to size and screwed onto doors to stop door scratching if you can't find easy bits of perspex to do the job.

[Lizcat]

Into the dishwasher every other day.

[wildfig]

Metal water bowl washed every day - the slobber, the slobber - and metal food bowls every other day, as it's just kibble. All go in the dishwasher every couple of days or so when there's room.

Kongs into the dishwasher every use, although they tend to get licked so clean I can barely tell they've been filled...