This is a specific conversation about Slow feeder bowls — stopping dogs eating too fast — ask about yours and get one honest answer for your exact situation.
inparticular.ai
A flipping LickiMat is genuinely frustrating — you invest in something to help your dog eat slower, and half the food ends up on the floor. Dogs that bolt their food are at real risk of bloat, which can be life-threatening in larger breeds like Setters, as well as vomiting and ongoing digestive trouble. A properly chosen slow feeder can cut eating speed roughly in half. Before I point you to something that'll actually stay put, can you tell me: how big is your Setter, roughly how fast does she finish a meal at the moment, and has she had any vomiting or digestive issues from eating too quickly?
She's about 25kg, a typical English Setter build — lean but tall. She hoovers her food in under two minutes, sometimes less. She has brought it back up a couple of times after eating, which is what made me try the LickiMat in the first place. But it just slides and flips, especially on my tiled kitchen floor.
inparticular.ai
That vomiting after meals is a clear sign her eating speed is causing real digestive stress, and at 25kg with a deep chest she's exactly the kind of dog where you want to take bloat risk seriously. The LickiMat problem is a known one — silicone on smooth tiles has nothing to grip, and the shallow edges give it nowhere to go but over. What you need is a bowl with real weight and a non-slip rubber base rather than a flat silicone mat. Can I ask — do you feed dry kibble, wet food, or a mix? That affects which style of slow feeder will work best for her.
Dry kibble, she gets fed twice a day. Morning and evening, about 200g each time.
inparticular.ai
Perfect — dry kibble actually works brilliantly in a maze-style slow feeder bowl, much better than in a flat LickiMat. For your Setter I'd go with the Outward Hound Fun Feeder Slo-Bowl in the large size. It's a rigid plastic bowl with a deep spiral maze pattern — the kibble gets trapped in the ridges so she has to root it out piece by piece. Crucially, it has a solid rubber non-slip base that genuinely grips tile floors and won't flip. It holds well over 200g of kibble comfortably at the large size. Most dogs go from under two minutes to around five or six minutes with this bowl, which makes a meaningful difference to digestion. It's widely available on Amazon UK for around £10–12 and has a huge number of real-world reviews from owners of larger breeds. One thing to watch: rinse it after each meal as food can lodge in the deeper channels — it's top-rack dishwasher safe, which makes that easy.
That sounds like exactly what I need. Is the large size definitely big enough for a Setter, or should I go extra large?
inparticular.ai
Stick with the large — the extra large is designed for dogs over 35kg and the ridges are actually spaced wider, which means less slowing effect for a dog your size. The large is the sweet spot for a 20–30kg dog: tight enough channels to genuinely slow her down, but spacious enough that 200g of kibble sits in there without overflowing. You'll see it listed as suitable for medium to large breeds, and a 25kg Setter sits right in the middle of that range.
Great, I'll order that today. Thank you — really clear advice.
inparticular.ai
You're welcome. Given she's already vomited after meals a couple of times, it's worth mentioning to your vet at her next check-up — they may want to keep an eye on things. But getting the eating speed down with a bowl that actually stays in place is the right first step, and this one should genuinely fix both problems. Hope she takes to it quickly.
