Staffie pup wolfing her food!!

[laura_1983]

We have 6 month old staffie and she eats her food so fast there's no way she can be chewing, first thought it was because we have another dog but feeding her on her own doesnt help. She gets Wagg dry food and we add water to make it softer for her but have also tried it dry - she still wolfes it down lightening speed either way!!

Any ideas to stop this?

 

[woolly]

Put a big stone in her bowl, or a large link chain. Failing that put the dry food in a boredom buster cube and make the little tike work for it. If you are feeling flush try one of these:

http://www.handicappedpets.com/acc/bowl/index.html

 

[laura_1983]

stone in her bowl was the next plan, works with the horses lol!! never thought of using boredom ball - i have one in the shed somewhere - horsey one but worth a shot!!

 

[CAYLA]

Good ideas there from wolly.....alot of people use things like kongs to feed the food through the kong, as wolly describes, to make her work for the food and stop her shoveling it down in one go

or simply place it in the bowl to stop them gulping such large amounts, as in large breeds it's can be dangerous to gulp food down this way, but don't worry there are plenty of greedy dogs that love their grub, to the extreme at times

 

[deja224]

i use these bowls for my customers dogs ie labs ect that eat to fast they seam to work well

https://www.petplanet.co.uk/product_group.asp?dept_id=159&pg_id=601

called brake-fast bowl

 

[CAYLA]

I think they are the same as in wooly's link

 

[Sprout]

I had a Dobie that did the same, and all the usual methods didnt seem to slow her down, so I used to scatter her feed in the garden, that really slowed her down, and she seemed to enjoy having to sniff it all out!

 

[Thistle]

I think I'll get one of those bowls for our lab, she eats her food in 8 seconds.

 

[concino]

Don't worry about quick eaters !! This is normal for dogs - they are designed for quick eating.

As predators, they have evolved to be able to devour their kill as quickly as possible before it gets stolen by something 'higher up the ladder'. Dogs have very powerful enzymes in their saliva so the digestion process starts with this - not with chewing and the stomach has some pretty potent acids too. This why dogs so often salivate when food is about - they are literally getting ready to eat.

Dogs also have a large stomach to accommadate huge meals - they may not get another 'kill' for several days. Compare this to grazing/ prey animals with small stomachs/ lots of intestine.

Some dogs will 'slow down' when they realise there is nothing else to steal their meal but if not, don't worry, your dog is just behaving normally and for a dog, lots of chewing is not 'normal' it is a habit which is, or may be aquired through domestication.