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Bowls

The Best Bowls for Boxer Dogs

Overview

Buying a bowl for your Boxer may seem like one of the easier purchases to make; after all, how much thought needs to go into something as simple as a bowl? The answer may surprise you. 

The Importance of Having the Right Bowl for Your Boxer

With the Boxer breed, there are several elements
to consider when choosing food and water dishes
for your puppy or dog:

Material: This is vital. Even with those marked as BPA free, plastic bowls are never recommended. They scratch super easy which allows bacteria to form quickly and they are much too lightweight for a Boxer. 

Importantly, one major issue with plastic bowls are what they can do in regard to nose discoloration. There are so many dogs out there that have light (white or pink) spots on their nose; the owner thinks that it's a natural coloring that the dog grew into... but, no, it is due to a chemical reaction from eating out and/or drinking from plastic dishes.

So, to avoid those issues, it is highly recommended to opt for high quality stainless steel. These do not scratch easier, are easy to clean, resist bacteria build-up and are sturdy and heavy which prevents them from slipping so much. 

Size: It's easy to buy a bowl that is much too large for a Boxer pup, thinking that 1) he's going to eat enough to fill it and 2) that even if it is a bit big, that he'll quickly grow into it.

However, when a dish is just too large, this can make it uncomfortable for a pup to reach his food and this, in turn, can lead to either frustration and/or under eating. 

For for young pups under 4 months a small works best. For most Boxers 4 to 18 months, a medium and for Boxers 18+ months, a large. 

Height: Boxers should have floor level bowls. While raised bowls can look kind of cool and it may seem like a good idea to offer the dish up high where it might be easier to eat, don't choose this option. A raised dog food bowl raises the risk of killer bloat by 100%.

Design: While it may seem amusing to see a dog wolf down his food with record speed, both drinking and eating fast greatly increases the risk of bloat by 15%.  So, you'll want your Boxer to have no choice but to swallow both his food and water at a reasonably slow pace.

Luckily, there are two great methods to easily make sure of this. You can opt for a slow-feeder bowl for your Boxer. These are designed to promote slow eating by using a safe projection that displaces the food. 

The other option is to place a stainless steel portion pacer ball into your Boxer's existing dish. These are great as well, since they can be found in two sizes. As your Boxer starts to eat, he will nose the ball, thus always displacing the food with each bite that he takes. And since these are SS, they are super easy to clean and are heavy enough that they stay in the bowl. 

To Recap: The best bowls for a Boxer puppy or dog is a quality stainless steel, appropriately sized, floor level, slow-feeder or bowl + portion pacer. 

Extra Tips

1) Try to get into a habit of routinely cleaning out your Boxer's bowls. The scent of old, stale food can turn a dog off from eating. With water bowls, the mix of saliva and bits of food can quickly cause a film to grow on the surface, which can cause a dog to resist drinking enough. Washing them once per day with hot water and dish soap is best. 

2) Secure the bowls in place. Though most quality bowls come equipped with a non-skid surface, very strong, enthusiastic eaters may still nudge them. In this case, you can place a grip pad underneath them. 

These are also great for containing spills to keep your kitchen floor from becoming a mess. 

3) If you have a Boxer puppy, as he grows be sure to reassess if he needs to move up one size for his dishes. 

4) Never run unfiltered tap water into the water dish.The known toxins and carcinogenic chemicals found in tap water across the country is quite staggering. If we factored in the unknown, untested compounds, it'd practically be enough for us to all start digging our own water wells. 

Cancer is the leading cause of death for the Boxer breed, so making sure that you only offer filtered water should be high on your priority list. Luckily, you don't need to break out the shovel and head out into your yard, because you can either install a filter on your kitchen tap or use a quality pitcher that filters the water as you pour it into your Boxer's bowl. 
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