Bowl's that slow down a dog's eating...

    • Gold Top Dog

    Bowl's that slow down a dog's eating...

    Has anyone used these? Sam is a vaccum with his food - I;m worried something might happen because he's inhaling a lot of air while he's eating.....

    Here's some links to 2.

    http://www.smartpakcanine.com/productclass.aspx?productClassid=5974&cmPreserveSource=true&cmPreserveCategory=true

    http://www.smartpakcanine.com/productclass.aspx?productClassid=4655&cmPreserveSource=true&cmPreserveCategory=true

    • Gold Top Dog

     https://brake-fast.c3.ixwebhosting.com/store/home.php

    I don't use one of these ^ but one of my clients does. It seems to work good, is durable, and it's inexpensive.

     

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    I've never used them, but some cheaper solutions are putting a couple of toys in the dish (I used 2 regular sized and 1 huge Kong), a bundt style cake pan, feeding in a larger food dish or on a cookie sheet so the food is spread thin, a buster cube type toy or tossing the food across the kitchen floor (it spreads the food out).  Smile

     

    edited to correct typos

    • Gold Top Dog

     I've never used one.  I also have concerns about one ofour dogs who wolfs her food down so fast I am really scared she will choke sometimes.  She obviously inhales a lot of air as well because she BELCHES after most meals. I used to put an object in her dish to slow her down, which worked until she worked out she could take it out and keep eating at the speed of light.  Now I scatter feed or occasionally use a food toy or hand feed/clicker train. 

    The best way I have found to slow down her eating without buying a specially designed bowl, is just to turn her usual bowl upside down!  It's one of those non spill ones and so the basic shape is similar to the specially designed bowls.... there's a raised part in the middle and she has to eat out of the dip round the edges.  Works a treat!

    • Gold Top Dog

    We have a Brake-Fast bowl.  It did slow Bevo down, but it was difficult to clean.  Now, when I feed kibble, he eats out of a kong.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Most of the food I've been giving has water added to it, plus leftovers - so a Kong wouldn't work for that. I'll try a bigger dish first.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I think those bowls with the highter knobs would work great.  Just a question, why add water?  I have never added water (except when Riv was a puppy) to his food.  If he will eat it dry it the dry food will help keep his teeth healthy.  My Vet says that soft food only will bring bad teeth and if they will eat it dry, feed it dry.  Just a thought.

    • Gold Top Dog

     There's some speculation that feeding wet food reduces the chances of bloat in dogs that are susceptible to it due to their large barrel chests.

    You can stuff the wet food in a Kong and freeze it, works great to slow them down.  If you want to just feed dry kibble for one of the meals, a puzzle cube works great, they have to roll and knock it around to get the kibble to fall out and can make them really slow down.  You could even mix it up, stuff the wet food into a paper cup and freeze it into a block that the dog has to gnaw on for a while.  Supposedly, the gnawing action and longer time to eat helps get the digestive juices flowing and helps with digestion.

    How many times a day are you feeding?  It could be the dog is overly hungry by mealtime and that encourages the wolfing. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    I've been adding water to the leftovers and/or egg. Just to spoil him.

    He still has 24/7 access to food in his kennel with a self-feeder, and then every night I've been giving him about 1 1/2 cups plus aboud a cup of leftovers/egg. And about a cup of dog treats while we train.

    • Gold Top Dog

    misstrouble

    I've been adding water to the leftovers and/or egg. Just to spoil him.

    He still has 24/7 access to food in his kennel with a self-feeder, and then every night I've been giving him about 1 1/2 cups plus aboud a cup of leftovers/egg. And about a cup of dog treats while we train.

    If he has access to food all day then he isn't hungry.  So he is scarfing just becasue you make it taste so good.Big Smile  Personally, I don't see the need to endulge my dog in good tasting foods, he likes his kibble and the treats are just that, treats.  I also have a dog who values food to highly so I tried not make it more appealing than it is.

    • Gold Top Dog

     I took the suggestion of putting something in the bowl to slow down the gulping. Joker was free fed at his breeders. And I dont free feed so he was starving every time it was meal time. Well he thought he was anyways. I was afraid of him choking so I got 2 rocks too big for him to even thing about swallowing and put them in his bowl. It worked. I took them out a couple days ago but he went right back to gulping his food down.

    I hand feed him supper for training purposes.

    • Gold Top Dog

    luvmyswissy

    I think those bowls with the highter knobs would work great.  Just a question, why add water?  I have never added water (except when Riv was a puppy) to his food.  If he will eat it dry it the dry food will help keep his teeth healthy.  My Vet says that soft food only will bring bad teeth and if they will eat it dry, feed it dry.  Just a thought.

     

    What the vet has told you is poppycock IMO.   Our dogs are fed dry food and I don't think it makes the teeth healthier.  It's GNAWING (like on a raw meaty bone) that helps clean the teeth...  And wetting the food is thought to slightly reduce the risk of gastric torsion.  So if you also give the dog chew toys and bones, that's his dental needs satisfied, and you can wet his food to allay the risk of bloat a little.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I said it will help keep teeth healthy. A lot of dogs who like soft foods do not like to gnaw on things. like my pug  The reason that wetting food can help bloat is the fear of the dry food swelling and getting to heavy, feeding smaller meals, more often and not giving them water for an hour afterward would be even more preventive.  Torsion is when the belly becomes a pendulum and the stomach flips - it really has nothing to do with "what" they ate just how much food is weighting down the stomach that gave it the momentum to swing. To much wet food at one time will do the same thing.  River had his stomach tacked after an episode of bloat when he was 6 months old, Swissies are very much prone to bloat and subsequent torsion.  His bloat episode occurred after eating a large meal of "wet down" kibble - it scared me and my DH and I elected the surgery to prevent torsion.

    If your dog will chew bones etc it does help with the tooth health just as the scraping of kibble will do.  The more hard, gnawing of bones and food the better.

    • Gold Top Dog

     Bella & Sheba scarf down their food, so they get a can of soup put in their bowl ( not open, then actually can! LOL) it slows them down quite a bit. works great & is CHEAP!!!

    • Gold Top Dog

    luvmyswissy
    I said it will help keep teeth healthy.

     

    *shrugs* I know what you said.  I just don't agree, that's all!  I think kibble is bad for dog's teeth.  Just what I ave noticed from my own observations.  My vet of course, doesn't agree, but I suspect he may have been educated at a place that received a lot of money from pet food companies.  So forgive me for being cynical.  Big Smile