A dark grey feeding mat with a herringbone surface and white paw prints at the corners, lying on a pale wood floor with two bowls on it.
A pool of spilled water on a wood floor beside a skirting board, with wet paw prints tracking away from it.
Close view of the underside of the mat, a dense woven rubber texture, with the edge turned back.
The first and third photographs are the actual product, from the supplier who fills the box. The middle photograph is ours and has no product in it. It is the floor, forty seconds after the bowl went over.
Feeding · cats and dogs

The water never stays where the bowl is.

The Mat. An absorbent top that takes a spill in about ten seconds, over a rubber backing that stops the whole thing sliding into the hall at the first push of a nose.

Absorbs, then holds Rubber backed, grips wet floors Wipe, rinse, hang, roll
$52one mat, black
Read the full spec

Ships from a US warehouse. Three to eight days to your door, handling included. Nothing is pre-ticked on this page.

We do not yet know this mat’s finished size. Read the spec table before you buy. We have asked the supplier and we are not going to guess at it in the meantime.

Ten seconds, photographed

Watch the water disappear.

These are the supplier’s own frames, in their own order, with their captions stripped off and ours put on. Drag the scrubber.

Time since the spill 0seconds
0510

Three frames of spilled milk with kibble in it on the mat, the milk gone by the third frame and the kibble still sitting on top, dry.
The same test with milk and kibble. The liquid goes down into the mat, the solid stays on top of it, which is the part that matters when you come to clear up.
The other half of it

A mat that slides is not a mat.

Absorbency is the easy half. The reason most feeding mats end up in a cupboard is that they shunt across the floor every time an animal leans on a bowl, and then they wrinkle, and then they tip the water they were supposed to catch.

The backing on this one is a dense woven rubber. The supplier also tests it against a fork, which is a crude test and an honest one, and we have put their frame here rather than describe it.

A fork dragged hard across the surface of the mat, the tines leaving no cut or tear.
Supplier photograph, uncaptioned by them and uncropped by us except to remove their banner.
The full specification

Including the gap.

There is a measurement missing from this table and it is the one you would most want. We are leaving the hole visible rather than filling it with a guess.

The Mat · black, one size
Finished sizeUnknown. The supplier lists one variant and never states its dimensions. Their rolled carton is 325 mm long, which fits the 12 by 20 inch size and not the two larger ones, but a carton is not a measurement and we have asked them directly
ColourBlack. There is no other
BackingRubber, woven texture, anti slip on a wet floor
Top surfaceTheir title says absorbent fabric, their attribute field says leather. Those are not the same answer and we have asked which it is
AbsorptionWater gone in about 10 seconds, from the supplier’s own timed frames. Not run by us
Solid and liquidLiquid goes into the mat, kibble stays on the surface
CleaningWipe with a damp cloth, or rinse under a tap, then air dry
StorageRolls up
Shipped weight308 g
Carton325 × 75 × 50 mm, rolled
Country of originChina
Ships fromUnited States warehouse
Delivery3 to 8 business days, handling included
Stock today100 units, read from the warehouse as this page loaded
What it is not

Four reasons not to buy this.

The first one is bad enough that you should probably wait, and we are putting it first anyway.

We cannot tell you how big it is.

That is a poor way to sell a mat and we know it. The supplier offers one variant and never names its size. Until they answer us, buying this is buying a mat whose footprint you will discover when the parcel opens, and you are entitled to decide that is not good enough.

It only comes in black.

One colour, no choice. If your kitchen is pale and you wanted the mat to disappear into it, this will do the opposite.

Absorbent means it holds water.

That is the point of it, and it also means a mat that has taken a full bowl is a damp mat until you rinse and dry it. If you want something you can flick off and forget, you want a silicone tray with a lip, not this.

We have not run the test ourselves.

The ten seconds is theirs, photographed on their bench. We have put their frames up unedited rather than retyping the claim as if it were ours.

Read the size row first. Then decide.

Go to the spec table