Wynstan threw up today, and when I was cleaning up I noticed that it was just his food and it was whole. Any ideas on how to get him to actually chew his food instead of inhaling it?
My mom's dog Samson just threw up a couple days ago because he didn't chew his food. After he went to get some more and he was just scarfing it down, I kind of tapped him on his head and told him to chew it. After I did that like 4 times... he got a couple kibbles and walked away and chewed it up, then came back for more... and took a couple kibbles and walked away and chewed it...
what if you slow them dont but they still arent chewing the peices...just swallowing them whole? I can give Odin one peice at a time and he doesnt chew it...hes like a pill popper lol
Permalink Reply by Aj on January 18, 2010 at 4:46pm
"Pill popper" describes my Brian. When I hand feed him, I sometimes hold onto a kibble to try to make him chew it/bite it in half, but he ends up sucking it in.
It's so weird, Ein never gulped his food down. Sure, he ate fast, but at least he chewed! lol
Mickey barely chews his food [also Blue Buffalo], too. I tried to slow down his eating speed by putting a golf ball in the middle of his bowl, forcing him to take the time to eat around it. But that didn't seem to slow him down too much. When does Wynstan throw up? Immediately after meal? I noticed Mickey will throw up if he runs around a lot immediately after meal. So I don't let him play too hard immediately after meal any more and he stopped throwing up. I also noticed eating canned food seems to slow him down instead of solid food.
Well it was only a one time thing. But it was after a little fetch and he was on the bed getting ready for a nap with me. Needless to say I had to clean my sheets. Soaking the food in warm water seems to help for now. Also, I have a new bag of food and it has smaller kibbles, I am interested to see how well he can stomach it without warm water, but I don't thinnk I am going to chance it just yet.
I use Tug-a-Jug to feed Shiro. The first time we tried it it took him about an hour to get all the pieces out. Now it's more like 15 minutes. Thi allows him to consume it piece by piece and he hasn't thrown up ever since.
Here's the likn to the device http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KV7ZGQ/ref=asc_df_B000KV7ZGQ994674?smi...
If he's a gulper/inhaler, be careful about choking. We lost a dog this way. She was a smallish corgi. She would gulp down whole raw chicken wings and chicken necks (yes), but one bad day she was fed a turkey neck and choked to death almost instantly. Now, all the raw food is frozen ground meat from a local company.
If it's kibble, you can add some water to the bowl and let it soften before serving.
Larger food pieces I guess? Shiro swallows his food whole too, but we had a sample of something and the pieces were larger and flat, so he chewed that.
My corgi does this as well. I haven't done anything about it yet because it's not very often but I do have a solution.
My old roommate had an INSANE golden retriever puppy that would eat his food so fast he would choke! Nothing made him slow down. We tried putting a huge rock in his bowl which worked for about a week or so until he learned to navigate. I fear the store-bought bowls for the problem would have the same results - and they're costly. One day I was going to feed him and there was an empty ice-cube tray on the table and voila! Food in the ice-cube tray! The small compartments meant he HAD to slow down to get the food out of them. And he actually chewed! Cheaper and more effective IMO.
Cooper is like a vaccum cleaner when he eats. Radar used to but he's slowed down with age. I saw on tv once to use those toys that they have to work to get their food out. I've only used them to keep them occupied but it makes sense.
My Radar is a real hoover when it comes to eating. He act like his bowl is going to disappear if he doesn't scarf the food
up as soon as he gets it. I usually make him go to his place & stay for a few moments till I can sit his food bowl on the floor.
As soon as he gets the OK, you can almost hear the screeching of Corgi paws as he heads for his food. He has thown up
from eating too fast on occasion. Other pets I have had would nibble on there food during the day, but not this little guy!
Gonzo has been doing this also - he throws up about once or twice a week, and I noticed it only contains his food, and much of it is whole. I can hear him chew his food but I guess most of it just gets swallowed. His food pieces are about the size of marbles and I was thinking of getting him larger pieced dog food, but we have him on an easy-to-digest brand because he had diarrhea/vomiting a lot as a puppy, and I'm not sure if this type of food comes in larger pieces. Maybe I will try the coffee mug trick and see if this works. If not, I guess I will feed him smaller amounts 3 times a day instead of twice a day.
I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one, and that it doesn't sound like a health problem!