Not chewing food

So this may be a silly question, but today when the vet induced vomiting on Charlie and Lucy after the mushroom eating incident (see thread below if you're interested) she told me that both of them had large amounts of whole pieces of kibble and carrots in their tummies. So, I am wondering is it normal for dogs to eat w/o chewing their food and is this bad for them?

Charlie and Lucy love their food so much that is quite a scene when I prepare their food. They both sit and stare at me, crying and whimpering with excitement and then run to their crates the second I pick up their bowls. Charlie Brown spins in circles all the way to crate. The they wolf it down like they are in a contest to see who can finish first. They are fed separately and do this even w/o the other dog present. Anyway, should I slow them down somehow and if so, how?

Hi, my malamute eats so fast it is amazing. Being a large breed, I worry about bloat (what killed Marley in the book/movie Marley and Me) In fact, she eats her 2 and a half cups of food in about 15 seconds...no joke. Those bowls with the posts in them designed to slow dogs eating down didn't help, but what HAS slowed her down so that it takes her about 2 minutes to eat her food are the three largish, smooth stones that I place on top of her food! She has to nudge them all around the bowl and nibble smaller amounts as she eats. With all three rocks in the bowl, they partially overlap and leave just little areas of food exposed until she nudges them. The rocks have to be heavy enough they can't just nudge them right out.
You might try something like that.
Good luck!

When you have more than one dog it is typical, least from my exp. Seperating them will help, but the best you can do is to make it HARD to eat. Rocks can work, but i've had dogs act like turkeys and think they need them for indegestion. My advice to help slow them down is to add something that they can't swallow easily, peanut butter comes to mind, but with the peanut problems here in USA I'd be really hesitant. Sticky things work best. Or if you give raw food, Freeze it. Take FOREVER for them to eat and they only get small chunks at a time or lick it to death. or maybe add some gelitin mix go make it gooey. I dunno but I would try that. Hope it works.

kmatt said:

Rocks can work, but i've had dogs act like turkeys and think they need them for indegestion.

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The rocks I use are the size of my fist. They can't possibly eat them! For a cavalier, I'd use nothing smaller than a baseball (flattened somewhat is better than rounded).

I know my german shepard I had as a child actually age one the size of a grapefruit and we had to do emergency surgery. she wasn't the brightest light bulb either.

I think I will get one of those bowls w/ the posts in it to try for the dogs. I worry about the rocks.....w/ my luck one them will break a tooth on it or my kids will find them and play catch in the house with them .

A tennis ball is a good tool to slow down eating too fast, but of course the dog needs to not want to play with it and eat the food instead! Something similarly shaped should work well too (like, as mentioned, large stones), they just need something to eat around to slow them down

I thought of another idea if you don't wanna have to follow my post from earlier...freezing food...What you can do if the kibble is really small, and I mean small enough to go out of a 2 ltr bottle of pop. Cut off the Top and fill it up then tape the top back on...You are cutting opposite the spout end. This and put it pretty close to the base of the bowl. This in the end works like one of those auto water bowls. It only lets more out once what was there is gone. I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier...**sheeps away**...but that can work really well because it takes time for it to fall out and if he gets good enough eventually (meaning he only eats what he needs a day) you can fill it all the way up and it will allow him to feed whenever he wants a little at a time.

Awhile back I accidentally bought the same food I always get - but in the large bites variety (I use innova and evo). I decided just to use the bag since I had already brought it in the house.

It has made a WORLD of difference!! He has no trouble eating it but he actually has to chew each piece. No more tummy upsets, good poo, and it was all just an accident!