Bolting Her Food

[hollyd443]

Hiya,

Not sure if this should be in 'Puppies' or 'Feeding' Section, sorry if its in the wrong place!

I have noticed that Roxy (almost 5months) isn't chewing her food, she gulps it down at a rate of knots! Very occasionally she sicks it up (whole biscuits covered in slobber basically! Yuck!!)

I have always been keen to feed them dry food as oppose to wet food/or soaked dry food as I feel the crunchy biscuits keep her teeth clean. Thinking about it though - if shes swallowing it whole - she's not chewing it anyway!! I thought she maybe gulping it, seeing the dogs as competition, so I gave her her dinner in a separate room but she's just the same?

Any ideas?

Many thanks!

Holly

[Cob-Web]

Try putting a tennis ball or similar into her bowl with her food - it makes it more difficult to gulp as she will have to forage and take smaller mouthfuls 

[Cazzie]

Feed her in the biggest bowl you can, ive had to do this with Belle and also had to add a load of water as its nuts the way she gulps her food   I find the bigger the bowl the better, even contemplated a dish washing up bowl from tescos   It works though  

[Danni n Betty]

There are special dog bowls for this problem.
They are pretty much like normal bowls, but they have loads of big sticking up nobbly things on the bottom, which the food falls inbetween, making it a bit more difficult for hoovering up!
Guess its just an expensive version of the tennis ball trick.....but I reckon Betty would cotton on to that and just take it out   

[Cazzie]

There are special dog bowls for this problem.
They are pretty much like normal bowls, but they have loads of big sticking up nobbly things on the bottom, which the food falls inbetween, making it a bit more difficult for hoovering up!
Guess its just an expensive version of the tennis ball trick.....but I reckon Betty would cotton on to that and just take it out   

Never heard of them before 

[hollyd443]

Thank you for your rapid responses!  Very logical ideas, and I'm definately going to try them out - they really make sense! At the moment she has a tiny bowl, therefore a mini mountain of food which she gulps down. So if I use a bigger bowl (I knew the washing up bowl would come in useful for something!  ) and put 'obsticals' in it so she has to ferret around for the kibble, this should reduce/cure the problem. Will look into the nobbly bowl also!! Many thanks 

[Michele]

Just had a thought...
Neneh bolts her food and I suppose instead of a tennis ball you could sit an empty kong in the bowl, it'd be a lot easier to clean up.

[Danni n Betty]

There are special dog bowls for this problem.
They are pretty much like normal bowls, but they have loads of big sticking up nobbly things on the bottom, which the food falls inbetween, making it a bit more difficult for hoovering up!
Guess its just an expensive version of the tennis ball trick.....but I reckon Betty would cotton on to that and just take it out   

Never heard of them before 

I saw them in You Dog mag, but dont know were the Boyf has put them away 
It was something like this one.....but nicer

http://www.brake-fast.net/

[Cazzie]

There are special dog bowls for this problem.
They are pretty much like normal bowls, but they have loads of big sticking up nobbly things on the bottom, which the food falls inbetween, making it a bit more difficult for hoovering up!
Guess its just an expensive version of the tennis ball trick.....but I reckon Betty would cotton on to that and just take it out   

Never heard of them before 

I saw them in You Dog mag, but dont know were the Boyf has put them away 
It was something like this one.....but nicer

http://www.brake-fast.net/

Im ordering 2 tomorrow as Otter is looking like heis going to beof the same mould as Belle  Thanks for that sweetie   

[hollyd443]

Thanks for the link! Will definately look at getting one of those 

[xlisax]

yeah thanks for the link

max does the same and gulps his food down in seconds

then stands watching ellie for ages ( she is a very slow eater)

[hollyd443]

This morning, I was getting the dogs breakie ready, looked all over for a large bowl...and came across a microwave food cover that came free with a betterware order. I never thought I'd use it, but it makes a great (and cheap!) brake-fast type bowl! It has a handle molded into it, so when its turned upside down with kibble in, the kibble falls into and around the handle bit, slowing down her eating! Its huge as well so the foods well spread out! Bingo!! She took twice the time to eat her breakfast!!