Scope: Pet Bowls & Feeding (supplies > pets > pet_bowls) — manual food/water bowls (standard, elevated, slow-feeder, travel/collapsible), automatic/programmable feeders, and water fountains; excludes pet furniture (crates, beds) and food itself.

Seed:
1. Equivalent of harvest_date: stainless steel grade (304/18-8 vs 430) — almost never stated beyond "stainless steel," decides rust and food-contact safety, costs nothing extra to ask.
2. Watchmaker would first distrust an elevated bowl's stand: it's sold as a comfort upgrade but a cohort study links raised feeding to higher, not lower, bloat risk in large deep-chested dogs — the price buys a mechanism, not the safety claim on the box.

Sources:
[kloeckner_steel_grades] https://www.kloecknermetals.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-430-vs-304-stainless-steel/ — 304 has added nickel for corrosion resistance, 430 has none — fetched excerpt
[zerowaste_stainless_dog_bowl] https://thezerowastelist.com/stainless-steel-dog-bowl/ — magnet sticks weakly to 304, strongly to lower grades; rust starts under a bonded rubber base — fetched excerpt
[nontoxiclab_pet_bowls] https://nontoxiclab.com/non-toxic-pet-food-bowls-lead-pfas-tested/ — ceramic glaze can carry lead, steel grade matters, silicone/plastic raise PFAS questions — fetched excerpt
[thomasacres_ceramic_bowls] https://thomasacres.com/best-ceramic-dog-bowls/ — lead is a common ceramic-glaze flux and pet bowls aren't held to human tableware leach limits — fetched excerpt
[webvet_elevated_bowls] https://www.webvet.com/elevated-dog-bowls/ — Glickman/JAVMA 2000 (Purdue) found raised feeders associated with increased GDV risk in large/giant breeds; Pipan 2012 didn't replicate it — fetched excerpt
[dogsily_elevated_bowls] https://dogsily.com/article/diet/elevated-dog-food-bowls-pros-cons/ — corroborates the Purdue GDV study on raised feeders — fetched excerpt
[messymutts_slow_feeder] https://messymutts.ca/blogs/news/dog-slow-feeder-bowls-benefits-and-risks — maze ridges reduce gulping, choking, vomiting and bloating — fetched excerpt
[wefeedraw_slow_feeder] https://wefeedraw.com/blog/what-is-a-slow-feeder-dog-bowl — slow feeders prevent gulping and improve digestion by filling the stomach more slowly — fetched excerpt
[petsafe_smartfeed_spec] https://www.petsafe.com/product/smart-feed/ — 24-cup capacity, up to 12 meals/day, portions from 1/8 to 4 cups — fetched excerpt
[petsafe_flexfeed_spec] https://www.petsafe.com/p/flexfeed-automatic-pet-feeder/PFD00-18090/ — 8-cup capacity, 15 portion settings from 1/15 to 1 cup — fetched excerpt
[petsafe_drinkwell360_spec] https://www.petsafe.com/p/drinkwell-360-fountain-stainless-steel/PWW00-13705/ — 128 oz capacity, carbon + foam filters, 5 free-falling stream options — fetched excerpt
[petsafe_drinkwell_outdoor_spec] https://www.petsafe.com/p/drinkwell-outdoor-dog-fountain/ZWW00-17111/ — 450 oz capacity, largest Drinkwell fountain — fetched excerpt
[whisker_feederrobot_spec] https://www.whisker.com/feeder-robot — optional battery backup option listed on the product configurator — fetched excerpt
[webvet_autofeeders_guide] https://www.webvet.com/best-automatic-dog-feeders/ — gravity-fed dispensers are built around small-to-medium kibble; large kibble and hopper moisture cause jams — fetched excerpt

Branches:
feeder_type -> manual_bowl: structural fork, bowl material/shape facets don't apply to powered devices.
feeder_type -> automatic_feeder: webvet_autofeeders_guide — "hopper size, portion control, kibble limits, and power backup" are the comparison axes, none shared with bowls/fountains.
feeder_type -> water_fountain: petsafe_drinkwell360_spec — filter/pump/stream spec set is unique to fountains.
bowl_form -> elevated: webvet_elevated_bowls — raised feeders carry a documented GDV-risk flag, so height/adjustability becomes the next question.
bowl_form -> slow_feeder: messymutts_slow_feeder — maze ridges are the entire point of this form, so maze depth is the next question.

