Are you slacking on washing your dog's food and water bowels? I'm here to tell you that you NEED to keep them bowls CLEAN!
I wanted to write a bit of a blog about the reasons to keep your dogs food bowels and water bowels clean. Some assume that because it is a hard kibble going in there is no point in cleaning daily however this is not the case, especially for those of you who free feed meaning you leave food in the bowl at all times (which I refrain from doing, I can get in to why in another blog later on)
Weather you feed Raw or Kibble it is super important to keep things clean because you don't want bacteria gathering up on the bowls. Like humans, dogs have 600 different kinds of bacteria in their mouths which is not a bad thing they are mostly non-zoonotic bacteria so they are harmless, however once you add these bacteria to the environment and what's on your pets food, like our own human food dishes you wouldn't want to eat off a dirty plate!
Bacteria from food - including salmonella and E-Coli can be lurking in that bowl along with Mold! These are nasty things that we just don't want in our house.
So that leaves us the question HOW OFTEN SHOULD WE BE CLEANING THE DOG DISH? After every meal is the answer! Yes I said it.... Every meal.
A recent study done at the college of Veterinary Medicine at NC State shows that
22% of pet parents wash the dog bowls on average once a week
12% reported washing their dishes at least once daily
18% reported washing their dishes less than every 3 months or not at all!!!!!!! YIKES
I am willing to bet that most of the people who don't wash the dishes often are kibble feeders thinking that it's just kibble and bowl looks clean! Well that can't be further from the truth. It's just as likely to be contaminated with bacteria with kibble fed bowls - the biggest concern being from the oil debris from the kibble and rancidity with kibble makes the kibble bowl even dirtier! This also goes for those of you who store your kibble in plastic containers. Wash those out after every bag of food! Don't dump another bag of food onto of a little bit left in the bottom of those kibble containers because those bottom kibble will go rancid! It will contaminate your whole container. If people want more information on the proper way to store your kibble - comment below and I will make another blog. I can tell you when I was feeding kibble I did it WRONG and I regret not doing better for my dogs.
So it is also recommended to send the bowls through the dishwasher a minimum of once a week - for even more disinfecting, it will help to kill off any lingering germs. The high temperatures will kill off the bacteria.
So what about the water dish? As mentioned above the water dish also needs attention. Have you ever noticed a slimy residue on your dog's water bowl? The technical name for that slime is Bioflim, this is a combination of the bacteria from your dog's mouth and tongue that bind together and stick the side of the bowl after your dog licks it. This build-up is bacteria growing and taking over. Think about how a dog drinks they are lapping so it is inevitable that some of their saliva ends up back in the water after a drink, eventually it all ends up being backwash. Your dog needs and wants clean water.
All this being said, I don't mean to scare you - just remember you probably wouldn't wanna eat and drink off dirty dishes and nor does your dog!
Kibble Food Storage...
So my warnings don't end in Dirty Dog Dishes, I also wanted to talk about dog food storage containers. I used these big bins when I had Bear and Moto and now that I know about what I did wrong if I fed kibble again I would never store kibble this way - and that is store the dog food in plastic (or any kind of bin) here's why.
Once your bag of dog food has been opened the food starts to oxidize; What is oxidization? Oxidation in kibble is a chemical reaction that occurs when the fats and oils in the food come into contact with oxygen. This process can happen at almost every step of kibble manufacturing, and can begin as soon as the bag is opened. Oxidation can cause kibble to:
Become toxic: The fats and oils in kibble break down and degrade, which can make the food toxic.
Smell foul: Rancid fats can create off-flavors and aromas.
Lose nutritional value: Oxidation can reduce the nutritional value of vitamins and other important nutrients.
WOW who knew hey? I sure the heck didn't know... what is even worse is I used these plastic containers and a lot of the time when I got a little low I would dump a "new" bag in there, meanwhile the kibble at the bottom of that container was going more and more rancid. I never realized this until I was listening to a Podcast a few years ago by Dr. Karen Becker and Rodney Habib. I felt so horribly guilty and terrible that I had been feeding my boys this way for years! It's no wonder they both ended up so sick in the end.
I also was very guilty of not washing out that plastic container. So what is the answer? What you should be doing, is storing your dog's food bag in the freezer when you bring them home - then scoop out the food from the freezer as you go... why? (Don't freeze it then take the bag out and leave it out) Because if you were to store your bag of food in the freezer and then take it out and thaw it- the frost molecules that are now in the bag speed up the oxidation even faster!!! Oh boy - it 's said that you should be buying and using the kibble within 2 weeks of breaking open that bag- so don't buy BIG bags of food or multiple bags and store them in the pantry. What also happens, is the bag potentially could have pin holes in it from the manufacturer or store as they move the bags about - some of the time they purposely poke a pin hole in the bag to let the air out of the bag so it stacks better on the pallets. So you could be buying a bag that is going rancid right from the store!
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