If your puppy is curled up in a ball snoozing for most of the day, you might be wondering if this is ‘normal’. Puppies have a wonderful way of knowing what’s good for them – and this includes sleeping. But how much sleep is enough for young pups and how much is too much?
All puppies sleep for many hours a day. Young puppies need 18 to 20 hours of sleep per day. Most puppies sleep 6 to 10 hours at night, and the rest of the sleeping is done with naps during the day. The older puppies get, the less sleep they need. But even puppies older than 6 months need at least 15 hours of sleep every day.
A puppy’s sleep needs change as it gets older. Understanding how many hours of sleep a day your puppy needs will go a long way in helping your puppy set up a sleeping schedule to grow up into the healthiest, happiest dog it can be.
Let’s start by looking at how much sleep your puppy needs according to its age.
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A younger puppy needs less sleep than an older puppy, but all puppies still sleep for most of the day. How do they get all these hours in?
Well, puppies spend about 6-10 hours sleeping at night, just waking up for potty breaks. During the day, puppies make up the rest of their sleep time by taking naps for between 30 minutes and 2 hours at a time.
Let’s take a look at how much sleep a puppy needs as it grows up into an adult dog. Below you’ll see a puppy’s age in weeks and months, followed by how many hours a day your puppy needs to sleep on average:
Puppy’s Age In Weeks
Puppy’s Age In Months
Average Hours Of Sleep Needed Per Day
0 – 7 weeks
0 – 2 months
22 hours
8 – 12 weeks
2 – 3 months
18 – 20 hours
13 – 24 weeks
3 – 6 months
18 – 19 hours
24 – 96 weeks
6 – 24 months
At least 15 hours
97 weeks +
24 months +
12 – 14 hours
From the table above, we can see that newborn puppies spend 22 hours a day sleeping!
By the time a puppy has finished growing, between 1 and 2 years of age, your puppy will be an adult. Adult dogs sleep for about 12 to 14 hours a day depending on their breed, size, and how active they are.
Puppies generally sleep as much as they need to and cannot really ‘oversleep’ if they’re healthy and happy.
If your puppy is playing and randomly falls asleep, let it sleep in peace for as long as possible. What’s important is that the amount of sleep doesn’t change suddenly and that your pup is happy and playful when it’s awake.
Your puppy should be able to sleep through the night at about 4 months old. So at this age your pup should make it through 6-10 hours without waking up for a potty break on most nights.
Why puppies sleep so much
Puppies are busy little bodies, which is the main reason why they sleep so much. But how can they be busy bodies and sleep for so many hours?
When awake, puppies are learning new things all the time and exploring the big wide world around them. They are developing mentally and emotionally every day.
Puppies are also growing physically into adult dogs, which is a lot of work!
Smaller dogs tend to reach their full adult size in about 12 months, but bigger breeds can take as long as 24 months to become fully grown.
During the first year or two of their lives, puppies go through many growth spurts and changes. These growth spurts are times when a puppy gets bigger and its body changes into an adult dog, for example its permanent teeth come out and the puppy coat is replaced with an adult coat.
Growth spurts take a lot of energy from the body, so a puppy needs a lot of rest and sleep to grow and develop properly. Puppies also need sleepy time to process all the new information they have taken in after seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and hearing so many new things.
Has been out of the house and experienced a lot of new things
Is overweight
Is bored
When is a puppy sleeping too much?
A puppy can’t sleep ‘too much’ if it’s healthy and happy when it’s awake. If your puppy is sleeping longer than usual but active and playful when it’s awake, then it might be going through a growth spurt and simply needs the extra rest.
But some puppies sleep too much because something is wrong. Below are some things to watch out for when it comes to your puppy’s sleep – if you notice any of these signs it’s best to take your puppy to a veterinarian to be checked:
Your pup isn’t playful or is very lethargic and low on energy when awake (but give your puppy time to wake up from a sleep before expecting energetic playfulness)
Your puppy would rather sleep or lie down than eat, drink, or play when it’s awake
Your puppy is more than 2 months old and sleeps for 20 hours or more a day
To help your puppy get 6 – 10 hours of quality sleep each night and enough naps during the day, set up a simple sleeping schedule and routine. Go through the same steps before each bedtime and naptime, so your puppy knows it’s time to calm down and get ready to sleep.
