# Rapid Eating



## Patrick Cheatham (Apr 10, 2006)

Since fast eating has been said to be one cause of bloat. What are some ways some of you use to slow down a dog that engulfs their food? Or do you try to slow it down?


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## chris haynie (Sep 15, 2009)

when i first got my dog he was a super fast eater.a fter he realized he was gonna get fed 2x a day he stopped eating so fast. he was an abuse/neglect case so i guess at first he was just eating fast he wasn't used to a steady supply of food, and wanted to be sure he ate it fast whenever it was offered. i turned a small bowl upside down inside of his bigger bowl and put the food in it then, he had to eat around the smaller bowl, forcing him to slow down. they also make some eat slow bowls with little knobby type things protruding from the bottom. same idea as the inverted bowl inside the big one, giving him stuff to eat around forced him to slow down. those worked ok for me.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Don't feed it in a bowl. Throw it out all over the place.


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## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

sounds like a good time to teach the dog how to track. Make the dog eat his food on the track.


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## Stuart Stuart (Dec 25, 2009)

Check this web site out www.brake-fast.net


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

I was just talking to a gal at club today who has this same problem. She also has horses and says she knows people who have put a large heavy rock in their horses grain bucket to keep them from sucking down the grain too fast so she is going to do the same with her dog's dish so the dog has to eat around it, sort of like those bowls you linked with the posts. The only problem with putting a rock in the dish is some dogs (like mine) would probably forget all about eating because getting rock out of food dish would be the start of a much more fun game than simply eating food.


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## Patrick Cheatham (Apr 10, 2006)

Elite K9 carries the Brake Fast bowl, so I'll try that and see how well it works.


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## Anne Jones (Mar 27, 2006)

I was going to sugest the same as Susan did....a few large rocks in the bowl. You can also hand feed some of it, place on a track, or feed smaller meals. I found that all my pups woof down food fast when they first get to me, these are all raw fed pups from weaning. Competition from littermates cause some of this along with high food drive. But with feeding larger RMBs they do tend to slow down a bit after a week or so when they see there is no longer any conpetition for their share of food.


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## Adam Swilling (Feb 12, 2009)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Don't feed it in a bowl. Throw it out all over the place.


This is what I did with both of my malis when I got them. I feed twice a day and when they figured that out and that they were going to get it at about the same time everyday they slowed down. I've heard that the bowls work well too.


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## Jennifer Marshall (Dec 13, 2007)

Patrick don't waste money on a special bowl. Just put the food in the crate loose, no bowl. I feed both of my fast eaters this way, they get fed 3 times a day and I just put the food right on the floor of the crates.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

Jennifer Marshall said:


> Patrick don't waste money on a special bowl. Just put the food in the crate loose, no bowl. I feed both of my fast eaters this way, they get fed 3 times a day and I just put the food right on the floor of the crates.


I do this too if needed, or I will put a heavy rock in the bowl....and since I feed raw...giving them frozen or partialy frozen meat helps...they chew it A LOT more than when thawed out.


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## Daryl Ehret (Apr 4, 2006)

My three 7 month old pups are just completely ravenous of their food, even still. They've eaten privately for at least four months now, and they get plenty (2lbs red meat, and poultry daily). Still, there has been no lessening of their food drive. Even shortly after eating, I have their upmost attention for a biscuit, a crumb, a peanut, _or anything_, that they'd maul me for it if I allowed them. I can hand them antibiotic medication through the crate mesh, and it's gobbled up fast. I thought their sire ate fast and furious, until I had these little monsters. Never seen anything like it, and you'd assume I starve them. If they're ever going to slow down, I'm seeing no sign of it.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Dale, my female GSD is going on 7 and she is still like that. A real easy dog to medicate though as you say. Particularly compared to my last dog who could extricate a pill from a hot dog and spit it out.....


