Does your dog gobble up its food as fast as it can? This can have many causes, but it is clear that gorging on is not healthy. Your dog has no sense of when he is full. He also swallows a lot of air, which can lead to stomach pains.
In order to slow down the feed intake, the so-called anti-sling bowl was invented. Your darling has to look for its food through small or larger barriers and thus needs significantly longer to eat the same amount of food.
In this article I will introduce you to the top 3 anti-sling bowls and show you what you should look out for when buying such a product.
My anti-sling bowl favorites
Top 3 anti-sling bowls in the test
Outward Hound Fun Feeder Slow Bowl
This anti-sling bowl has a spiral structure on the inside. This shape ensures that your dog first has to slowly get its food out of the individual aisles of the spiral. Since the aisles are relatively narrow, your dog cannot only pick up the individual pieces of food with its mouth, but has to be creative. For example, many four-legged friends use their paws to get their food.
The search for food slows down the food intake and at the same time challenges your dog mentally. Most dogs really enjoy having to “fight” for their food.
Outward Hound’s anti-sling bowl is equipped with non-slip rubber on the underside, which prevents your darling from pushing the bowl all over the apartment. The durable, high-quality ABS plastic material does not contain any harmful plasticizers and is dishwasher-safe.
With a diameter of 22cm and a height of 5cm, the bowl is also about the same size as a normal feeding bowl and therefore does not take up any more space.
SuperDesign dog bowl anti-sling
The Super Design anti-sling bowl is a round bowl with three bumps in the middle. These elevations ensure that the dog cannot gulp down the food all at once, but has to pick out the individual pieces of food in between.
Unlike the spiral design of other products, the bumps ensure that the gaps are not as small and the dogs have better access. So even four-legged friends with flat noses have the chance to get their food.
The Super Design bowl is made of melamine, a food-safe material that is impact and scratch resistant. The material is hardly destructible and therefore extremely durable.
The upper side resembles a porcelain layer and is therefore particularly hygienic. For thorough cleaning, the bowl can easily be washed in the dishwasher.
The bowl is 14 cm wide (inside 10.2 cm) and has a height of 5 cm. The bowl holds up to 140ml of food.
A rubber ring is incorporated on the underside so that your dog does not push the bowl all over the house when trying to eat its food as quickly as possible and keeps increasing its feeding space. This is non-slip and ensures a firm footing.
Company of Animals Mini Anti-Snag Dog Bowl
The third bowl in our test from the company Company of Animals proves that anti-sling bowls can be designed very differently. This «Green Slow Feeder» is a kind of straight plate with many larger and smaller elevations. Due to the large number of surveys, it takes significantly longer for your dog to eat the usual amount of food.
With a size of 40*30cm, the bowl is relatively large compared to competing products. The feed can then be better distributed. If these dimensions are too big for you, you can also use the mini version. This is still relatively large at 29*23cm.
Cleaning is easy. The bowl can be washed by hand or in the dishwasher without any problems and will look like new afterwards.
The problem is that there is no edge and the food can fall out sideways. Therefore the bowl is only suitable for dry food. The product is also suitable as an anti-sling bowl insert.
In addition, the bowl has four rubberized points on the underside to prevent it from moving, but these points are not sufficient. The pushing in combination with the lack of a rim of the bowl means that the food is spread out everywhere.
Useful Knowledge: Why Do Dogs Sling?
There are many reasons why a dog gnaws.
1. Competitive Behavior
Dogs are often afraid that something will be eaten away from them. (also called food envy) This behavior is particularly evident when conspecifics are present. Each feeding degenerates into a kind of competition. Whoever finishes the fastest can try to snag some of the food from the other.
Some dogs are also afraid that their master could take their food away from them and prefer to swallow everything as quickly as possible to prevent it.
Such competitive behavior often developed in early childhood. Puppies in particular from a large litter quickly learn that they should be the first to eat as much food as possible so that they get something at all. But sometimes it also happens that dogs later have bad experiences, for example because another dog eats their food or because the owner puts the food away or takes the dog away from the food because an important appointment is coming up.
It is true that such trigger situations should be avoided as far as possible and the dog should always be allowed to enjoy its food in peace, but sometimes there is no other way. In some cases, competitive behavior arises all by itself. That’s not a bad thing in principle, you just have to have the right solution for it.
2. Irregular feeding times
If your dog is fed infrequently, once food is available, a natural instinct will kick in. In order to survive, your dog must always make sure he is getting enough food. If he doesn’t know when he will next get something to eat, he will eat as much food as possible when the opportunity arises in order to survive any shortage of food.
Gulping down the food can also happen if you get up later at the weekend or come home later in the evening. Then your dog will be really hungry and will make provisions in case he has to wait longer than usual for your food.
3. Physical problems
Physical problems with digestion or an infestation with parasites can also make your dog feel like he has to eat as much food as possible.
Digestive disorders, like parasitic diseases, mean that the nutrients from the feed cannot be properly absorbed. As a result, your dog is constantly hungry and will rush to every meal that is offered.
When diseases are the cause of the gorging, affected dogs are usually underweight and exhibit pain behaviors. In this case, you should definitely go to the vet and have your darling examined.
Why do you need an anti-sling bowl anyway?
Dogs that really enjoy their food and eat slowly are a rarity, most dog owners probably know the opposite: the four-legged friend swallows his food as quickly as possible as if it were a matter of life and death.
I don’t know about you, but I always think that this looping can’t be very healthy. And that’s true. Studies have shown that animals swallow a lot of air in the slings. Since this air has to go somewhere, as a dog owner you can expect gas and smelly farts
In addition, the four-legged friends cannot chew properly at the high speed at which they eat. The feeling of satiety only occurs when the dog is finished and possibly completely overeat. This can lead to severe abdominal pain. Sometimes the animals throw up after eating.
In addition, affected dogs quickly become overweight because they eat far too much due to the lack of a feeling of satiety. This increases the risk of heart and respiratory diseases. Gastric torsion can also be triggered by eating too quickly. Around 20,000 dogs die every year from a torsion in the stomach.
To protect the animals from themselves and to slow down feeding times, anti-sling bowls come in very handy. These do not have a smooth interior like normal feeding bowls, but are equipped with numerous barriers. The appearance of the various products can vary greatly, from spirals to obstacles of different heights to hidden caves, everything is included.
But the principle remains the same: the dog should strive for its food and make an effort, which slows down the feeding times.
Because of the barriers, your dog has to keep looking for the next food. Consuming the same amount of food takes much longer and your dog needs mental effort as well. Especially when the four-legged friends eat from an anti-swallow bowl for the first time, they will probably be exhausted and tired afterwards.
In my experience, most dogs have a lot of fun with anti-sling bowls. They make a little game of foraging and getting their food out of the container. This keeps the four-legged friends busy.
What to look out for when buying an anti-sling bowl
material
Anti-sling bowls come in all different shapes and colors. The individual products also differ greatly in terms of the material.
The most typical materials are:
1. Stainless steel
Anti-sling bowls made of stainless steel are the classic variant. With a bump or hole in the middle, the dogs are forced to eat slowly. Stainless steel has many advantages. The material is extremely stable, scratch and break resistant and easy to clean.
Stainless steel contains no harmful substances, is dishwasher safe and durable. A rubber trim on the underside prevents the bowl from slipping.
Most stainless steel bowls are very large. Small dogs can often eat almost undisturbed due to the relatively large distances, which is why the bowl has its decelerating…