Here are some good times to put your puppy down for a nap:
After breakfast
After play time
After lunch
After training
After a short walk (puppies cannot and should not walk far)
When it’s time to sleep, gently rub your puppy’s ears and stroke the chest area, to calm your puppy down. Use soothing words and sounds to let your puppy know it’s time to be calm and relaxed.
Your puppy should soon fall asleep.
Here’s a fun video of a puppy happily being massaged to sleep:
All puppies are different and have different needs when it comes to their sleep time. If your puppy wants to sleep, let it sleep whenever and for as long as it wants to. Some naps might last 30 minutes, while others carry on for 2 hours.
That’s all fine.
Let your puppy enjoy this peaceful time to grow into one happy adult dog that can share many more years with you.
If your dog likes to bury bones and dig them up days or weeks later, you might be wondering if your dog can remember where the bones are hidden or if these bones are just lucky finds.
I did some ‘digging’ of my own and it turns out that:
Dogs do remember where they bury bones. Dogs use 2 types of memory to find their buried bones: spatial and associative. The first helps dogs remember where things are and where they left them, while the second helps dogs recognize sights and smells in the area that are linked with the experience of burying the bone.
Dogs have an amazing ability to make memories, but not always in the same way you and I do and not always for the same reason either.
In the wild, dogs often bury food so that other dogs don’t eat it as a way to survive. But dogs have had to develop ways to find this food later – there’s no point burying food if you can’t find it again.
Well, researchers are only beginning to uncover the remarkable ways in which dogs remember where they bury things, such as bones, and how they choose what to dig up.
Let’s explore the wonderful world of a dog’s memory!
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Dogs use spatial memory and associative memory to remember where their bones are hidden. Let’s find out how each type of memory helps a dog find its buried treasures…
Spatial memory
A dog’s brain uses spatial memory to build a map of its home and the places it visits. This spatial memory helps the dog remember things like where its bed is, where the food and water bowls are, and where the neighbor’s cat sits on the wall.
It’s this spatial memory that helps a dog remember ‘good’ places and ‘bad’ places.
In dog terms, examples of ‘good places’ are places where food is, where there are humans to cuddle, and where there’s a cat to bark at.
‘Bad places’ could be the vet’s rooms or the tub for bubbly doggy baths.
Research has shown that spatial memory also helps animals remember where they hide food (‘good places’) and even what type of food is hidden there. This means that dogs can probably remember where they bury things and what was buried there – not just bones.
Now let’s take it one step further.
When dogs decide to dig something up, they may very well decide to dig up the tastiest treat in the yard and leave the not-so-tasty ones for later (or a famine). Studies have shown that animals with spatial memory can choose when to retrieve hidden food, and they are more likely to retrieve the food they enjoy most first.
So, if your dog has hidden several things in the backyard, he/she is likely to use spatial memory to remember where the treats are and what treats are buried where. Your dog will probably also dig up its favorite treats first, such as bones, leaving other buried treats for later or never.
Associative memory
Dogs don’t have a great memory when it comes to remembering when things happen or random unimportant events, such as the day-to-day happenings at home.
In fact, National Geographic did a study on memory and found that dogs usually forget unexciting events within 2 minutes.
So, a dog won’t remember that your phone rang this morning or when you last took him for a walk. But how does he know you’re going walking when you take out a certain pair of sneakers?
Because he associates your sneakers with the experience of a walk.
This is called ‘associative memory’. Just as spatial memory helps dogs remember ‘good’ and ‘bad’ places, associative memory helps dogs recognize ‘good’, ‘neutral’, and ‘bad’ experiences.
And how do dogs experience the world? With their senses.
Dogs see or feel objects, taste things, hear sounds, and smell a lot. Most things are pretty boring and go into the ‘neutral’ category without much reaction, such as singing birds or a dog movie playing on the TV.
But if the object, food, or sound is new or unfamiliar, the dog will stop to take in the experience and associate it with being ‘good’, ‘bad’, or ‘neutral’.
‘Good’ is something the dog enjoys and wants more of.
‘Neutral’ is nothing to worry about and the dog will know to ignore it in future.
‘Bad’ is something the dog doesn’t want to experience again, if it can be avoided.
For example, if a dog eats a lemon and it tastes bad or he gets sick, the dog associates the smell, taste and look of a lemon with a ‘bad’ experience and he won’t go near another lemon. Lemons are now part of the dog’s associative memory. (Lemons are on the list of fruits dogs should never eat.)
