10 Best Cat Bowls for Messy Eaters – 2024 Reviews & Top Picks

There are various ways cats can make a mess when eating. Some tip their bowls over, some push them around with food and water slopping around, and others eat so quickly that food is thrown around the area.

When choosing the best cat bowl for messy eaters, you can buy one that helps combat the problem in the first place, such as an anti-slip bowl to keep the bowl in position or a slow-feeder bowl to prevent your cat from wolfing food down. Alternatively, if you have tried and failed with these products, you can opt for something that prevents the mess from getting out: a cat bowl with its tray will catch bits of debris and puddles of water so that it can be more easily cleaned up.

Below are 10 of the best cat bowls for messy eaters, including a selection of each of these types to meet any budget and requirements.

A Quick Look at Our Favorites in 2024

The 10 Best Cat Bowls for Messy Eaters

1. Hepper NomNom Bowl for Cats – Best Overall

The Hepper NomNom Cat Bowl provides the perfect base for a messy eater. Its spillproof design makes it difficult for your cat to tip the bowl over and was made with a wrap-around tray that catches debris and water that is flicked out of the bowl during use.

The bowl set includes two shallow stainless steel dishes that conveniently pop off the base for easy filling and the entire NomNom is dishwasher safe. These dishes are slightly elevated providing optimum comfort for your cat and offer whisker relief since they dishes themselves are not deep.

Heppers bowl costs a bit more than your traditional cat bowl, but its easy maintenance, dual dishes for food and water, spill prevention, and its attractive design make it our favorite bowl for messy eaters.

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2. Loving Pets Stainless Steel No Tip Pet Bowl – Budget Buy

A tipped bowl inevitably leads to spilled food or water. Not only does it create a mess, but it also means your cat misses out on its meal, with some cats refusing to eat off the floor. Some manufacturers get around this problem with a heavy, ceramic bowl. Most cats are unable to tip ceramic, but a lot of owners prefer the anti-bacterial and easy maintenance properties that stainless steel offers.

The Loving Pets Stainless Steel No Tip Pet Bowl is a shallow, wide bowl with a rubber base that protrudes from the width of the bowl and makes it very difficult to tip. The rubber base can be removed and the bowl itself is dishwasher safe.

The bowl is also very reasonably priced, and its untippable design combined with the low cost makes it the best cat bowl for messy eaters for the money. However, the paper label is glued on the inside of the bowl, and it is very difficult to get the paper and adhesive off safely. Plus, the rubber can leave stains on some hard floors.

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3. Frisco Double Stainless-Steel Cat Bowl with Silicone Mat

The Frisco Double Stainless-Steel Dog & Cat Bowl with Silicone Mat has two round bowls that are 1 inch deep and that fits snugly into a silicone mat. The silicone mat is anti-slip, which should prevent your cat from pushing their food bowl around the room while also stopping them from being able to tip the bowl over. You can use the two bowls for food and water or dry food and wet food.

The bowls and mat are top-rack dishwasher safe, which makes cleaning them easy, and the whole set is reasonably priced. The set does a good job of preventing cats from being able to tip the bowls over and spill food, but the bowls are quite shallow. The Frisco Double Stainless-Steel Dog & Cat Bowl with Silicone Mat is the best overall cat bowl for messy eaters in most cases.

Shallow bowls do a good job of helping prevent whisker fatigue but if your cat creates a mess by pushing food out of the bowl, you may still have a problem.

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4. Petrageous Designs Metro Deep Ceramic Dog & Cat Bowl

A lot of cat bowls have a shallow design. While it does help prevent whisker fatigue in those cats that suffer, it also makes it easier for your cat to flick food and lap water out of the sides of the bowl. Stainless steel, popular because it doesn’t retain odors and is easy to clean, can be too light for vigorous eaters and offers another way for your cat to make a mess while dining.

The PetRageous Designs Metro Deep Ceramic Dog & Cat Bowl is a deep, ceramic bowl. The ceramic material is heavy enough that it can’t be tipped easily while the deep design prevents food from being flicked out.

It is an expensive bowl, however, and some cats will struggle with the deep design because they don’t like to bend over and into the container they’re eating from.

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5. Frisco Cat Face Non-Skid Ceramic Cat Bowl

The Frisco Cat Face Non-Skid Ceramic Cat Dish is another ceramic bowl but this one is only 1 inch deep, so is shallow enough to prevent whisker fatigue in most cats. The bowl is bright blue with a cat face motif, and the ceramic is dishwasher safe, so you can keep it clean and prevent bacteria from residing in the pores of the ceramic material. Non-skid feet help prevent the bowl from being pushed around the floor.

It is a reasonably priced bowl, but the dimensions and shallow design mean that the Non-Skid bowl can only hold the equivalent of around half a cup of food. Even if this is enough room for your cat’s food, it means there isn’t a lot of room so food can be easily pushed out of the bowl and onto the floor leading to mess.

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6. PetRageous Designs Wubby’s Duo Diner Pet Bowls

The PetRageous Designs Wubby’s Duo Diner Pet Bowls is a double ceramic bowl connected in the middle. The weight of the ceramic and the central connection makes it very difficult for cats to topple these bowls and the set is reasonably priced considering it does include two bowls rather than one. There’s a choice of either pink or blue design, so you can match your cat’s collar or kitchen interior. The bowls are dishwasher-safe and microwave-safe.

The bowls are quite deep, at approximately 2 inches, which means that some cats may struggle to get into their food properly, and they only hold around one cup in each bowl so kibble and wet food can be pushed out if you have to fill the bowls to capacity.

