How Do You Clean Up After Your Cat Eats? (all Food Types?)

[Neo_23]

Just curious, how does everyone clean food bowls/eating areas/utensils? I use a separate sponge for my cat's things and just hand wash with dish soap in the sink. Do you sanitize after every meal? I'm guessing the raw feeders do.

 

[Elfilou]

I just feed canned and do use a separate sponge as well, just because I'm a vegetarian and therefore a bit icky about flesh. I use regular dish soap and flush the leftover food so it won't stink up the kitchen!

 

[jcat]

All food and water bowls go in the dishwasher on a normal cycle along with our dishes. Mowgli is an indoor-only cat, so I don't worry about endoparasites.

Nobody at the shelter worries about coffee cups, spoons or plates going through the dishwasher with the animals' bowls. However, the latter are prewashed by hand, allowed to air dry, then sprayed with a contact disinfectant before being put in the dishwasher, and we always use a normal or intensive program.

 

[MissMolly08]

We don't even have a dishwasher so everything is hand washed here. I do use a separate sponge for the cat. Usually I just rinse the bowl between her 2 meals and actually scrub with soap at the end of the day.

 

[maggiedemi]

I hand wash their plates after every meal with the human dishes, but I do use a separate sponge too.

 

[tabbytom]

At each meal, I get ready a piece of damp tissue for wiping my boy's face, whiskers and chin after he finish his meal. After wiping him off, I'll use that to wipe off the spoon and plate before hand washing them with dish washing detergent. I'll dry the spoon and air dry the plate.

 

[lalagimp]

I've never thought about a boundary between their food and mine. I use the same sponge on my dishes as I use in the girls' dishes with their dry food and canned food. I use the sponge in the boys' trays that go in their feeder. Boyfriend always throws out the sponge after we've done a stack of ice cube trays that had raw in them for the boys... because those ice cube trays are gross.

 

[Lalka]

I use attitude dish soap Natural Dishwashing Liquids, Detergents
I clean their wet food bowl when they are done eating with their own dish brush (i sometime clean my own dishes with it by mistake too but i dont really care: D ) The spoons/forks, i rinse and usually wash with mine. Dry food is the most messy. They always drop pieces of it on the floor so i pick them up every 2 days or so and i clean the floor once a week.
I clean their dry food bowl once a week too...i am more carefull with their water bowls...these i wash everyday.

 

[Vega's Dad]

We share plates with Vega and wash everything the same way. The only thing different is the food in plates.

 

[rubysmama]

Ruby eats mostly canned food, and I change her food dishes twice a day - morning and evening. They soak in the sink, then go in the dishwasher.

She doesn't drink water much, if ever, but I change the water twice a day, more when it's hot, and put down a new water dish every other day or so. Water dishes also get washed in the dishwasher.

 

[Summercats]

I have a seperate sponge for handwashing but generally use the dishwasher. I clean after each wet food but let the dry food bowl go longer without a cleaning.

 

[Lalka]

rubysmama i' ve never seen my cats drink much water before. Since i placed 3 bowls (one in each room) they drink all the time but never from the first one that was next to their food. For my cats i guess it was all about location you should try it.

 

[rubysmama]

rubysmama i' ve never seen my cats drink much water before. Since i placed 3 bowls (one in each room) they drink all the time but never from the first one that was next to their food. For my cats i guess it was all about location you should try it.

Interesting. I think because Ruby eats wet food, plus I add a bit of water to it, she gets enough water a day. But I'll remember that if I ever think she needs more water.

 

[Neo_23]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I'm a bit of a germophobe so I was interested to hear others' responses

My kitty eats mostly wet too and I've noticed that when he was eating more dry he would go to his water bowl more often but since he's been on 80% wet he goes to it much less.

 

[lisahe]

We share plates with Vega and wash everything the same way. The only thing different is the food in plates.

It's largely the same here.

We share some plates with our cats, too, not to mention the silverware, and much of their diet is raw food. I cut and cook meat for us and for the cats, and everything gets washed the same, with the same sponges, brushes, and dishwasher. I don't do any sanitizing with bleach.

Oddly, though, we're (irrationally) squeamish about reusing Rad Cat containers for human food!

 

[Blakeney Green]

I just wash them with regular dishes. I don't have a dishwasher, so it's all by hand. I don't bother with a separate sponge because nothing they eat would be bad for me and I'm sure we're all sharing our germs anyway living in proximity.

 

[Neo_23]

I just wash them with regular dishes. I don't have a dishwasher, so it's all by hand. I don't bother with a separate sponge because nothing they eat would be bad for me and I'm sure we're all sharing our germs anyway living in proximity.

Yeah, I'm sure the extra sponge is excessive but it just makes us feel better
Plus, maybe it's not what's on his sponge that's bad for us but what's on our sponge that's bad for him!

 

[abyeb]

I handwash Charlie's bowl (even though he only eats dry- he refuses to eat wet). I have a separate sponge and soap-dispensing "dish wand" just for him.

 

[orange&white]

I have 6 saucers for 3 cats who eat 3 meals a day. There's always a clean stack of 3 saucers. The dirty ones get washed with whatever dishes I've used. I wash by hand with bleach and dishwashing liquid with the same microfiber rag. I pour boiling water over the rag (in a saucepan) with the cleaning products to disinfect it before washing dishes. The dishwasher is essentially two big drip-dry racks here.

The ceramic tile floor under the cats' dishes gets wiped down after meals, and thoroughly cleaned sometime over the weekend. Dirty floor rags go in a 5-gallon bucket, kind of like a diaper pail. I'm a huge fan of microfiber.

 

[Lalka]

bleach? why? so overkill and toxic
i do sterilisation in a hospital...Enzyme cleaner is the best. Bleach can be very dangerous