The dog can’t tell you when it first ate a lemon or why, it just knows to stay away from anything that looks, tastes, or smells like a lemon.
These associations are one way dogs remember things, and this ability helps dogs remember where they bury bones!
When a dog buries a bone, it associates the sight and smell of the area with the bone. This is memorized as a ‘good’ experience.
Seeing the area or smelling it again is likely to trigger the associated memory of the buried bone, so the dog can dig it up again and enjoy it.
Sometimes dogs just smell a bone
Sometimes a dog doesn’t ‘remember’ where a bone is hidden. Sometimes a dog just uses its amazing sense of smell to discover and sniff out a bone hidden in the soil.
We can taste a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee sure. But a dog can identify that same teaspoon of sugar in 1 million gallons of water (or two Olympic swimming pools).
If a dog can detect a teaspoon of sugar in 1 million gallons of water, it can smell a dirty bone under some dirt. Certain dog breeds can smell objects as deep as 15 feet underground, and help police locate and recover buried bodies of bones.
If your dog runs into the house with a sandy bone, he/she either buried the bone in the backyard and simply forgot about it until now, or your dog sniffed it out from where another dog buried it once upon a time.
But in the dog world, when it comes to buried bones, it’s finders keepers, losers weepers.
-> If you choose to feed bones to your dog, be sure to keep an eye on your dog and take the bone away before it gets small enough to be swallowed and stuck in your dog’s digestive tract.
If it’s time to switch your pup over to adult dog food, you might be wondering what’s the safest and healthiest way to do this. Well, dog food manufacturers and vets alike recommend mixing the new dog food with the old puppy food as follows:
Switch a puppy to adult dog food slowly by mixing more and more dog food into the puppy food over 1 week. For the first 2 days, feed 75% puppy food and 25% dog food. On days 3 and 4, feed 50% puppy and 50% dog food. On days 5 and 6 it’s 25% puppy and 75% dog food. And day 7 is 100% dog food. Dogs with a sensitive stomach may need 2 weeks to switch.
Making the move from puppy to adult dog food is an important time in your puppy’s life. Your puppy’s nutritional needs have changed, but your pup’s tummy needs time to adjust to the new food or your puppy could suffer side effects.
Let’s take a look at how to safely switch your puppy over from puppy kibble to adult dog food, and what side effects to look for during this transition.
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It’s important to make the change from puppy kibble to adult dog food slowly. There’s no rush to make the switch, so take your time to ease your puppy into the change and minimize the side effects.
Experts recommend taking at least 1 week to switch from puppy food to adult food.
Here’s a 1-week plan to switch a puppy to adult dog food:
Days 1 – 2 = 75% puppy food + 25% adult food
Days 3 – 4 = 50% puppy food + 50% adult food
Days 5 – 6 = 25% puppy food + 75% adult food
Day 7 = 100% adult food
Watch your dog closely on the days you mix adult dog food into their puppy food, to see if your dog shows any negative signs or symptoms such as an upset stomach. Every dog reacts differently to the switch, and many young dogs have no problems whatsoever when moving over to adult dog food.
If your puppy has a sensitive stomach or allergies, and you’d like to avoid side effects from changing your dog’s food too fast, make the switch to adult dog food over 2 weeks to give your dog lots of time to adapt to the new food.
You can follow this plan for a 2-week switch from puppy food to adult dog food:
Each brand of dog food and the size of your dog’s breed will affect how much to feed your dog each day. Check the instructions on the dog food packaging to see how big the portion size should be for breakfast and dinner.
Will your puppy get sick if you change to adult food?
Some puppies get sick when they switch foods while others have no side effects at all. If you change your puppy’s food, be sure to do this slowly over a week or two to give your puppy time to adapt to the new food. This will lower the chance that your puppy will get sick.
But why do puppies get sick when they change food?
Food can make a puppy sick for a few reasons, such as:
The food is too rich for the puppy
Selective breeding has made the dog’s stomach sensitive and prone to upsets
The puppy is allergic to the new food
The puppy isn’t given enough time to adapt to digesting the new levels of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the food
If, after mixing in the new dog food over a course of a week or two your dog is still showing side effects, then it’s time to speak to your veterinarian or try a different brand of dog food.