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7. Iconic Pet Slow Feed Stainless Steel Dog & Cat Bowl

While a lot of cat bowls rely on a drip tray to catch debris and food, some have anti-slip bases or feet that prevent food from sloshing out of the sides as the bowl is pushed around. A slow feeder typically places some kind of barrier within the bowl that stops your cat from wolfing food down, which is another way that animals can cause additional mess while dining.

The Iconic Pet Slow Feed Stainless Steel Dog & Cat Bowl has a relatively simple column in the center of the bowl, which means your cat has to take their time eating and it means they are less likely to cause a mess. It also has an anti-slip base, and the bowl holds up to 1.5 cups of food.

The slow feeder is more expensive than a standard stainless-steel bowl, although the rubber base is quite thin and comes off easily, and the central column means that space in the bowl is restricted so may not be suitable for cats that prefer a shallower design.

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8. Frisco Melamine Slow Feed Dog & Cat Bowl

The Frisco Melamine Slow Feed Dog & Cat Bowl is another slow feeder bowl, but rather than being made from stainless steel, this one is made from melamine. Melamine is dishwasher safe but putting the material in the dishwasher can cause fading, which may lead to the discoloring of the gold trim on this bowl.

The slow feeder has three raised, curved columns inside the bowl which prevents your cat from eating too quickly, but it does make for awkward internal dimensions and means that your cat may struggle to get to the bottom of the bowl, especially if it suffers from sensitive whiskers.

The bowl is reasonably priced for this kind of product, however, and it does have a non-slip base that helps keep it in position at dinnertime.

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9. Paikka Slow Feed Ceramic Dog & Cat Bowl

The Paikka Slow Feed Ceramic Dog & Cat Bowl is a ceramic slow feeder bowl with a heart-shaped central column designed to slow your cat’s eating habits. The bowl has a decent weight, which means that it isn’t pushed around easily, and it has a non-slip coating that further prevents movement.

The bowl is dishwasher safe but is on the expensive side and suffers a similar problem to a lot of slow feeder bowls, which is that the internal column reduces the amount of space available for food and may prevent your cat from being able to eat everything within.

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10. Necoichi Double Dining Tray Set & Elevated Cat Bowls

The Neicichi Double Dining Tray Set & Elevated Cat Bowls is a set of two porcelain bowls, one smaller one for food and a larger one for water, with a porcelain tray designed to catch debris and water. The food bowl is curved to help make it easier to get to the last bits of kibble, and the water bowl has level markers so you can determine how much fluid your cat is drinking and whether you need to encourage greater water intake.

The porcelain is dishwasher safe but while the food bowl does have curvature, the raised bowl and the lip around the tray can make it difficult for your feline friend to get to the last bits of food. This is an attractive dining set with some benefits, but it is expensive.

Buyer’s Guide — Choosing the Best Cat Bowls for Messy Eaters

Feline messy eaters can take many forms. Some flick their food out of the bowl while eating, some try to use their paws to move food around, and others stand on or otherwise tip over their bowls while eating. Attempting to train a messy cat to eat tidily is an uphill battle, at best, so it comes down to choosing the best bowl or facing a lifetime of clearing up after your kitty.

Bowl Types

There is a large range of cat bowls on offer, including those made from different materials and with a number of features that could help prevent mess and make your life as a cat owner a little bit easier.

Bowl Material

The choice of bowl material won’t necessarily help prevent or encourage mess, but it is important for other reasons.

Bowl Size

The ideal bowl size will depend on your cat. In particular, some cats suffer from whisker fatigue, which essentially means that they suffer some pain or discomfort when their whiskers are pushed up against a hard surface like a cat bowl.

Such cats will benefit from a wide, shallow bowl. It still provides access to the food or water within, but your cat’s whiskers don’t have to touch the sides. Unfortunately, shallow bowls do increase the likelihood of mess, and if your cat needs a shallow bowl, you may need to consider a design such as a bowl-and-tray design that catches debris and water that escapes the bowls.

Deep bowls can prevent spillage but even if your cat doesn’t suffer whisker fatigue, a deep and narrow bowl makes it difficult to get to the bottom and retrieve every last bit of food. It may take some experimenting to find the ideal bowl size and dimensions.

Dishwasher Safe

Keeping your cat’s bowls clean is important. Not only does it prevent bacteria growth and mold but it can also prevent unwanted odors and flavors from festering in the bowl and putting your cat off the food. Dishwasher-safe bowls are safe to put in the top rack of the dishwasher, making them easier to clean. Check the instructions of any cat bowl you buy before putting it in the dishwasher or you could cause discoloration, warping, or damage to the structure of the bowl.

What to Do if Your Cat Is a Messy Eater

It’s important to remember that every cat is an individual, and many cats are quite picky. Your cat may be picking at its food, and subsequently causing spillage, because it doesn’t like the melamine material it’s made from or because it wants a slightly shallower bowl to eat from. It may take some experimentation to get the right bowl.

It is also worth keeping an eye out for other possible signs of pain or injury, especially dental and mouth injuries. If your cat is hungry but knows that eating causes pain, it might be tempted by the food but unwilling to eat, and this is another possible cause of messy dining habits.

Conclusion

Some cats are messy eaters. They might flick bits of food out of their bowl, stand on the edge of the bowl and tip it over or just leave bits of food and puddles of water strewn around their dining area. Hopefully, the reviews and guide above have helped you identify some of the best cat bowls for messy eaters and given you an idea of which bowl to try for your cat.

The Hepper NomNom Bowl is our top pick because it was designed to catch any debris or water drops that escape the bowls keeping your floor mess free!

If you’re looking for a really budget-friendly option, the Loving Pets Stainless Steel No Tip Pet Bowl is an inexpensive alternative that is almost impossible to tip over and should prevent most mess.

• See also: 9 DIY Slow-Feed Cat Bowl Plans You Can Make Today

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Featured Image Credit: Hepper.com