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In this guide
The Fun Feeder Slo Bowl is the plastic maze dish that most other slow feeders copy: a shallow bowl with raised ridges arranged in a spiral, so a dog has to push kibble around the walls with its nose and tongue instead of scooping. Outward Hound says the layout keeps a dog engaged for up to ten times longer than a flat bowl, and it sells the design in three sizes, several colors, and three difficulty levels it calls Slow, Slower and Slowest.
This review covers the medium in turquoise, SKU 51006, which Outward Hound rates at two cups and marks as the Slow level. Outward Hound lists it at $5.00 against a $9.99 MSRP, which makes it a cheap experiment for a household with a dog that finishes dinner before the bag is closed. Whether the experiment works depends on the dog's size, its determination and its teeth.
Our verdict
For a medium dog that bolts kibble, a $5.00 maze bowl with a non-slip base and a dishwasher-safe body is close to free insurance against gulping; the plastic and the gentle Slow level are the limits, not the price.
- A good fit for
- A 20-to-50-pound dog on dry food that finishes a bowl in under a minute and has never chewed a dish.
- We would skip it if
- Your dog chews plastic, is a brachycephalic breed, eats mostly canned food, or already eats slowly and you are hoping for enrichment.
Reasons to consider it
- Rated by the maker at up to 10x longer meals, in the mildest of three difficulty levels
- Two-cup capacity with a non-slip base; food-grade plastic free of BPA, PVC, lead and phthalates
- Upper-rack dishwasher cleaning, priced at $5.00 at outwardhound.com against a $9.99 MSRP
The compromises
- Plastic ridges are a chew target, and Outward Hound's own safety note calls for a new bowl once this one is damaged
- The Slow level may not slow a determined dog enough; Slower and Slowest exist in other patterns
- The maker publishes no dimensions or weight for the medium, and the $5.00 price is a markdown that may not hold
What we have not verified: No dog ate from this bowl for the review. How much the Slow pattern extends a meal for a given dog, how the plastic wears against teeth, and whether the non-slip base holds on a tile floor were not tested.
The things in this guide
A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.
Fun Feeder Slo Bowl, Medium, Turquoise
Two cups of capacity, the mildest maze in the range, a non-slip base, food-grade plastic and an upper-rack dishwasher-safe body, for $5.00 at the maker.
Before you buy: Plastic that a chewer can damage, a Slow level a stubborn dog can beat, and no published dimensions to hold up beside a feeding stand.
Price checked September 11, 2026. Retailer prices can change.Ridges, not a puzzle: what the Slow level does
The bowl is a shallow dish with a spiral of raised plastic walls molded into the floor. Kibble falls into the channels between the walls and a dog cannot get a mouthful in one scoop; it has to chase pieces around the curve with its tongue. Outward Hound rates the effect at up to ten times longer per meal, and it is careful to grade the medium's pattern as Slow, the gentlest of its three levels, aimed at a dog that needs to ease off a little. Slower and Slowest use deeper or more convoluted mazes and are sold under other pattern names.
Capacity scales with size: the small holds three quarters of a cup, the medium two cups and the large three to four depending on pattern. Two cups is a full meal for a dog in the 20-to-50-pound range on most dry foods, which is why the maker describes the medium as fitting a complete meal for a medium-sized dog. The medium is also the size Outward Hound pitches for small-to-medium breeds, so a 15-pound dog could use it with the bowl half full.
One product page, twenty-one variants, not all of them stocked
Outward Hound sells the classic Slo Bowl through a single page with a color picker and a size picker, and the price changes with the choice. At the time of research the medium was $5.00 in blue, purple, turquoise and grey, with orange out of stock at the same price, and pink and mint listed at $9.99 but unavailable. The large sat at $7.50 against a $14.99 MSRP and the small at $9.99 in a $11.99 MSRP, though both small colors queried were out of stock.
The headline figure on the page, $3.50 against $6.99, belongs to whichever variant loads by default and not to the medium. Read the price after selecting the size. The turquoise medium is the variant with the deepest stock reported by the store's inventory feed, which is a practical argument for choosing it over the colors that were showing single-digit or zero quantities.
Food-grade plastic, a low-heat dishwasher rack and one firm warning
Outward Hound describes all of its feeders as food-grade plastic free of BPA, PVC, lead and phthalates, and says its products are designed in Colorado and mostly manufactured in China by partners it names as long-standing. The bowl goes in the upper dishwasher rack, with the safety note specifying a low-heat setting, and it is not to be microwaved. A non-slip base on the underside is meant to stop the bowl skating across a floor when a dog leans into the maze.
The warning that matters is the first line of the safety note: this is not a chew toy, and if the feeder becomes damaged it should be removed and replaced. A ridged plastic dish is a more inviting chew than a flat steel one because the walls give teeth something to grip. Owners of dogs that have destroyed plastic dishes should treat that line as a disqualifier, not fine print, and look at the stainless version described below.
Five dollars now, ten dollars for steel, and a thirty-day guarantee
The $5.00 price is a markdown from a $9.99 MSRP, and Outward Hound gives no end date for it. Even at full price the medium is inexpensive for a bowl that gets used twice a day. The maker's guarantee is short: claims are honored for a month from purchase, handled first by the retailer that sold the bowl, and Outward Hound offers a one-time replacement per customer if the retailer cannot help, with a receipt and a photograph required by email. There is no longer coverage for wear, which is reasonable for a $5 dish.
The alternative inside the same range is the Fun Feeder Stainless Steel bowl, listed at $10.00 against a $19.99 MSRP, which pairs a steel bowl with a removable plastic maze insert and is graded Slowest. It solves the chewing problem for the bowl itself but not for the insert, and it is the harder maze. For a dog that only needs a nudge, the plastic medium at half the cost is the better match; for a dog that beats the Slow pattern in a week, the steel bowl's Slowest insert is the next step.
Skip it for chewers, flat faces and wet-food diets
Do not buy this bowl for a dog that chews dishes. The ridges are the point of the product and also the part a jaw can get around, and Outward Hound's instruction is to throw the bowl out once it is damaged, which for some dogs is the first week. Flat-faced breeds are a second exclusion: a pug or a bulldog cannot reach kibble at the bottom of a narrow channel, and Outward Hound makes a separate feeder for those faces.
The bowl also suits canned or raw food badly. Wet food packs into the channels, the dog licks the surface clean without slowing much, and the cleanup involves a brush in every groove. And if your dog already eats at a normal pace, a maze bowl adds frustration without a health benefit; slow feeders are for gulpers, and enrichment for a calm eater is another category. For the medium kibble-eater that finishes in thirty seconds, five dollars is an easy test.
How we put this together
Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.
- Outward Hound: Fun Feeder Slo Bowl, Slow Feeder Dog Bowl (opens in a new tab)
- Outward Hound: Fun Feeder Notch Sage, medium (opens in a new tab)
- Outward Hound: FAQs (opens in a new tab)
- Outward Hound: Returns & Exchanges (opens in a new tab)
- Outward Hound: Fun Feeder Stainless Steel Slow Feeder Dog Bowl (opens in a new tab)