Side effects of changing dog food
When you change a puppy’s food, especially if you do it too quickly, there might be some side effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, or flatulence (gas). Because your puppy can’t tell you what’s wrong, watch your puppy for symptoms such as excessive lip licking, gulping, or weakness and lethargy.
Here’s a list of symptoms that may show you your puppy isn’t feeling well and that you’re switching their food too quickly:
Diarrhea
Flatulence (excess gas)
Bloated stomach
Vomiting
Loss of or change in appetite
Eating more grass than usual
Acidic breath
Excessively licking lips and/or smacking the lips
Licking the air (sign of nausea)
Gulping
Weakness and fatigue (these are very unhealthy signs – seek professional help)
What to do if you’ve switched your puppy’s food too fast
If you switched your puppy’s food too fast, then your puppy is very likely to be showing side effects like diarrhea.
Here’s how to take care of your puppy with diarrhea:
STEP 1: FASTING
Don’t feed your puppy any food for a few hours, say 12-24 hours. This gives the tummy time to settle. Water is very important for hydration but your puppy shouldn’t drink a lot of it at once: If your puppy is drinking a lot of water, give your puppy some ice cubes instead of a large bowl of water, to slow down the water intake.
STEP 2: FEED A BLAND DIET
After the fast, start feeding your puppy boiled white rice (here’s the recipe) and boiled chicken. Keep the water for later, if you want to soak your dog’s kibble. Don’t add any salt, pepper, oil, spices, or anything else to the food. Remove the chicken skin and pour off all the water.
You’ll need to mix two parts rice to one part chicken. The amount of rice and chicken to feed your puppy will depend on how much your puppy weighs.
Here’s a table to guide you on how much rice and chicken to feed your puppy with diarrhea, but remember to ask your veterinarian for advice too:
Dog’s weight in lbs
Dog’s weight in kg
Rice per day
Chicken per day
1 – 10 lbs
0 – 4.5 kg
Half a cup
One-quarter cup
11 – 20 lbs
4.6 – 9 kg
One cup
Half a cup
21 – 30 lbs
9.1 – 13.5 kg
One and a half cups
Three quarters of a cup
31 – 40 lbs
13.6 – 18 kg
Two cups
One cup
41 – 50 lbs
18.1 – 22.5 kg
Two and a half cups
One and a quarter cups
51 – 60 lbs
22.6 – 27 kg
Three cups
One and a half cups
61 – 70 lbs
27.1 – 32 kg
Three and a half cups
One and three-quarter cups
71+ lbs
33+ kg
Four cups
Two cups
Don’t give your puppy the full portion of rice and chicken in one meal, or you’ll upset their tummy even more. Mix the rice and chicken that your puppy needs for the day, then divide it up and feed your puppy several small meals throughout the day.
If you don’t want to make chicken and rice, you can order a few tins of bland dog food from Amazon, or get a prescription from your veterinarian. It’s a good idea to keep bland food cans in the pantry for one day when you might need them.
Feed this chicken and rice mixture to your puppy until there is a normal stool for a day or two, or until there’s no bowel movement for a day. This means that your puppy’s diarrhea is going away.
STEP 3: INTRODUCE PUPPY FOOD
Now you can start adding your puppy’s regular food (NOT the new dog food) to the chicken and rice mixture over a few days. Your puppy’s stool will tell you how quickly to switch over.
If your puppy’s stool stays ‘normal’, then add a little more puppy kibble each day as you reduce the amount of chicken and rice you feed. Keep adding more puppy kibble and reducing the chicken and rice until your puppy is eating its regular food and is having normal bowel movements. If your puppy’s tummy gets upset, then increase the rice and chicken and feed less kibble that day.
You won’t be able to move your puppy over to the adult dog food at this time because your puppy’s digestive tract will be inflamed and needs time to heal.
Some dog owners choose to move their puppy over to a raw food diet when their puppy needs to switch to adult dog food. This diet usually consists of meat, bones, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products that dogs can eat.
If you choose to switch your puppy to a raw food diet, be sure to choose a reputable supplier and follow the instructions to make the switch carefully. Most raw food switches don’t require mixing puppy kibble with the raw food, but rather feeding one meal kibble and one meal raw food during the change.
Because raw food diets are made up of, well, raw and undercooked food, the ingredients aren’t treated or cooked to kill any harmful germs in the food, which can make your puppy sick.
