raised bowls? yeah or no

i bought Toby a slightly raised bowl as he suffers quite badly with wind in the hope he'd take in less air as he eats (plus he eats really quickly) BUT after reading swiss's topic on his poor buster i looked into 'Bloat' and it said not to feed from raised bowls or feed dry food to excess! Toby always has dry food and eats from a raised bowl!!

Mine eat from normal stainless steel dishes on the floor of their cage and have always been fine, today they are having chicken and rice (its Gracies birthday lol) but for the last 3 weeks or more all they have had is dried food, and mine are all ok.

We have them, but they are for a tall staffy /collie cross with a weak back leg. It gives him better balance.
Used it for bigger pup Maizie to stop Amy who was 8 weeks from eating everything in sight. But normally we feed the staffies on the floor always have done and find this best for them.

If the dog is tall yeah I can see the point, since Staffs are short I think it's a waste of money. You wouldn't get wolves complaining that their prey wasn't served in a raised bowl lol

We used one for Jack as he was regularly being sick after he has eaten. Vets could not find anything wrong with him and it stopped when he started eating from the raised bowls.
They are now sat in the shed gathering dust as my two eat from bowls on the floor

The information on this is very inconclusive. With my mums great danes we've looked into it. For every one that says raise the bowl another says no don't.

I'd worry a lot more if I was feeding Danes about finding the correct info as they are especially prone to bloat, I don't think I've heard of a staffy getting bloat.

My mum uses them for her 2 lurchers but they are pretty tall and have really long necks, I don't think I'd use one for a staffy though, good thing is Bo has to stand on tip toes to try and steal their food when I'm round there!

Mum compromised and lifted the bowls slightly, just so they eat a bit more comfortably.
My dogs have their bowls on the floor. I also bought them porcelain bowls (supposedlly it's more hygenic) to match the colours in my kitchen.

For every bit of proven info out there, there's something else that proves the opposite!

I've always used a feeding table with mine Dobie & rottie's (Tyson excluded, he's too little) & find it stops them gutsing down their dinner quite as quick as they can throw it back up if they eat too fast.

Mine have stainless steel and they get wanged in the dishwasher to wash which eans they get sterilised as they get boiled saves energy

I personally wouldnt bother x

This post prompted me to have a look in my shed last night to see if I still had Jacks, which I did. I have today given them to Buster to use as I think it may help with only having one front leg only. Hopefully this will make eating and drinking easier but the circumstances around this are different to most I suppose

My guys all eat from dishes on the floor and have no issues.

If your lad bolts his food it might be worth while getting a dish that prevents them doing so

e.g

http://www.canineconcepts.co.uk/item--Brake-Fast-Bowls--brake-fast-bowl---dogs

we use raised bowls for slev just because i thought it might be easier for him to eat! dont think it makes much of a difference tho xx