Puppy Gulping Down His Food

[tracylacy]

Ok, another problem! Our first dog was so much less trouble

Orion is a 13 week old Sibe. I am looking to change his diet shortly - I want to try RAW or something along those lines. My problem at the moment is that he gulps down all his food. To the extent that there has been a few times that he cries because his tummy is hurting (I am suure that this is what it is - you know like when we eat somthing too quickly and it makes you do that really painful hiccup thing?) I have tried a number of things. After I worked out what was happening (after I stopped panicking and had a little bit of a giggle at him) I tried just letting him go for it - it was only dry kibble and some VIP dog roll so I wasn't that worried about him choking - I thought maybe he might learn to chew if I did this. This didn't seem to work , so I have begum standing over him while he eats and taking his bowl off him to give him a little time to swallow before giving it back to him - while this seems to help with the immediate problem, I don't want to have to do this for the rest of his life!

The other thing that I'm worried about is when I want to introduce chicken frames, wings, lamb bones, etc, whether he is going to attempt to swallow them whole without chewing?

Any thoughts?

[~*Shell*~]

My sibe is 4 years old and still does this.

As adults, sibes have notoriously slow metabolisms (hence why they can run all day and not loose a lot of weight) so don't get fed that much. Zero is only on one cup of light biscuits (he's overweight so we're trying to take the weight off him) but even when he's not, he'll only ever be on 1-1.5 cups of normal biscuits. That's with a 1 hour walk a day - 2 years of being dumped in a backyard by his old owners made him more than 10kgs overweight!

Try feeding smaller meals if you can (how many times a day do you feed?) and try not to worry about bones too much - things like chicken frames and chicken wings have to be chewed to be swallowed. Just make sure you supervise Orion when he's eating!

[Guest june.andnovas]

i was going to suggest trying to feed him larger chunks of food so he has to chew.

that is what i do with my cat, he's over weight a little and eats so quickly and then will go steal the kittens dinner. so i've started giving him whole chunks of meat so he has to chew it up slowly. seems to be working.

[~*Shell*~]

That's a good idea! Can't just gulp it down if it has to chew!

Have you asked your breeder? They might have other dogs in your pup's lines with the same problem.

[Miranda]

Actually gulping down food is normal for a dog, it's a survival mechanism, a wild dog in a pack swallows its food as quickly as possible or loses it to another dog. Dogs, unlike humans, don't have any digestive enzymes in their saliva, it simply acts as a lubricant and a dog will usually only chew food until it's of a suitable size to swallow. Dogs have stomach acids that are 10 times stronger than ours and are perfectly capable of breaking down large chunks of flesh and bone. As a general rule anything that can fit down a dog's throat will come out the other end, if it cannot be digested it will be vomited up, that's another survival mechanism.

A normal dog won't come to any harm by gulping its food, but if you have a dog that is prone to bloat obviously it's wise to make the dog slow down.

I suggest you read up about dogs and their digestive processes, dogs are carnivores and their GI tract is totally different to that of a human.

[SwaY]

Spread his food out thinly on a tray, so he has can only get a small amount in his mouth at once.

You can also try LARGE polished rocks/stones placed on top of his food, so he has to move them, to get to his food.

Makes sure the stones are LARGE so he can't eat them and mistake them for food.

Wash the stones after dinner

[Dogsfevr]

our minis have gulped chicken wings/necks & passed out .They dont chew them they just swallow.

putting a tennis ball in can help or any large odd shaped item,you can change it around if you wish

[cassie]

If feeding kibble, you can also spread it out over the grass, then he has to go around picking out each piece, keeps them busy for a while

[Guest june.andnovas]

If feeding kibble, you can also spread it out over the grass, then he has to go around picking out each piece, keeps them busy for a while

fantastic idea cassie.

like your new banner thingy too

[Deleted]

deleted

Edited June 14, 2010 by Deleted

[tracylacy]

Thanks guys - very helpful.

I have just given both the dogs a lamb flap (and practically sat on top of Orion to supervise - I was so worried!) He began to try and gulp it down whole - then realised he couldn't when he started to gag. He slowed down a bit after that, then about 3/4 through I thought he was going to try and swallow it whole - I panicked a bit and try to take it off him, at which point he decided he should try and swallow it even quicker (which I understand he did because he knew I was going to try and take it) which then causeed him to gag again. He finished it eventually and seems fine.