Choose a peaceful time to switch your puppy to dog food. If your puppy has been through any major change or stressful event, such as moving house, illness, travel, or any other big changes, it’s best to give your pup a few weeks to settle down.
But breed size and your puppy’s age is one of the best ways to know when to switch over to regular dog food. Puppy food is formulated to give your puppy lots of nutrients and energy to grow and develop. Once a puppy is fully grown, its nutritional needs change.
Smaller dogs tend to mature or reach their adult size faster than bigger breeds, so smaller dogs can switch to dog food sooner than bigger dogs.
Here’s a table to guide you on the breed sizes and recommended ages to switch over to adult dog food:
If your puppy has been running around your home for a few months, you’ve probably noticed him/her getting bigger and changing. You know you need to change your puppy over to adult dog food at some point, but how long should your pup eat puppy food?
Miniature and small dogs should stay on puppy food until they are at least 9-12 months old. Medium-size dogs should eat puppy food until they are 14 months or older, and large breeds until 18+ months. It’s better to keep a dog on puppy food a little longer than needed, rather than put the dog on adult food too soon.
Puppies are in the ‘growing phase’ of their life. They need to eat food that gives them nutrients for the healthy growth and development of their bodies, such as their teeth and bones. All this growing requires energy – and puppy food provides lots of energy.
When most of the growing is done, it’s time to move your puppy over to adult dog food. This food gives older dogs what they need to stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight.
There’s no absolute rule for when a puppy is ready to move over to adult food, so how do you really know how long to keep your puppy on puppy food or when to make the move to adult food?
Find out when to switch a puppy to adult dog food
If you want to know how long to keep your puppy on puppy food or switch to adult dog food, you can:
Ask the breeder
Breeders raise and care for a certain breed of dog year-round. This means that your dog’s breeder will have a lot of experience and first-hand knowledge on how to look after your dog’s breed. They will also be very familiar with your puppy’s family and genes.
If you get your puppy from a trustworthy breeder, ask the breeder what food to feed your puppy and when to change your puppy over to adult dog food.
The breeder might even be able to suggest a high-quality brand of adult dog food for your new best friend when the time comes.
Ask your veterinarian
If you don’t have a breeder to ask, that’s okay. Speak to your veterinarian the next time you take your puppy in for shots.
Your veterinarian will probably recommend a few brands of premium adult dog food to choose from, and advise you on when to move your pup over to this food.
Asking your veterinarian is probably the best way to know when to move a rescue or mixed-breed dog over to adult food, as it’s not always clear how big the dog will get or what nutrients are needed for the breed (if you can tell the breeds in the dog).
When your dog reaches its adult size
Some puppies grow up faster than other puppies because of the size of their breed. For example, small dogs reach their adult body size much sooner than large dog breeds.
Small dogs reach their adult size and weight sooner than large breeds so small dogs stay on puppy food for a shorter time than big dogs.
When dogs reach their full size and stop growing, they no longer need the energy and nutrients in puppy food.
When we talk about a dog breed’s ‘size’, we are talking about the healthy weight of an average fully grown adult dog for that breed. There is a range for the average weight as females tend to weigh a little less than males and some dogs are just built smaller than other dogs of the same breed.
As a guideline, here is a list of dog breed sizes and their average weight ranges. Find out how much your dog should weigh when fully grown, then use the last column to see when you can switch your puppy over to adult dog food:
As an example, let’s say you have a Boston Terrier puppy at home. The breeder has told you that your pup will most likely weigh between 20 and 25 pounds when he’s fully grown, which makes him a small dog breed (between 13 – 25 pounds as an adult). You can use the table above to see that you should plan to move your puppy over to adult dog food when he is 12 months old or a little older.
Read the dog food packaging
If you look at the bag that your puppy kibble comes in, you should see an age recommendation for the food. This is usually printed very clearly on the front of the bag and says something like ‘Puppies up to 12 months.’ This means that you can safely feed this food to your puppy until he/she is 12 months old or a little older.
Different breeds need different ingredients and nutrients. It’s best to make sure that the kibble you buy is made for your dog’s breed, size and age. For example, if you have a Labrador Retriever, buy puppy kibble made for Labrador Retrievers or for large breed puppies.
