Elevated cat bowls?

September 10, 2022 3:24 PM

Do you use raised cat dishes? If so, how is that going for you? And which ones do you recommend?

Our cat is what you might call a youthfully senior cat. I need to set up a new eating arrangement for her and I was thinking that maybe I should get some elevated tilted bowls since they will probably come in handy as she ages.

By "elevated" I mean not fancy things that you get once you get a decently paying job but raised, like these, although a lot of them indeed require a well-paying job to afford.

The nicest ones are quite expensive and ship from the UK, and even the less nice ceramic ones aren't cheap, so I want to figure this out before I make the investment (I will need three.)I'm looking for wider, shallower bowls because her whiskers are sensitive.

Suggestions and recommendations appreciated!

posted by Frowner to Pets & Animals (21 answers total)

My cats aren't really communicative about whether or how much they enjoy theirs, BUT I notice about a 90% reduction in crunchies flung all over the place after swapping in a raised AND tilted bowl. So there's that.
posted by humbug at 3:28 PM on September 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Our cats were not fans, but out cats are weird. We got a set where the bowls and the stands separated (typical, I think). They have been fans of the wider/shallower aspect, so we just use them without the stand and it wasn't a total loss.
posted by ghost phoneme at 3:54 PM on September 10, 2022

Our hulk-cat seems to like having his bowls raised - he's a 28 lb bruiser of a cat, about a foot tall at the shoulder. But my method of providing this elevation is not very, uh, elevated.

I basically just put his food bowl on top of one of our big glass food storage containers, which lifts it around 5-6 inches off the floor. Advantages: super cheap, and if it doesn't work out for your cats, totally reversible!
posted by invincible summer at 4:02 PM on September 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

100% yes to elevated dishes. It's healthier for them as the angle of their throats are different and it also seems nicer?

We use ones similar to this.
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:43 PM on September 10, 2022

My kitties use and like these Necoichi bowls.

They are easy to clean and nice looking. It looks like they also have an extra wide bowl.
posted by hilaryjade at 4:57 PM on September 10, 2022

My kitteh puts up with these, no idea about UK-compatibility. And I use other bowls with the stands besides the two that come with it.
posted by credulous at 5:31 PM on September 10, 2022

I use the three tier cat toy as a stand and put a small shallow bowl in the space at the top. I found some perfect bowls at the thrift store and then also picked one up at the dollar store to replace the one I shattered.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:33 PM on September 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

You can test out whether it will make sense for your cat by getting a sturdy cardboard flat that's the right height. Sorta like this. Turn it upside down, cut holes in the top, and put your cat's dish in the holes.

(I would personally just continue to use it like that until the right thing turned up in a free pile or thrift shop.)
posted by aniola at 9:18 PM on September 10, 2022

we just put their plates on top of a small box
posted by Jacqueline at 11:35 PM on September 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

I put her bowls on the scratch pad she does not use. I wrapped it in seran wrap so i can wipe it off.
posted by 15L06 at 1:33 AM on September 11, 2022

Elevating the food bowl has made a difference for the cat that eats way too fast, significantly reducing post-eating pukes. To test it out, we just flipped a larger bowl (metal pet bowl from IKEA) upside down and put the other bowl (small ceramic bowl) on top of it. The lower bowl has a rubber ring around the edge of its base, which keeps it in place in its intended orientation, and helpfully keeps the smaller bowl in place on top of it. It has worked so well that we haven’t bothered with a fancier set up yet. But we also have one of those sets that’s kind of a wire frame from the pet store (wasn’t too expensive, multiple different types of bowls fit in it, including ceramic cereal bowls and the small metal IKEA pet food bowls) that the other cat uses. The other cat is more senior, so definitely looks more comfortable eating from an elevated bowl, but behavior-wise he doesn’t seem to care and/or maybe prefers a non-elevated bowl? (He’s past his eating too fast and immediately puking days.)
posted by eviemath at 5:04 AM on September 11, 2022

Yes. Our cats adjusted quickly and it has definitely cut down on the post feed puking (although one feline still needs to learn how to chew) and general scattering of dry food on the floor. We use CatGuru bowls and stands.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:28 AM on September 11, 2022

My mom pointed out years ago that cats spend their whole lives avoiding putting their heads into anything their whiskers don't fit through without touching, and then we feed them in bowls and wonder why they aren't eating. We switched to little plates on a 3" high riser and our cat Sid has seemed happier.
posted by nicwolff at 7:53 AM on September 11, 2022

I bought some for my cats, because one of them is a barfer. They use them quite willingly, but I have not noticed any particular decrease in barfing, sad to say.
posted by briank at 8:19 AM on September 11, 2022

Definitely test before splashing out on nice bowls. I bought a set and my cat acted like I'd poisoned his food by elevating it, though he does happily drink out of an elevated bowl. As always, cats are weird and contrary.
posted by TwoStride at 9:47 AM on September 11, 2022

I bought a cheap set for mine (the plastic ones with ears that come up plentifully in Amazon searches) because my old cat is an occasional scarf-and-barfer... and I still have to put wet food in the bowls I was using before (metal, low-profile so no danger of whiskers touching the edges), because she refuses to eat wet food out of the raised ones. She'll eat the dry kibble out of the raised ones, though, and so will the other, younger one... but I've caught the younger one several times eating out of them from the back, so she has to lean her head further down than she otherwise would because they're tilted away from her. CATS.
posted by sailoreagle at 11:18 AM on September 11, 2022

The ones that have a metal or wooden stand with holes to put a regular bowl in rattle a lot while the cats eat. I gave up on using them. I'll have to try one of those bowls with a built-in pedestal for my scarf-and-barfer, though.
posted by kite at 12:06 PM on September 11, 2022

As our senior cat got more senior, we literally just put a food bowl on top of a book. It made a huge difference, made it a lot easier for him to eat. As he got older, the book became books. It's definitely worth doing.
posted by pdb at 6:34 PM on September 11, 2022

We started putting Maggie's regular bowls on a shoebox recently and she seems to appreciate it. She requires stainless steel dishes and the (sadly seemingly discontinued) Jackson Galaxy Eclipse Bowl is her favorite.
posted by doift at 1:56 PM on September 12, 2022

My cat eats out of these with no complaint. I got them to help with puking -- I forget where I read it as a suggestion.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:56 PM on September 12, 2022

I do. I didn't make the switch until my cat was about 10 years old. I think he prefers it?
posted by Shadow Boxer at 9:21 PM on September 12, 2022