Hi, we have 9 week old labrador pup who loves her food- she has 50g of vetspec puppy 4 times a day, plus training treats. She wolfs her her food in under a minute and usually immediately gets the hiccups- will eating so fast do her any harm, and if so what can I do to slow her down?
I think it's pretty normal gobbling food as fast as possible and hiccups are also common with puppies. I doubt it will do much harm but haven't seen any evidence either way. You can get special dog food bowls that reduce gulping - they have a few sections to split the food up and make it a bit more work for the dog to get the food out. I haven't tried one personally, but seems to make sense if you're concerned. Are you sure about the quantity of food you are providing? I was feeding about twice that quantity at that age, although it will depend on the food. I am feeding raw and was advised to feed about 10% of the pup's weight per day. At 9 weeks, my puppy was 4.8kg so I was feeding almost 500g per day.
Thanks, if it's pretty normal and not known to be z problem I'll let her crack on! Definitely the right amount of food, packet says 200g a day for under 3 months at 5kg
Curious to follow this. Our 8 week old that have just been home 2 days now, does not eat much at the moment and definitely doesn't wolf it down when she eats but still gets hiccups all the time.
Bear in mind that raw food has a high water content so the weight will be significantly more than a dry food.
Hello we also have a puppy that wolf's her food down and gets hiccups, like ridiculously quickly, so we invested in Northmate green slow feeder and it's truly made a huge difference, she use to eat all her food in under a minute and half, the first time she used the slow feeder it took her 30 minutes to finish the lot, but as labs are so clever she's now down to about 15 minutes which is still better than 2.
My lab puppy is 10 weeks and gets hiccups several times per day. I might look into the slow feeder. Thank you for that!
My pup was a bit slow to eat the first few days as well. But after 4 or 5 days she was getting used to things and was much faster. It might help if you put the food in a quiet part of the house that doesn't have distractions or people moving about. I also found my pup was a bit scared of a red recycling box next to her bowl! But she got over that quickly. Maybe try a few different places for feeding. She also got the hiccups a lot even outside feeding times. Quite often when I picked her up to take her out. I think it's just the tum gets a bit squashed & it sets off the hiccups. If the hiccups last a long time - like several hours, it might be worth a check up with a vet.
My puppy also gets hiccups frequently when I pick her up! Thank goodness it's not just her. I thought something was wrong with her!
She has been home a week now and eats just fine now. The hiccups also seems to be less frequent by now. And is getting very good at recall without to many distractions in garden.