According to the American Animal Hospital Association, most dogs are sterilized between 6 and 9 months of age. After being sterilized, a dog needs a little less energy from their food than before.
Because puppy food provides a lot of energy, you may need to move your puppy over to adult dog food a little earlier than expected.
Ask your veterinarian about this when you take your puppy for the surgery.
Look at your puppy’s activity levels
This puppy is taking a nap after a fun game of Chewing Shoes – often one of a puppy’s favorite games to play! Puppies that run around a lot and are very active can stay on puppy food a little longer as this food gives them energy.
The more active a puppy is the more energy he/she needs from food and the longer you can keep your puppy on puppy food.
If your puppy is very active during the day, which you’ll see with hunting dogs and these breeds that love to play fetch, consider feeding puppy food for a longer time to give your dog the energy needed for all this activity.
If your puppy sleeps a lot and is mostly an inactive, indoor dog, then you can switch your puppy over to adult dog food based on the recommendations for your dog’s adult breed size:
Over time, you might notice your puppy’s behavior and body change. Your puppy might:
Calm down quite a bit
Not play as much as before or run around as much
Weigh as much as an adult dog for that breed
Stop eating or eat less of the regular puppy food
When you notice your puppy’s personality changing and maturing, and your puppy weighs about as much as a healthy average dog for that breed, you’ll know that he/she is growing into a young adult dog.
If your puppy is nearing the age when it’s time to change over to adult dog food, or has passed this age, then it’s probably time to change the food you feed.
It’s important to change a puppy over to adult dog food as your dog’s needs change.
In their first months of life puppies change a lot – they get bigger, and their bones, muscles and teeth develop. Puppy food is made to give them all the nutrients and energy they need to develop and grow up to be as healthy as they can be.
Once puppies are fully grown, their needs change. They now need food that keeps their body working well, prevents disease, and doesn’t give them too much energy that they become overweight.
Feeding a good-quality dog food throughout a dog’s life will give your dog the best chance to enjoy things like good eyesight, a shiny coat, strong teeth, good digestion, and, hopefully, a long and fulfilling life.
There’s nothing like a refreshing bowl of water for your dog to drink after a good meal or a fun game of fetch. A dog’s water bowl is one of those things you’ll look after daily as a dog owner, but what if you’ve seen icky furry mold growing inside it?
There must be a simple, effective way to keep mold out of the water bowl. Well, I did a little digging to find out and there actually is…
How to clean a dog water bowl to prevent mold
The best way to keep mold out of a dog’s water bowl is to follow a 3-step cleaning system:
1. Wash the bowl in hot, soapy water
Wash your dog’s water bowl with hot, soapy water every day. This removes dirt on the surface of the bowl, such as natural oils from your fingers and saliva or food particles from your dog’s mouth.
You can wash the bowl in a bucket, the kitchen sink, or in the dishwasher if the bowl is dishwasher safe.
I recommend keeping a separate sponge for washing the dog’s water bowl, and not using your household kitchen sponge for the job. This will stop you from spreading any germs and bacteria from the dog’s water bowl to your family’s dishes.
Be sure to use non-toxic soap that’s pet friendly, such as this affordable organic soap from Amazon. Your dog drinks out of the bowl, so try not to use any harsh or poisonous chemicals.
Give the bowl a few minutes to soak so the soap can do its job. Then give the bowl a good scrub down with a sponge – don’t use a scourer or anything that might scratch the surface as mold loves growing in tiny scratches (more about this later).
Rinse the bowl with clean water until there is no soap residue left on the surface.
Now that you’ve removed the surface dirt, it’s time to tackle any mold that has settled on the bowl, even if you can’t see it growing yet.
2. Disinfect the bowl
Hot, soapy water should remove any mold growing on the surface of the bowl, but it doesn’t always kill or stop mold spores. Mold spores are the ‘seeds’ that grow mold.
Mold spores can only grow mold if the spores are alive and find the right environment to start growing in. Killing the spores or making sure they don’t like it in the dog’s water bowl will stop new mold from growing in the bowl.
The best way to kill or stop mold spores from growing is to disinfect the water bowl once a week.
Disinfecting a dog’s water bowl is actually easy and there are a few ways to do this, such as using commercial products or extreme temperatures. Just be sure to use a method that the bowl can withstand, for example a stainless steel dog bowl can’t go in the microwave but it can go in the freezer.
