Does your Boxer eat too fast?

purplelori · 04-01-2009, 03:20 PM

Hi-
Wally is 4 months old, and he literally SUCKS down his food. It's like he's in a race or something. We feed him in a separate room from our 14 yr old lab mix, mostly to give her a chance to finish before he comes racing in to 'clean up'. I have heard it's not good for dogs to eat so fast, and was wondering if this is true, and if so, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to slow him down?

Thanks!

Lori

JoeV · 04-01-2009, 03:31 PM

hey, yeah you can do something easy. take a heavy drinking glass and place it in the middle of his bowl upside down. he'll be forced to eat around the glass and this will slow him down. you can also find bowls that scatter the food around in a donut shape also.

purplelori · 04-01-2009, 03:34 PM

I'll try it tonite.

Lori

sashadog · 04-01-2009, 03:36 PM

Yeah it is not good for them to eat so quickly. They can "Bloat" and you do not want that. Feed smaller meals, 2 to 3 a day, instead of one big meal. Do not feed in a raised dish and watch the water and the playing before and after meals. Also put a drinking glass in the dish.

Ron · 04-01-2009, 03:38 PM

haha neat idea joe

KeeperBoy · 04-01-2009, 07:03 PM

We put BIG rocks in feeding bowls to slow them down. They also make bowls with pegs in them to make eating more difficult.

JoeV · 04-02-2009, 07:56 AM

thanks mag, i did this with lucky when she was a pup (i think being from a litter of 11, she was used to scarfing to make sure she got some food amongst the rest of them) haha.

let us know how he did lori

Spyglass Sally · 04-02-2009, 06:52 PM

Our Buddy eats really fast too! He's 3 months old. I've taken to giving him 1/4 cup every 10-15 minutes at feeding time - which is kinda of a pain. But otherwise he packs his gut and gets loose stools. I like the rocks and glass ideas better.

How much do your puppies eat? Buddy's weighs about 16 lbs right now and eats 3/4-1 cup (Innova Puppy) in the morning, 3/4 C at noon and about 1/2 C at supper.

Sally

Nismo · 04-02-2009, 11:59 PM

Nismo use to eat really fast when he was younger so I would just give him a little at a time. Wish I would've known the drinking glass trick

But he grew out of it pretty quick.

purplelori · 04-06-2009, 03:04 PM

Thanks everyone for all the great hints. I was going to try the big rock---but the rock I had was too big! Then I got a great idea. Our other dog's food dish was shaped so that there was a narrow channel around the edge of the bottom of the bowl. So--we switched bowls, and Wally has been using the upside down bowl for about 4 days now. I am happy to report his eating has definitely slowed down, although we still need to do a bit of work, because now he's figured out how to flip the bowl over and make the food fall out! It's taking him at least 3 times longer to finish though-- which is a good thing!
Thanks again!

Lori