I rinse mine out after every feeding but never with soap. I haven't had any problems.

Actually, I run mine through a double cycle – each dog cleans his own, and then they switch and clean each other’s. Keeps all of us happy.

Heehee.

Same as Jan here. The dogs do a very nice job of washing up eachother's food bowls.

I can't remember the last time I washed/soaped their food dishes and all 3 of my dogs are in beautiful health (including puppy and senior). Some people take microbe-phobia a liiiittle too far
I am definitely with Angelique on this one: regular exposure to bacteria from our environment from the time we're born keeps our immune system functioning properly. Disinfecting and sterilizing everything all the time is the best way to end up raising sickly, allergy-prone children/puppies that can't properly fight off potential pathogens.

The only time I will wash the food dishes is if there's meat juice that's left in it and it starts smelling nasty. But if the bowls are licked clean they don't smell at all. Dog saliva must have some helpful properties... who knows?


I do wash the water dishes out every couple of days with hot water & soap though. I don't worry about the dogs chewing on smelly week-old bones in the yard, but I do make sure that they always have CLEAN water to drink. They are not allowed to drink from local (polluted) lakes/rivers, puddles or those nasty stagnant bodies of water that are always around in the forest. That's where they pick up diseases, not from the raw food...

THAT's IT......I am training my dogs to do double wash duty....

Wonder how they are going to pass the bowls through the chain link though?????

I only rinse with water if it starts to look a little slimey...if my mother gets to the bowl before I do then it gets the full treatment...(she is a germaphobe)

I think my dogs like the bowls a little slimey though...

I have a lot of cheap stainless steel bowls...I just wash them after use with a little soap and hot water. They get run through the dishwasher when there happens to be room in it

I pesonally use a stainless steel bowl, and I'll wash it in warm water/soap before feeding time. Each week, he's given two or three eggs, and those are the only days I actually use the bowl. If no eggs are fed on that particular day, I'll simply leave his chicken on our backyard's lawn area.

My dog doesn't like to eat his chicken in the bowl. Instead, he'll take it out of the bowl, lay down and munch away. Makes life just that easier, hehe.

In actuality most dogs take it out of their bowls and eat their RMBs next to or transport it in another spot.I remember using paper plates so that when done,I could simply throw them away, but then I figured their was enough pollution waste in this world, but the funny thing was is that they eat the paper plates too...
So I am back to stainless steel...a wash now and then..

I use stainless steel bowls and clean them after every feeding (twice a day). I keep a spray bottle full of alcohol and spray the bowls and rinse them real good sometimes or I will let them soak in my mop sink in soapy water. I also use bleach to sterilize things but everything has to be rinsed thoroughly. My dogs also take their rmb's out of the bowl to eat them. Only been feeding raw for a couple of weeks and it is going well.

Thanks, Yuko. I was hoping someone else would admit to rarely cleaning them before I had to! I'll clean out anything that gets left in the bowl (rare), and throw the bowl in the dishwasher every week or two, but that's about it. I let the Florida sun fry any germs silly enough to stick around.

And I'm also with you on the water dishes - those do get cleaned regularly.