Did you know? Most molds are destroyed or cannot grow at hot temperatures of 140-160°F (60-71°C) and cold temperatures below 40°F (4°C). Mold likes growing at temperatures between 77°F and 86°F (25-30°C).
Most or all mold spores in a dog’s water bowl can be killed or stopped by:
Wiping the bowl with a non-toxic disinfectant wipe or spray. It is important to use non-toxic cleaning products that won’t poison your dog.
Running a clothes steamer over the bowl
Putting water in the bowl and cooking it on high for a minute in the microwave
The final step in keeping mold out of your dog’s water bowl is to dry the bowl well.
Make sure the bowl is completely dry all over before putting fresh water in it or packing it away, as mold loves growing in damp, dark places all over the bowl.
We’ve all experienced mold in some form or another (anyone else forget to empty their lunchbox on a Friday only to find green, fuzzy food inside it on a Sunday night???), but do you know how that mold finds its way into your dog’s water bowl or what happens if your dog drinks it?
Where mold in a dog’s water bowl comes from
Mold from elsewhere releases spores (seeds) into the air. These spores find their way into your home and into your dog’s water bowl. Under the right conditions, the spores grow into mold.
Let’s take a closer look at how this happens:
Mold reproduces through spores. Spores are like mold seeds, but spores are very, very small. In fact, spores are so small that you cannot see them with the naked eye.
Mold releases spores that are spread by air or in water, and there are many ways that these spores can get into your home and into the water bowl. Spores might come into your house through an open window, or you might carry them in from outside on your clothes.
When spores find a good place to grow, such as your dog’s water bowl, they settle in and start maturing into mold. This mold attracts insects too, such as bees.
For spores to grow into mold, most of them need four things:
Moisture or water
A food source, such as the food that drops from your dog’s mouth when drinking after eating
A stable temperature, not too hot and not too cold
And oxygen to breathe
This is how the mold gets into the water bowl and thrives, but did you know that mold prefers certain surfaces and types of water bowls? Choosing the right water bowl can go a long way in preventing mold growth.
Mold resistance score of different materials used for water bowls
Some water bowls are more likely to get mold growing in them than others. This is because:
Mold can use some materials as food or energy. For example, mold can eat the colorants in a plastic bowl. As the mold eats the colorants, the plastic gets discolored areas on it.
Some dog bowls are easier to scratch or crack. Other dog water bowls, such as collapsible travel bowls, have many nooks and crannies that are difficult to clean, disinfect, and dry properly. Mold loves growing in these cracks, scratches, and crannies because they are usually damp and dark – the perfect place for mold to grow!
Let’s take a look at the mold resistance score of each type of material that is used for dog water bowls, assuming that there are no cracks or scratches in the bowl.
Each dog bowl material is rated on a mold resistance scale from 1-10, where 1 means the material has very little resistance to mold and 10 means the material is very resistant to mold growth.
Based on my research, here is a list of each type of dog water bowl and how mold-resistant this material is:
Dog water bowl material
Mold resistance score, (1=very little resistance and 10=high resistance to mold growth)
Silicon (such as travel or collapsible bowls)
1
Hard plastic
3
Stainless Steel
10
Ceramic / Stoneware
10
Glass
10
Based on the table and info above, we can tell that:
Dog water bowls that are most resistant to mold growth are made from stainless steel, ceramic, stoneware, and glass. Dog water bowls that grow mold most easily are silicon and plastic. Once any dog water bowl is scratched, cracked, or discolored, it must be thrown away as mold is likely to be present, even if isn’t visible.
Mold spores are found everywhere, and you and your dog breathe these in every day. These spores probably have little to no effect on your dog, unless your dog is allergic to them. But did you know that drinking moldy water and taking mold into the body may have an effect on your dog?
What could happen if your dog drinks moldy water?
Drinking a little moldy water once probably won’t have any negative effect on your dog. But some molds naturally produce mycotoxins, which can poison and kill dogs. Symptoms of mold poisoning in dogs include:
Mold poisoning symptoms usually appear in dogs within 1-24 hours of mold ingestion.
If your dog drinks moldy water and shows any of the above symptoms, take your dog and the dog water bowl, or a sample of the mold, to your veterinarian for help.
I'm Monique. I love animals and everything about them. "Ayo" means happy, and this is where I share all I know about having happy, healthy pets so you can have happy pets too.
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