Raised Cat Bowl

Raised cat bowls have been known to help cats with indigestion and vomiting by allowing cats and dogs to eat in a more natural position. It is also beneficial for elderly cats with neck strain or arthritis. There are many elevated cat bowls on the market including a few that I have purchased and tried myself. However there were issues that I had with the ones available on the market at the time of designing my own elevated cat bowl that I felt I could Improve on.

Difficult to clean. Most designs were 1 monolithic piece for the raised structure and eating surface. When used, only the eating surface would get dirty but I have to wash and dry the entire bowl each feeding because of the 1 piece design.
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‍Durability. Most designs were made of ceramic or porcelain which was heavy and very easy to break while cleaning
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‍Stability. Despite the heavy weight of porcelain designs that were adequately elevated were not very sturdy; designs that were lower and more stable were not elevated enough to allow cats to eat at a more natural position.

‍Design. This is subjective but most designs available were cute but just stood out a bit too much and lacked personalization. I was looking for something that was cute, personal, and wouldn’t stand out all that much.

Easy to clean. I wanted something light and easy to clean so the design I ended up going with was actually just a riser. I found stainless steel pet bowls to be the best because of how durable, light, and easy to clean they were. By designing a riser for a relatively accessible and cheap stainless steel bowl on the market, I was able to buy as many stainless steel bowls as I liked to suit my workflow whether that be cleaning each feeding or to swap dirty for clean and wash in bulk.

Durability. I chose to print the bowl out of PLA at around 4mm of thickness. The end result is a light and incredibly durable bowl. It is pretty much indestructible.

Stability. Despite the bowl being lightweight, it is very difficult to tip over especially when used on a silicone mat. Cats do not typically eat with the kind of force that a dog can eat with so there isn’t much of an issue with bowl scooting.

Design. The design is purposefully plain. I wanted the design to be a canvas for personalization, in this case the personalization would be lettering. I also wanted the design to be easy and quick to print. The yoyo shape, thickness, and hollowness of the riser style bowl allow the amount of material and time required to print to be kept to a minimum while also giving the bowl character and helping the bowl with stability.

Designed in Rhinoceros 3D and Fusion 360
Printed in PLA and PETG
Printed on Prusa i3 MK3S