Dinner Used to Last 30 Seconds

Biscuit has never met a meal he wanted to sit with. He is a 7-year-old mixed breed rescue, mostly beagle, about 30 pounds, and he came to us from a county shelter six years ago with a food obsession that has not faded. Last summer I put his bowl down at 5:40 and it was empty before I got the kibble bag zipped. Thirty seconds, maybe less. Then he looked up at me like I had shorted him.

That was the part that worried me. He would eat that fast and then sometimes bring it right back up on the kitchen floor. Not every night, but often enough that I kept a rag by the sink. I tried a smaller bowl. I tried spreading the kibble on a cookie sheet, which worked for about two days and then he figured out he could just put his whole face in it. I tried dropping a tennis ball in his regular bowl. He flipped the bowl over.

A neighbor mentioned the Outward Hound Fun Feeder Slo Bowl. I had seen the maze-looking bowls in the store and assumed they were a gimmick. But I was tired of the rag by the sink. I bought the medium, the one the listing calls the SLOW level for small to medium dogs, and I put it down for his next meal. That was about six months ago. He is still using it twice a day.

The first meal took him about seven minutes. I timed it because I did not believe it. He pushed kibble around the maze with his tongue, backed up, tried again, and actually had to stop and think. By the end he was still licking the bowl. He was not frustrated. He was busy.

The bowl holds 2 cups, which is more than his meal, so there is room for the kibble to spread out. It is plastic and it goes in the dishwasher now and then when I have not hand-washed it. Most days I rinse it and wipe it with a soapy cloth because it is easier than loading one bowl.

The first week, dinner went from under a minute to about seven. He still cleans the bowl. He just has to work for it.

Here is what I did not expect: the slowing down fixed the bringing it back up. I am not a vet and I am not going to tell you this will cure anything. I can tell you that in our house, a dog who used to swallow his food whole now takes several minutes, and the rag by the sink is not in constant use. That is the whole review. It worked for the thing I bought it for.

What annoys me is the cleaning. The maze has tight spots, and kibble dust collects in them. If I leave it a day, it gets a little tacky. I hand-wash it most mornings because it takes ten seconds, and every few days it goes in the dishwasher. The other thing is that Biscuit figured out the easy route in about a week. He now starts at one edge and works clockwise. He is not solving a puzzle anymore. He is just eating slower.

I also would not use this for a dog much bigger than Biscuit. The listing puts this size at small to medium, and the 2-cup capacity fits his meal with room to spare. A 70-pound dog would need a bigger bowl or a different level. And if your dog is a gulper who gets aggressive around food, a maze bowl does not fix that. It just makes the meal last longer. You still have to manage the room.

Juniper, our cat, has no opinion. She eats in the laundry room where Biscuit cannot get to her, and she would not tolerate a maze bowl anyway. I am mentioning her so you know this is a dog bowl in a house with a cat, not a cat product. The cat is fine. The dog is the one who needed a job.

The bowl lives on the floor by the fridge, next to his water. It is wider than his old bowl, so I had to move the water dish a few inches to the right. That is the only setup change. He eats from it in the same spot he always did, and the kitchen looks the same otherwise. After six months, the bowl has a few faint scratches from his tags and from the times I have stacked it wrong in the sink. Nothing has cracked. It has not tipped during a meal, even when he pushes it across the floor. The plastic has held up. He has not chewed this one, and I would buy it again.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you are standing in my kitchen and your dog just inhaled a bowl of kibble in under a minute, I would tell you to try the Outward Hound Fun Feeder before you try anything fancy. Get the size that matches your dog, not the biggest one on the shelf. Put his normal meal in it and watch the first one. Some dogs take to it right away. Some dogs nose it around and look at you like you have lost your mind. Give it three meals before you decide. And wash it more often than you think you need to, because the tight spots hold onto dust. That is it. It is a bowl. It solved a real problem in my house, and I would buy it again.