The right bowl for the cat: the shape matters
Have you noticed that your cat or cat does not finish eating the food from the bowl and asks for supplements? Do not rush to think that the cat is harmful or wants food "fresher." You actually have the wrong bowl!
The thing is that the “wrong” bowl annoys the cat's whiskers - vibrissae. Vibrissae are very sensitive organs of the senses. Hundreds of nerve endings are suited to each such antenna, moreover - each vibrissa is assigned its own section in the brain! Vibrissae perform a tactile function: they capture even insignificant air currents reflected from objects standing nearby. This allows the cat, regardless of vision, to determine the location of objects and avoid obstacles, without touching them even in complete darkness.
Touching the tips of the whiskers can cause an unpleasant sensation in a cat - as if you were running your fingers not on the soft fur, but on the hard bastard file. Now imagine what a cat can feel when she has to eat from a narrow, deep bowl!
To avoid the stress of whiskers touching the walls of the bowl, the cat tries to eat from the middle, throws out food on the floor (where it doesn’t interfere with anything) or sits down next to you and asks you to put more food - preferably with a slide.
That is why the ideal bowl for cats should not irritate the vibrissae, and therefore should be small and wide. Take a ruler and carefully measure the "span" of your cat's mustache - this will be the minimum allowable diameter of the correct bowl.
As for the material from which the bowl is made, this parameter is not so important compared to the size and shape. It is believed that the best material is ceramics. It is hypoallergenic, the smooth coating of ceramic bowls is easy to wash off dried food and breeding bacteria. It is also effective in washing stainless steel bowls. But with plastic one should be more careful: from contact with ordinary plastic cats can develop the so-called "cat acne" (acne) on the face and chin.
On the correct plastic bowl, it must be stated that this plastic is edible or does not contain Bisphenol A (BPA-Free). Bisphenol A is a hardener used in the manufacture of plastics and polycarbonate plastics. It has a negative effect on the brain and the reproductive system, causes cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, repression of the reproductive function and the endocrine system, and delayed brain development. When heated or during long-term storage of food in plastic containers, Bisphenol A is converted into food. However, this substance is not contained in the following types of plastics: PET, polypropylene, polystyrene, low and high density polyethylene.