I've mentioned a few times what an enthusiastic eater Charlie has always been, but at breakfast today I wonder if things are going a bit far and I should think about doing something about it. Charlie gets kibble designed (apparently) for labradors - it's suppose to be hard to eat, so they slow down while they crunch it. Charlie never crunched it very much, but now I don't hear any crunching at all. I think it goes down without touching the sides. It's like he doesn't eat, he inhales food! And the speed he eats - it's really incredible. Very occasionally we used to mix things in with the kibble (sardines etc) but I thought that made him eat even faster, so we've stopped all of that and sardines are training treats only. I've seen "anti gobble" bowls in the store - it looks like the dog has to pick his kibble out from around lumps in the bottom of the bowl. I have my doubts whether that would slow him down very much.
Re: wolfing food You may just have to live with this, Julie. Labs are possibly the most enthusiastic eaters in the world!!! I swapped Poppy to a raw diet at around four months, and the necessary chewing really slowed her down. I 'mix and match' more now, but she does eat a lot more slowly than she did as a pup, even when she gets kibble. Charlie may slow down, particularly if you give him bones to chew, or he may just continue inhaling his food for the rest of his life! ;D
Re: wolfing food Karen is spot on Julie , Sam was just the same , I swear he never tasted his food , he is now 2 years old and is a tad more sedate when eating but sometimes still goes at it like its his last meal, ever
Re: wolfing food Yep, I agree! Inhaling food is normal. Gives me indigestion just to watch I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Re: wolfing food Our Charlie does the same. Used to take her around 19 seconds to finish her meal, which is crazy fast. We were worried a bit so at first put a toy in there too, so she had to eat around it. That only worked once, as she just lifted it out at the start! So then went bought her one of those slow feed bowls. It's been okay so far, it has definitely slowed her down. She eats kibble that has been soaked first.
Re: wolfing food Thanks all, it's good to hear that Charlie is probably just an average food inhaling lab puppy. I do wonder about the kibble. What it is exactly, what additives it has to make it smell attractive to dogs etc. I wouldn't know where to start feeding anything else though. I'll look into it a bit more when I have time.
Re: wolfing food One of mine is a serious, Olympic-standard gobbler and has been from a pup. She was so bad she would choke and vomit/regurgitate her food in the attempt to get it all down in world record times. I bought her an anti-gobble bowl which did slow her down but she was so manic she damaged an incisor tooth on it. I feed her from a flat plastic tray now with the kibble spread all over it. Slows her down although she is still fast, and has totally stopped the choking and regurgitating.
I'm still relatively new to this forum so I'm not sure how you guys/gals feel about waking up an old thread as opposed to starting a new one on a particular subject. I am looking for feedback on the way our labs vacuum food into their bodies. I have read that the way they eat can cause gas, among others things, but more seriously, bloat. I've looked at the bowls designed to slow them down, watched a few video's, and think it's worth a shot. I'm wondering if anyone here has given this subject anymore thought.
You could use Zeke's meals for training purposes throughout the day rather than given him his meals in single sittings, if there is any left just spread on the floor so that he doesn't inhale it or just put it on a flat tray, no need to buy the slow feeding bowls
I think it's really fun to see posts from 2013! How on earth do you find them though? I started this thread when Charlie was still a tiny pup! He still inhales his food. I never did anything about it, and years later he is still fine. He doesn't get much food in a bowl these days though, when he turned into a teenager I started using most of his food for training, and still am....
I just use one of the anti bloat bowls for Juno to slow her down, which it does for all of 15 seconds
Zaba has one of these - it's excellent It takes him about three minutes to eat his meals. http://tinyurl.com/hu7u979 .
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be going back to work soon and won't have the time throughout the day that I have now.
I used the forum search feature . I realize not all dogs react the same in every situation and rather than take a chance of him not having problems I'd like to take a preventative measure, hence the question on an older thread, to see if anyone who commented has since changed their mind or practice. Posted below is a video of Zeke eating, for some reason it looks less dramatic on video than it does in person. In case anyone is wondering why Zeke eats in his crate ... when we brought him home we wanted him to think of the crate as a happy place so we fed him in it. Now at dinner he happily goes in and sits and waits for room service. I close the gate because we also have two small dogs that aren't as fast as he is and we don't want any conflicts regarding food among them. On a side note, I had an unfortunate experience on another forum, bringing up a comment from an old thread brought some bad memories for someone whose situation changed after their comment in the old thread unbeknownst to me, this is why I mentioned it in my opening.
Thanks I am going to try this one, we'll see if it helps. He does get a little gas, I was researching that and that brought up the fast eating as a possible cause.
I think it is normal for dogs to eat as quickly as they can. I have one who eats fast (though doesn't inhale) and one who takes ages! @JulieT perhaps you could scatter his food so that he will take longer to find and eat it?
I use a food that there isn't great quantity of in a bowl so goes very quickly! I think bloat risk is one of the reasons that 2 meals a day is standard for dogs like labs rather than just the one. Lots of people stick to 3 meals a day - admittedly easier if you work from home.