Noise (spec-sheet rows with no facet):
- Price / price-per-ounce — excluded, price is never a facet.
- Brand and star rating — excluded, never a facet.
- Plain bowl capacity in oz (manual bowls) — left out; varies by pet size, no two-source range found, buyers match to pet weight not a spec number.
- Pump wattage/voltage (fountains) — left out; not consistently published and not a reviewer-cited decision factor beyond filter type.
- Fountain noise/decibel rating — left out; no sourced number found this run.
- Color/pattern — excluded, cosmetic.
- Warranty length — left out; a retailer policy field, not an expert attribute.
- Fountain pump type / power option (e.g. PetSafe Drinkwell 360's "Pump Type: Submersible", "Power Option: Plug-in") — checked but left out; fetched the Drinkwell 360 spec page directly and found no second brand with a differing pump type or power option to corroborate real buyer-relevant variance, so it doesn't clear the two-source bar for a new facet. Flagged by the blind check (fix #7); rejected rather than added, see Corrections below.

## Corrections (2026-10-26)
- Dropped facets `power_source`, `portion_control_method`, `hopper_capacity`, `portion_size_range`, `kibble_size_compatibility` (5 of 19) and their `automatic_feeder` branch asks: `catalog.json` lists `feeders` ("Pet Feeders", `supplies/pets/feeders`) as a separate sibling leaf, so these facets were a scope swallow of that leaf, not this one. The `feeder_type` split/facet is kept as a routing signal only (recognizing a product isn't a bowl), with `automatic_feeder` now asking nothing further in this register.
- Removed vocabulary entries "Hopper", "Gravity feeder", "Auger" since their only home facets were the ones dropped above and no surviving text needs them defined.
- Removed now-orphaned references `petsafe_flexfeed_spec`, `whisker_feederrobot_spec`, `webvet_autofeeders_guide` (no longer cited as evidence by anything after the facet drop).
- Rejected adding a `dispensing_mechanism` facet (check fix #4) and an automatic-feeder anti-gulp/slow-feed facet (check fix #7, first item): both are automatic-feeder-specific and fall inside the scope just dropped above, so they belong with the sibling `feeders` leaf, not here.
- Rejected adding a `pump_type`/`power_option` facet for fountains (check fix #7, second item): fetched the PetSafe Drinkwell 360 page directly and confirmed the "Pump Type: Submersible" / "Power Option: Plug-in" structured fields exist, but found no second, differently-specced brand to establish real decision-relevant variance within this run's budget — documented as an explicit Noise line above instead of inventing a two-source claim.
- Rewrote `judgements[0].note` and `tradeoffs[0].plain`: removed the "2012 Pipan et al." detail, which neither `webvet_elevated_bowls` nor `dogsily_elevated_bowls` mentions (webvet in fact states the association "has never been settled by a follow-up trial"). Set `sources_disagree` to `false` since the two cited sources agree with each other; the open question is lack of replication, not a contradicting study.
- Changed `maze_pattern_depth.source` from `listing` to `researched`, matching its own `listing_field_hint` ("usually shown in product photos rather than a named field").
- Added a vocabulary entry for "BPA", linked to `bowl_material`.
- Added an explicit single-brand caveat to `reservoir_capacity.backfill_note`: both sources (`petsafe_drinkwell360_spec`, `petsafe_drinkwell_outdoor_spec`) are PetSafe's own Drinkwell line; the 128-450 oz range is not yet corroborated against another fountain brand.
- Added `bowl_material` to the `water_fountain` branch's `then_ask`, closing the gap where the facet's own definition says "or fountain reservoir" but fountains never asked it.