Tabby & Slate began with a stack of broken bowls under the kitchen sink.
Four bowls in two years. Each one promised to be ceramic, or stainless, or both. Each one chipped a base, separated from a metal ring, or got stained beyond rescue. We finally counted the receipts: $94 in bowls, all of which ended up in the trash.
We went looking for a single, beautiful, one-piece ceramic bowl — the kind you'd serve a guest from. We couldn't find one made for cats. Pet aisles were full of cartoon paw prints and chrome rings. Boutique potters made gorgeous pieces priced like dinner for two. And nothing was raised to whisker-friendly height except the Amazon best-sellers, which were silicone-and-plastic dressed up in ceramic photos.
The brief we wrote ourselves
- — One piece. Bowl and base, fired together. Nothing to glue, nothing to separate.
- — Heavy enough not to skate when an excited cat eats.
- — Shallow and wide. Whiskers don't bend.
- — Real ceramic, third-party tested for lead and cadmium.
- — Looks like a piece of dinnerware. Disappears into the kitchen.
The hard part
Most factories will sell you anything. We learned the hard way that the word “ceramic” on Alibaba can mean almost anything — including a plastics factory that paints the word “ceramic” on a stoneware-look catalog. After the third quote came back at suspiciously low prices, we added one question to every conversation: do you own the kiln, or are you sourcing from a partner? Half the suppliers said partner. We thanked them and moved on.
Our final shortlist came from Chaozhou, Dehua, and Foshan — clusters that have been firing porcelain for centuries. Every quote we accept comes with a current lead-and-cadmium test report. Every batch ships with a copy of that report on file.
What we promise
- ✱ Real ceramic, no exceptions, no “-style.”
- ✱ Replacement, free, if your bowl arrives chipped or cracked.
- ✱ Test reports available on request, every time.
- ✱ Small runs. We'd rather be sold out than over-produce.
If your cat could write a Yelp review, we want it to say exactly one thing: finally.