Daughters and hygiene

I think it is quite unhealthy. Maybe keep a washing bowl just for your cat’s dish and you can use the left over water from your other washing bowl.

If you do not have another sink. I suggest you buy a cheap plastic bucket and disposable dish cloths which you only use for your pet.

You can empty it into an outside grid or down the toilet only a daily basis. The clean the toilet with bleach.

Always wash up in Antibacterial liquid. Wash plates, pots & pans etc first then change washing up sponge for a brush & wash cats & tortoises bits & pieces in water left topped up with hot water & little more antibac. Started this when first married over 50 years ago & still here!

What rubbish from your daughter! That you share a washing up bowl???? Ridiculous!
Does your adult daughter have children? Do they do the usual disgusting childhood things? (It's why teachers never eat cakes cooked by pupils!
Perhaps your cats should move into a separate house! Do you touch them? Do they ever sneeze? Do they breath the same air?
Goodness me, what nonsense! Has your adult daughter never seen research that proves living with animals is very beneficial for health?

A few examples in case she has not!
"A major review of data from nearly 4 million people found that dog ownership is linked to a 24% reduction in all-cause mortality"
" Growing up with pets may help "train" the immune system. Exposure to a dog in the first year of life has been linked to a 13% to 45% lower risk of childhood asthma."
" Research indicates that pet ownership can increase life satisfaction by 3 to 4 points on a 7-point scale, a boost equivalent to the value placed on marriage or high-frequency social interactions."

Can't believe folk bleach cat dishes! Why? As long as it's only the cat that's going to eat from it. Our cat eats dry food, dish gets refilled until someone thinks it maybe needs a wash. Into the dishwasher it goes.

Well people have been doing this for years, if it had any detrimental effect on our health we'd know about by now.

WithKnobsOnIt. Seriously?! Talk about over the top! There's nothing wrong with washing them in a bowl or sink when you can bleach it afterwards no need to chuck the water down an outside drain! I wouldn't actually wash it in the bowl though, I would wash it in the sink and then bleach it.

Have you always done it? Are you fine? If so there's you're answer. I washdog bowls in my sink...never come to any harm...

Agree Peaseblossom & Mojack26 too much concern about possible infection and definitely too much bleach.

sodapop

Agree Peaseblossom & Mojack26 too much concern about possible infection and definitely too much bleach.

Absolutely. Do some people never eat out, because I think they'd have a fit if they ever saw what goes on behind the scenes in some kitchens.

I do exactly the same and honestly can’t see a problem. I do use a separate sponge and drying cloth. Antibacterial washing up liquid should sort out any germs and obviously you wash your washing up bowl so I really wouldn’t change my routine personally. And I’ve had dogs throughout my adult life and had no issues. Sometimes I think we are a little bit too obsessed with cleanliness. As a child I remember we had a bath Sunday before school Monday. Sometimes the bath water had to be shared so whoever was cleanest between my older brother and I would get the water first! Didn’t even know showers existed!!!

Liz46

We wash the cat's dishes after our own and give them a quick rinse in hot water. I then empty the bowl and give that a rinse in hot water. I think that's fine.

That's what I do Liz46 and we're still alive.

Just to add, I have a separate washing up sponge for the cat bowls.

How ridiculous. We’ve shared homes with cats for 10,000 years and I’d bet nobody has ever been ill from using the same washing up bowl to wash their pets’ dishes.

ViceVersa

I remember years ago when we had a cat, I had just bought fish for my husband's dinner and put it on the kitchen table while I fetched the breadcrumbs to dress it with. Turned round to see the cat munching one end of the fish. Well, I shooed the cat away, got the kitchen scissors out, trimmed the fish and dressed it in the breadcrumbs and OH was none the wiser. He's still here and we're still married! What the eye doesn't see - and all that!

Ha Ha! love it.
That reminds me of something similar.
I had put a couple of chicken breasts on the kitchen worktop for my sons dinner.
The cat pinched one and left it on the front door mat.
When I found it I gave it a thorough wash under the tap and still cooked it.
I couldn't speak at dinner time for laughing I was in hysterics.
He never knew.

When we had a utility room we fed the cat there and had a dedicated fork, and brush for the dishes. However when we last moved we only had one kitchen sink so although I kept the cat's fork and brush together in the cupboard under the sink we had to use the same sink. I didn't clean it wespecially well afterwards and we never got ill. We need to be exposed to a certain amount of germs o build up immunity and I worry more about overuse of anti bacterial sprays than about germs. I used it round the cat's litter tray and I don't buy it any more since our last cat died. I'd bought a few bottles on special offer and I don't think we've used them all yet!

