Okay I have the serious creepy crawlies right now! I recently got my dog new food and water bowls. They have a plastic base with a glass bowl insert. I was about to feed him dinner when I noticed his bowl was looking a little grungy - like it had little food crumbs built up on the bottom. So I bring it over to the sink and to my horror, it's not little bits of food I was seeing but some kind of tiny BUG! There were dozens of them between the plastic and the glass. They appear to have just hatched because there is also a bit of whitish substance amongst groups of the bugs. The bugs are very tiny, round, and reddish brown. I can't see legs or any other distinguishing features because they are so small, but I watched them walking around in the bowl. Blah! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! I attached a photo, but it didn't turn out great because they are so tiny. Does anyone have any idea what these could be? I live in Great Falls, Montana, if that helps.
Ewwwww I have no idea what they are, could they have come out of the food?? Could they be a food mite of some description? I think if it were me, I would bin the food and bowl, get a new sack of food and keep it in an airtight storage bucket, take out a couple of days food at a time, portion it up into your dogs meal allowance and pop it in a ziplock bag and pop them in the freezer, that will kill off any mites/ insects lurking in the food. I use stainless steel bowls as I can really scrub those and pour scalding hot water in there without the worry of melting or damaging the bowl
Thanks for your advice, Griff! I am going to check the food next and probably throw the whole thing out whether I find anything or not... Just in case! But your idea to put a few days worth in the freezer is a good idea. Ha I just switched to glass from stainless steel bowls because my dog wasn't drinking much water and I thought maybe it was the bowl. I feel like I can get the glass pretty clean, I just need to scrub them more often, obviously! I mean I knew my housekeeping skills were lacking but I didn't know they were that bad! Haha. It's weird because the bugs were under the glass, between the bowl and the plastic base. And under the rim of the glass bowl, there is a rubber band thing that kind of keeps the bowl in place in the base. So there were a few obstacles for the little guys to get past to get under the bowl! But I bugs can be pretty creative.
They look like red spider mite to me? Nasty little parasites that are bad news for domestic fowl, often transferred from pigeons. I'll hazard a guess that is what they could be and they got there when the corn was in storage and pigeons lofted above. Otherwise, maybe when the bowl was in storage. I could be wrong of course, whatever they are not nice!
I don't know how much of a problem they are for dogs, but a normal flea treatment should suffice. They are total vampires, they hide in the dark during the day and come out at night.