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The Basics About Feeders and Bowls for Your Small Pet

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Food Dishes
It's acceptable to place the food in a clean corner of the cage. However, using a food dish is more sanitary and makes it easier to monitor food consumption. Bowls should be ceramic, earthenware or durable plastic.
Scratched dishes can harbor bacteria and should be thrown away. All dishes should be washed with hot soapy water. A second dish is always handy to use while the other one is being cleaned. A separate bowl for vegetables, or vegetable clips, is also a good idea.

Vegetable Clips
These help keep fresh vegetables off the floor of the cage. Using vegetable clips is sanitary, and helps keep the cage bedding clean.

Water Devices
You have two choices when it comes to the type of device you'd like to use when providing water to your small animal -- open water bowls and water bottles with stems.

Most small animals do fine with an open water dish. However, litter tends to get kicked into open water dishes. As with food dishes, water bowls should be ceramic or earthenware, since plastic bowls tend to be nibbled on, and small fragments of plastic could be swallowed. Replace scratched water dishes that can harbor bacteria. All water dishes should be washed with hot soapy water. A second water dish is always handy to use while the other one is being cleaned.

If you are buying or own a hamster, a water bottle is recommended over a water dish since hamsters will quickly turn over a water bowl. Because most small animals need to chew often, it's best to get a water bottle with a stainless steel stem, or a heavy water bowl. One made of ceramic, works best.

A Note About Chewing
Most small animals love to chew, so keep that in mind when you purchase food and water devices. Since chewing is a natural way for your small animal to wear down her teeth, she may be chewing the water bottle or food dish because there is no other avenue for her to meet her chewing needs. Provide your pet with different chew blocks and toys that allow her to keep her ever-growing teeth filed down.

[Information compiled by PETsMART.com staff]