Ours go in the dishwasher with all the other dishes . Nobody has died .

Its perfectly fine imo. I always washed them in the left over dish water....and im still here to tell the tale.
(Ive heard that a dogs mouth has antiseptic qualities and is very clean).

Grammaretto

I think our DC can be our most severe critics.
They forget that you brought them up and they survived along with family pets.

I was astonished when first visiting DS and future DiL in their first home together to be asked to take off our perfectly clean shoes at the door.
The white carpets and lack of ornament left me speechless. Was this the same person?
When he had left for university I filled 9 binbags of rubbish from his bedroom.

If it makes you feel better, wash the animal dishes separately and use the dishwasher if you have one.

Made me laugh reading this. Remember when my son was a teenager I used to make jokes about having my protective 'shots', before daring to go into his bedroom. Dirty and clean clothes all mixed together along with dirty dishes (although forbidden to take food upstairs), etc.etc.

Okay this was several decades ago - but go to his house now, shoes off at door, everything so very tidy and neat (perhaps more to do with his wife than him). Even their very spoiled cat is only allowed in the main lounge area if on his lap.

Mind you that wife is OTT - still wears a mask when going out anywhere and uses anti-bac spray on her hands etc. every few minutes (it appears to me).

I have always been rather laid back and of the 'eat a peck of dirt' mode. My flat is always clean and tidy (only me here), but I know she dislikes visiting me as I really dislike overuse of such things as bleach, anti-bacs and even disinfectant. Did not do any of that even during Covid.

Amazing how I have managed to live into my mid-80's in this lackadaisicle manner!!!!!

I feel somewhat relieved, thank you, and will look for this 'anti bacterial' liquid on my next shop. I tend to stick with the old green Fairy Liquid.
As for the cat's dishes, I'm now lifting the washing-up bowl out of the sink, putting the cat's dish in the sink and pouring the used water into them. A quick rinse with their own sponge and leave to air dry.
(ps she lets her dog lick her face - to me thats really ugh! - but thats a whole other subject for a post).

Astitchintime

I’m inclined to think your DD has a valid point. Should we really be washing the food bowls of any creature, especially those renowned for licking their own backsides, anywhere near our own domestic washing up facilities?
If you kept chickens ExDancer, would you wash their water and food bowls in your domestic sink? Likewise if you kept rabbits, budgies, pigs……..I could go on but I’ll leave it there.

I agree.
I always used to handwash pet food bowls in the sink, not in the washing up bowl.
I have a friend who puts hers in the dishwasher with her own plates, I wouldn’t do that either but safer than handwashing in the bowl.

Colls

What rubbish from your daughter! That you share a washing up bowl???? Ridiculous!
Does your adult daughter have children? Do they do the usual disgusting childhood things? (It's why teachers never eat cakes cooked by pupils!
Perhaps your cats should move into a separate house! Do you touch them? Do they ever sneeze? Do they breath the same air?
Goodness me, what nonsense! Has your adult daughter never seen research that proves living with animals is very beneficial for health?

A few examples in case she has not!
"A major review of data from nearly 4 million people found that dog ownership is linked to a 24% reduction in all-cause mortality"
" Growing up with pets may help "train" the immune system. Exposure to a dog in the first year of life has been linked to a 13% to 45% lower risk of childhood asthma."
" Research indicates that pet ownership can increase life satisfaction by 3 to 4 points on a 7-point scale, a boost equivalent to the value placed on marriage or high-frequency social interactions."

Haha you have really made me smile!

I do agree with you and if us pet lovers choose to have animals living in the house with us, most of us are able to live perfectly well with them and allow them to quite happily sit on our chairs with us, in bed with us, at our feet, come into our kitchens and none of seem to have any awful diseases.

Ditto my four children, who like most young children, were pretty disgusting at times!

Btw, when we did have hamsters and guinea pigs, yes, I did wash their fishers, cages etc etc in my “domestic” sink!

Sometimes their bits and pieces even went into the dishwasher.

Horror of horrors, I wash our dogs blankets and toys in the “domestic” washing machine too, though alone, not with our clothes! I do always wash the machine afterwards by running the “drum cleaner” cycle and in the winter they get dried in our “domestic” dryer.

My dog, a Labrador needless to say, licks her stainless steel bowl clean. It only needs a good rinse in the utility room sink. I wouldn’t put it in the dishwasher or the washing up bowl. Like my previous lab she has been taught not to take food without permission and won’t touch a human’s plate even if you put it on the floor in front of her.

Franbern we still have a 23 year old “boy” living at home, I “joke” about having to wear a hazmat suit before entering his room! Son number one was the same, but his home is now immaculate!