Whilst Ghost (our older dog) does tend to gulp down food - he doesn't actually try to swallow things that are too big whole! I have never seen a dog attempt to swallow everything, no matter the size, whole - I think this is what is worrying me!

I think I will just have to supervise and hope that he learns how to eat properly

Oh, and to answer Shell, I feed them twice a day. Up until Orion came along Ghost only got about a cup and a half of dry food to keep him going through the day, and he is good condition, so I understand that they don't need to eat much. We have started to feed them both twice a day, so that I can feed Ghost without leaving his food down and so that they both get food at the same time - I didn't want Ghost to think that Orion was getting fed and he wasn't. He still only gets about the same amount, I just halve the it and give it to him twice a day now. When I took Orion to the vet to get his last vaccination he told me that we could probably up his food as he thought he was a little bit skinny.

Edited October 3, 2008 by tracylacy

[luvsdogs]

If feeding kibble, you can also spread it out over the grass, then he has to go around picking out each piece, keeps them busy for a while

That was one of my suggestions.

When Sooty was a baby, (8 y/o in 2 weeks), she swallowed chicken necks whole. She would yelp in pain & it worried me as to what would happen to it. I then thought I'd give her lamb flaps & I separated the bones. She did the same thing. I stopped giving her chicken wings & only gave her 2-3 lamb flaps still attached so she would take time to chew them.

As said previously, the acids in a dog's stomach digests the bones & all. Now Sooty will take her time to chew the tiniest treat.

[ZEPING]

give him a chicken carcus or back bone!

good luck gulping that

i have a 13wk old GSD and he use to be a gulper

ive also used a lil bit of rope and tied it to a chair or something it realli slowed him down and taught him to be a lot slower (if you do this realli need to superviser!)

[Danois]

I am just wondering if standing over him and then taking away when he is gulping too much is adding to the problem?

That he is trying to eat quickly as he expects that the food will be taken away from him soon?

I doubt that he would know that you are taking away his food because of his gulping.

IMO you are creating a negative association and I would be trying other methods like spreading the food thinly or large stones.

[luvsdogs]

I forgot about that. Not a good idea to take a dog's regular meal away. They need to get used to you being there while they eat, but add something more tasty to the bowl.

I usually feed my dogs in different places but if they are together, Tilba the pup, will gulp her food down so Sooty won't get it.

[Melissa4]

Hi,

My shihtzu tends to have a problem with scoffing his food down too... and hes quite small.

I have given him bigger chunks - in smaller portions if that makes any sense at all.

Once he has finished the big peice - I give him another one. It is time consuing sitting there and waiting until he has finished however, it has worked this far

Hope this helps

[Joshua]

I have the same problem with my puppy.. he was bred in poor conditions with alot of rivaly when it came to feeding time. So when the food is out he feels as though he has to gulp it down as fast as he can.

He seems to have slowed down gradually though since i got him, and seems to be taking a little bit more time.. still he doesn't chew very much

Good Luck!

[kyliegirl]

I had a pup who did this to the point she would suffocate herself, what we did was added some large rocks to her meal, this slowed her down and she started breathing again. After a while we removed the rocks one by one, and would occasionally add food so she knew we weren't stealing it, even taking the bowl away to put more food in, so she knew that even if the bowl is taken away, more food will go in so she didnt need to rush eating it.

Eventually we didnt need rocks in the bowl anymore and she ate casually.

[Melissa4]

I had a pup who did this to the point she would suffocate herself, what we did was added some large rocks to her meal, this slowed her down and she started breathing again. After a while we removed the rocks one by one, and would occasionally add food so she knew we weren't stealing it, even taking the bowl away to put more food in, so she knew that even if the bowl is taken away, more food will go in so she didnt need to rush eating it.

Eventually we didnt need rocks in the bowl anymore and she ate casually.

sorry to be a bit off topic - I absolutely love your signature line! - It looks like my cat when he attacks my arm

[persephone]

Dogs DO gulp their food without chewing, often regurgitate ,then eat it again.

I would suggest feeding your pup whole lambshanks, large sections of roo tails, or lamb backbones, whole chicken carcases or large turkey wings.

You can feed them semi- frozen, too-- slows them up more.

feed him alone, and do not 'hover'! If he knows he is in a secure place, and will NOT be disturbed, he will lie down, and spend a the next 15 minutes or so having to work at getting his meal.

if you don't want to do that- mix all his food into a kong.. largeish pieces can be stuffed in a big kong! freeze that, and give it to him somewhere safe.