ants in dog food

ellen · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 7:00 am Post subject: ants in dog food

Howdy! Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can keep ants out of the dog's outdoor feeder? She tends to graze instead of eating all at once.
Thanks!

Tony M · Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 1086 Location: McKinney,TEXAS

If an animal doesn't finish all the food at one feeding you might be feeding too much. You not only invite ants but mice, rats, birds, stray animals, etc to your house. Lecture over.
Pet Smart sells a bowl with raised feet that ants can't get around. You can also sprinkle some DE so the dish is sitting in the middle of it.
Tony M

Sassy34 · Joined: 23 May 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Whitewright,TEXAS

I mix DE with the dog food in the feeder. I also put DE under the bowl. I don't have problems when I do this.

northwesterner · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Fort Worth,TEXAS

I was feeding my dog the Muenster Natural (small pieces) and it took her a while to finish it. The ants didn't take long to turn up and the dog did not want food with ants in it. My solution was to find a flat-bottomed (for stability) ceramic dish and set it in a shallow galvenized pan I found over at Home Depot. I put a little water in it and -- no ants. But if she dropped food in it, it tended to float and go to waste, so I had to clean this every couple of days.

The solution I found was in changing the dog food. I went down to Marshall Grain to get a bag of the same food but in the big bites, and now the dog eats it so fast there is no need for an ant barrier. In about 60 seconds she has polished off her 3 cups of food. The new pup who is her companion eats in the house right now, as we get them accustomed to sharing the space. She inhales her 2 cups in half of the time. :)