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Wesley SWALLOWS his food...

SHANO

Well-known member
So.... Wesley, my 1 year old Cavalier, straight up swallows his food without even chewing it. He's SUCH a chow hound and literally eats his bowl of food (1/3 cup, twice a day) within about 30 seconds. Rare if ever, does he manage to even chew one piece of kibble. I feed him Innova EVO and I know the stuff is great but dang!!! Is this a problem? He seems fine, but doesn't he need to chew it? There've also been about two times when I've fed him and he'd drink and if I picked him up shortly after, he'd throw it up and you could see each piece in it's whole form.

Not only does he swallow his food, but I also feed the Innova EVO dog treats and he can even swallow one of those whole!

Please help! Is this a behavior I should start working on changing with him, or is this common?

Daisy, my 3 year old Cavalier, takes a good 3 minutes or so eating her food, making sure that she chews every last bit, so they are SO different with this.

Thanks!
 
Reba (our rescue Cav/Cocker/mutt) would shame Wesley in an eating race. She's just incredible.. maybe 15 seconds, 20 if she's being polite. One day I'm gonna take a video of it.

With treats, though, she's very polite and chews carefully. Go figure.
 
Both mine eat their food in about 30 seconds.they take more time with a biscuit treat,but thats just because it's bigger and harder.
With dinner they start to eat almost before the bowl leaves my hand to be put on the floor.
I also have to put the pen across to seperate them at meals or they will fight when finished as Pippin tries to head straight for Gus's when he's finished,but they don't need to be seperated for treats!
 
I think it is a common thing and not something you really need to worry about but it does have its down side.

Dental hygiene can be affected as the dog is not actually getting the chewing action so plaque on the teeth tends to build up quicker, this can be managed by brushing teeth daily or giving bones (i'm not an advocate for this) or synthetic chew toys such as nylabone, fido bone etc

As you mentioned it can cause a few minor troubles with digestion and often cause vomiting.
And then there is the bloat and choking risk.

I would suggest trying to use something to slow him down a little, a larger size bowl, or special design bowl that slows down the eating. See below.

http://www.brake-fast.net/index.htm
 
Sounds like a normal cavalier ,lol

Our ruby could be sat at one side of the room when I threw a biscuit to the dog at the other side . she would have zoomed over & ate the biscuit before the other dog even knew it had landed at their feet .
& she was 9 years old with a bad heart & could barely stand mostly
 
All my dogs eat fast and Lily doesn't chew either. The only thing to watch for is -- if he really eats fast he might be at increased risk for choking on a whole piece of kibble, and if he drinks a lot of water right after, he could get bloat, which can be very serious -- the kibble literally swells and this can twist the gut. So I'd limit what he can drink right after bolting food. It might work better to feed him from a treat ball where he'd have to eat more slowly and work for his food, or to get one of the bowls Jen has for Abbey -- it has obstructions coming out of it that slows down a dog. Large smooth river stones in the bowl also work.

Jen's bowl:

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=22451
 
I will definitely have to try that break fast bowl. Great idea! It's pretty rare that he ever drinks his water right after he eats. It's usually 10 minutes later after he's been let outside and back in.

He does chew toys ALL day and the Nylabones and his teeth look great. That was one of my big concerns was his dental health.

Thanks for the knowledge!
 
I gave bella (10 weeks) a few pieces of corn yesterday and I just found one of them, fully formed, in her dropping....
 
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