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## Jason Caldwell (Dec 11, 2008)

I've used the brake fast bowl before. I first used it on a rescue GSD that ate her dinner in about 30 seconds flat. The brake fast bowl increased her eating time to three minutes. To each their own, I thought it was well worth the money.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

I feed almost excusively from the training pouch. 1 cup in the morning is in the dish. It's a tiny amount, so not a big deal, IMO. Then the rest is spread out throughout the day in training sessions.


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## Nicole Lit (Jan 21, 2009)

You can also get a pretty inexpensive large metal ball that the dog can't pick up to put in the dish. Mine just figured out to push it out with her nose so the "evil thing" would not further interrupt her meal :roll:. Prior to that I would use a large kong or any other large object, which worked pretty well for the first while. I've found that adding some water to her food helps tremendously and that is what we do now. 

Aside from that, I've also scattered her food out.


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

I free feed the dogs so I have never had the problem. They casually graze. Never see any food aggression with 5 or 6 dogs using the same feeder


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

My Labx is a fast eater. I tried slowing him down by flipping his bowl over and putting the food in the rim, but it just seemed to make him more frantic. 

Now I just add water. He doesn't choke on the dry kibbles and there's more in his bowl, even if its just a bit of watery kibble soup, but it takes a bit longer for him to clean it up.


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2008)

leslie cassian said:


> My Labx is a fast eater. I tried slowing him down by flipping his bowl over and putting the food in the rim, but it just seemed to make him more frantic.
> 
> Now I just add water. He doesn't choke on the dry kibbles and there's more in his bowl, even if its just a bit of watery kibble soup, but it takes a bit longer for him to clean it up.


 
I am looking after a 6mo GSD for a friend while he is out of town and I tried all that you have said on this board and nothing seemed to work except adding water....and is what I did yesterday and she slowed down quite a bit and didn't throw it all back up and eat it, like she has been all week. 

Didn't matter if it was one cup or three, she is like a high power vacuum!


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I have done the water thing in the past but the addition of water is one of those things that may increase the likliehood of bloat.................


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2008)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> I have done the water thing in the past but the addition of water is one of those things that may increase the likliehood of bloat.................


 
so is drinking right after you suck down the food...

Amazing how little of mushers have issues with bloat...and they deal with may more dogs and 99% of them add water, broth, etc.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Those folks have guidelines about water restriction after eating as well...........all of this is based on work done by the vet school at Purdue.......

Maren........do you have access to the article? We could scan and review.

Here is something from a mushing site.
http://www.srlee.net/FAQs/sleddog_FAQ.html

I wonder though if there is a difference between food *soaked* and mushy vs. food just thrown in water to slow down eating as the mushy food has already started to pysically break down and no issues noted with canned food.

I know teethwise that kibble does nothing to clean the teeth anyway.


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## Nicole Lit (Jan 21, 2009)

A few other things to consider if adding water to food include type of kibble (some say kibble with citric acid or many fillers with water added to it increases risk of bloat etc) and how much is fed at each feeding (some thoughts that larger amounts per meal also increase risk of bloat). I feed 2-3 smaller meals per day and a high cal kibble (Orijen), which means less amount at each feeding time. I too thought about the adding water to kibble debate, but this has been working for us for well over a year and after a few near choking events I decided to stick with some water. The scattered kibble worked not too bad for awhile but she ended up doing the "power vacuum" frantic eating at times, which wasn't exactly conducive to slower or more relaxed eating either :???: . I haven't tried the fancy bowls but I have heard positive things about them, so this would probably be a good option to try as well.


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## Patrick Cheatham (Apr 10, 2006)

The one thing I can say about this pup is I have her sister who is three years old now. And both can eat in a matter of seconds and would eat themselves to death if allowed. Dosesn't matter how often you feed.

I feed the 6 month old the other day and went out the room for a minute. Only to come back and find that she had took the lid of the tote and climbed inside for more.

I know her sire had to be taken to the emergency vet because he had gotten into were the handler kept the food and ate 8-10lbs of food. 

I do at times scatter the food out, but I think for the long haul I may try the bowl or something. Never really worried about this before because my older GSD (7) has always been a real sloooooooow eater.


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