Warning about soaking dry dog food

[Kimberly]

I sometimes call my bailey a little "scarfbucket" because he inhales his food super fast. Never thought this could be potential for such a serious problem. I feed him 3x daily, 1/3 cup each feeding, a mix of dry and wet food (no soaking). I'll probably start cutting his food back soon, to 2x per day, as he's almost 6 months. think there's any reason I should be concerned about his scarfbucketing?

I am so sorry to hear the awful news about the little pup ... so very sad.

[Suzanne]

My Lucy also "scarfbuckets" her food. She literally leap frogs into her bowl, and inhales her food within what seems like a few seconds! I'm feeding her 3x a day (6 a.m, noon, and 6 p.m.). She gets a 1/2 cup of dry food each feeding. She gets 1 treat in the afternoon and once in awhile enjoys a few tiny pieces of an apple. She always seems sooooo hungry that I feel as if I'm starving her, but I don't want to overfeed her. She drinks water after she eats, and after reading these posts I'm concerned about whether I should allow her to drink right after eating.

[joanna]

Our Twinkle is exactly the same but I've found that mixing a little bit of wet food well in with the dry and it's harder for her to eat so fast. I don't want everyone to be alarmed by the original post, I just put it up there to make people more aware. Now that it's out there it's just something to keep an eye out for.

[Karlin]

Eating quickly usually isn;t a problem but I suppose I'd keep an eye so that a dog doesn;t drink a large quantity of water after feeding.

This breed ALWAYS acts like it is starving. And thus are ususally very prone to getting fat! For health reasons it is really important not to overfeed. By four to six months you can definitely move to two feeds a day.

Lots of good feeding advice here:

http://roycroftcavaliers.com/manualfeeding.htm

[Suzanne]

Thanks, Karlin. I clicked on the link you posted...lots of good info. I spent quite a bit of time reading!

[debjen]

I'm sorry that your cousin had to go through that. My lab has bloated twice (about 6 weeks apart). I think it is important to know that while overeating-overdrinking is probably the most common reason for bloating it is not the only reason to bloat. Both times my lab bloated it didn't have anything to do with eating or drinking and in fact the first time he bloated he had an empty stomach. While are little ones probably have little chance of bloating it is something that people should know about.

[Claire]

I saw my neighbour this morning, she has two cockers - Val went away on holiday and when they came back, Sophie the bitch was soooo happy that she would not eat, was very bloated and sleepy. They took her to the vets and he said that as Val was back Sophie was so happy that she had stress - Sopher then developed the runs and they found that it had cat litter in there - seems she was so excited to see mum again that she went ate it... she is okay now thank god.

[Pseub]

My Byron (9 months old) is the first dog I've ever known who doesn't gobble up his food. Sometimes it sits in his bowl all day, and he'll finally get around to eating after his evening walk.

I've never soaked his food...none of the packaging or the vet suggested it. He'd had a couple bouts of colitis in March and April, so the vet had me try a prescription high fiber dog food. I've started mixing it half-and-half again with his regular puppy food (Eukanuba) as it was causing him to need to poop several times a day. He still seems to be doing OK with the 1/2 and 1/2 mixture. I'm going to be getting another Cav pup next month, and they'll be sharing a pen and food (I hope) so I'll have to see how this will work out with the new pup.