ceramic bowls are perfectly safe if thats wat you mean? they actually prevent black doggy noses from discoloring. anyway i digress, some dogs have a food allergy to the fillers used in alot of grocery brand dog foods, allergies to grains is the most common dog food allergy, espcially corn. this type of allergy will cause the dog to be itchy. Feeding a high quality no grain food usually help eliminate it completely.
such as merricks, innova, blue wilderness etc.
my personal prefrence is blue buffalo.
also you feed a higher amount (in the recommended chart) of said grocery brands then of the higher quality food because the higher quality usually means a higher percentage of crude protein, so they can eat less of it, and still be healthy etc. this can also help with weight management etc. anyway there are lots of dog food dog allergy posts around here i'd suggest using the search tool if you think little leo might have one and doing alittle reading up, also if you go to the health section at the top is a link to a dog food analysis website that gives you an analysis and ranking of dog foods based on their ingredients, and protein content etc.