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.

Water bowl - swilled round when it's refilled, properly scrubbed once a week or so. Ceramic.

Food bowls - when they look as if they need it, which isn't very often since they have dry food. In fact even when they have something wet (leftovers or whatever) added they lick the bowls so clean (often going back later on to lick the already clean bowl again just in case they missed a particle of something or other) that they really don't need doing that often.

everyday

wow, i really had no idea people washed dog bowls so often... My dogs' food bowls might get washed once or twice a year.. They do a pretty good job of licking them clean anyway, and they get fed outside so the rain kinda washes them occasionally, right? When they get bones and raw food it just gets put directly down on the concrete. Waterbowl in the house gets rinsed out everytime it's filled though, but they prefer the manky water that accumulates in a bucket outside, mmmmm lully dirty water...

redfoxy my dogs' absolute FAVOURITE water is that which collects on the seats of our plastic garden chairs when it rains. Many's the time they've been out there slurping away ecstatically and I've worriedly gone indoors to check their water bowl, assuming it's empty but nope; full. They just prefer manky water

Also muddy puddle water, when there's a perfectly accessible, sparkly clean stream yards away

Water bowls get washed every time I fill them up - well rinsed out - which is often. Washed properly every other day.

Dry kibble in metal bowls here so chucked in dishwasher when I have room. If they get scraps then the bowls go in the dishwasher after they have finished eating.

Every day if there is space in the dishwasher when I set a load off. Occasionally no space so don't get done as long as he has just eaten dry food that day.

When he eats raw meat or leftovers they go in the dishwasher with the next load.

I'm wondering how many of the people with sparkling clean dog bowls have dog hair in the oven, the fridge, their dinner?

Midori we are always ALWAYS finding dog and cat hair in our food. And everywhere else. And there must be much more that we don't even notice. But I don't think that it's anything to do with putting their bowls in the dishwasher if that's what you meant more to do with the fact I am a very very lazy houseworker

I even found some in the baby bottle steriliser. Decided not to tell my MIL about that one

must get my eyes checked...(or my literacy tested) I stared at the thread title and read, with my mouth wide open, "bowels".

Goodness no, I wasn't implying it was anything to do with putting the bowls in the dishwasher, more being amused at the irony of dogs with sparkling bowls and owners with dog hair in their dinner. (our dog bowls aren't sparkling btw, but there's still dog hair everywhere, no matter how well we think we've cleaned it up!)

This is the beauty of raw feeding.

I open back door.

Remove lamb heart from packet.

Toss out of door onto decking.

Ecstatic dog follows, heart disappears and deck is licked clean by the time I have washed my hands.

Husband hose deck when he waters garden.

No washing up for me!

midori you have golden retrievers don't you? I think us goldie owners are destined to find their hair follows us everywhere we go. I found both cat and dog hair stuck in my keyboard at work. I don't take my pets to work. Also found a cat hair in a mug at work (washed).

Just realised my colleagues must hate me

I keep misreading the threasd title...not pleasant :o

When we first got the cat I read somewhere that washing up liquid was bad for them and bowls should be rinsed in plain water only. However, I can't quite get them clean enough like this so I tend to rinse out all the pet bowls every day and wash them up properly once or twice a week, which seems to me like a good compromise.

I wash them every time she has something 'messy' like raw food or yogurt just because I don't want any yucky bacteria building up but if food's just dry I can leave it a few days!
Water bowl just needs a good rinse usually, unless she's dropped food in there....

Midori, I AM that person. Dog hair is a condiment, as far as we are concerned. It's just that I do a clean up in the kitchen most days including a little bit of washing up - things that don't go in the dishwasher. So if I have a sink full of bubbles, then bowls go in at the end. Along with the delightful task of cleaning around the bowls - ours are messy feeders. Kitchen then doesn't have that crime scene look and aroma. I'm not obssessive (twitch), well not much....

Also legacy of ferociously clean Welsh mam who was terribly judgy about anyone who was "a stranger to bleach".

hehehehe "Dog hair is a condiment"

here it's also a decorative element gracing the rugs and furniture and bottoms of curtains....

Dog hair can also be the main attraction. The big clump that ends up in the middle of the room that the hoover chases, rather than, erm, hoovers!

And mysteriously, just after you have finished hoovering, a ginormous furball will mysteriously roll out from behind the sofa and sit there glaring at you.

After each meal - just like us! Water bowl every morning.