Where to find food safe pet ceramic bowls?

[3toedCuties]

Hi Guinea Pig Forum!

So during this rabbit hole of research that is very important before adopting any pet I’ve realized a few of the ceramic dishes I ordered from Temu may not actually be food safe… I chose them for the interesting designs and cheap price.

The leaf and strawberry are advertised as spoon holders, while the heart is advertised as a cat bowl, I thought these would be great for holding daily vegetables and 1/8 cup of pellets respectfully and thought they would be fine at the time of ordering however later research suggests Temu is not reputable for food safety due to unsafe practices and unsafe materials being used, its unregulated. (From my understanding)

My question is how worried should I be here? I’m ordering a lead test kit to check for Lead (Pb) but that doesn’t check for the other heavy metals that could be present in ceramics that are sometimes used create bright colours…

(Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Cobalt (Co), Zinc (Zn), Antimony (Sb), Barium (Ba), Selenium (Se), and Iron (Fe)

From my understanding if they are properly glazed they will be safe for use, however how do you tell from the product itself? Does anyone have some reputable sources for cute food safe ceramic dishes?

I also wanted to buy this deep ceramic strawberry dish for holding water (they will also have a glass water bottle option) but are Amazon products any safer than Temu?

(Also sorry it’s not a link to the product the tool functions for posting links seem to be greyed out on the forum and idk why)

 

[Piggies&buns]

it’s fine to have a bowl for water, but we don’t recommend the use of bowls for any type of food.
We recommend that veg and pellets are scattered around the cage and within piles of hay. This is for two reasons:
- to prevent the dominant from being able to food hog
- to encourage natural enrichment and mental stimulation. Piggies naturally spend a lot of time foraging so replicating that is important to keep them occupied and healthy

I would just get a pet bowl for their water from a local pet shop or even Amazon

 

[3toedCuties]

Okay noted! I guess my only concern is bell pepper stains or other stainy veg on the fleece liners but google says piggies don’t care if fleece is stained as long as it’s clean I also found this beautiful ceramic lead free water dish from Kaytee ^-^

 

[piggieminder]

My experience with veg stains on fleece is if it doesn't come out in the first wash it normally comes out in the second. I just use it with the clean stains! I have nine boars so all my fleece has far worse than veggie stains on it, boar glue very rarely comes out.

 

[3toedCuties]

I’ve researched boar glue and I’m anticipating the worst when it comes to fleece stains Q-Q but that’s okay!

As I’m trying to rescue I don’t actually know if I will be getting males or females, or a fixed male with a female but that last pairing seems very rare as I haven’t seen it at The Higglety Pigglety House which is our nearest Guinea pig rescue, you can find them on Facebook if you wanna see all the cuties up for adoption! ^-^

Glad to hear that the other stains will likely just wash out!

 

[Merab]

I use fleece as a base and put bath mats on top.
They do get stained but wash well despite the fact that I pile the hay on top and scattered feed veggies.
They do get fleece liners on the base stained but not too badly.

I have never had a problem with boar glue or boar stink but my boars have always been with sows.

Welcome to the forum and we look forward to getting to know you

 

[AidaB]

Welcome to the wonderful world of guinea pigs.
We use fleece too- no complaints from our piggies about stains!

Looking at the photos of bowls you are thinking of trying, I would recommend looking for something shallow that the piggies can’t tip over with a wide flat base. Otherwise you’re going to spend a lot of time changing water logged fleece liners.

 

[GuineaDobbin]

We have had boar glue issues with boar-only groups, but if neutered they don't really seem to produce. If I spotted any on Fleece I just wiped it up with a tissue as it is stubborn once dry, I still have a glued hidey which got spattered probably over a year ago and been the wash many times!

If you can be patient and get a mixed pair/group, they are lovely herds to have. Boar-boar pairs can be lovely too, please don't discount bonded boars, they need lots of love too. Our sweetest pair were bonded boys and were a complete delight.

 

[VickiA]

I only ever kept neutered boars with my sows and yet several of my fleeces have long term reminders by way of boar glue….