Bowl-Free Pet Food

When it comes to serving up tonight's evening meal to our cats and dogs, it is a fair bet that most of us will do so in a pet food bowl, or on an old plate, in a saucer or even, as in the case with one couple I know, in a set of Indian Balti dishes. A recent pet food innovation is to serve direct from the packaging, TV dinner style. Now the next generation of pet food could do away with the 'bowl' altogether.

TV dinners are out, Cornish pasties are in

According to its literature, the third way from Mars involves bowl-free, single-piece meals which the company claims are a more natural and healthier way to feed adult dogs.

The Cornish pasty type triangular Wholemeals are chewy on the outside and meaty on the inside which apparently engages the dog's instincts to hold its food in its paws and satisfy its natural behaviour to chew.

Convenience by the back door..

What Wholemeals certainly do is to introduce yet more convenience to the routine of feeding your dog. Bowl-free means doing away with the onerous chore of having to wash and store dirty pet food bowls and utensils. This is given little mention in the Mars promotion which prefers to concentrate on the healthy aspect of the new pet food. But surely what attracted Cornish tin miners to their pasties was their portability. As a comfort-seeking, sensible dog would you not be tempted to save your half-eaten pasty to finish off later - in front of your favourite TV vet?

A samosa for the Yorkie please.

Currently being trialled in the US, Mars is marketing its Wholemeals exclusively in pet speciality stores.