Hi All

Just wondering whether anybody can help me, my 1 yr old westie called Hamish is fed on the adult Eukanuba biscuit and has been on the adult version now for about 5 weeks, before this he was on the puppy version. I am finding that he is just swallowing the biscuits without chewing them, i have tried feeding them to him 1 by 1 and he chews them but on eating from the bowl he woofs them down and just swallows them whole, he may chew the odd one but most of them he swallows. I am giving him the correct amount of biscuit for what it says on the bag for his weight but it seems as if he is starving, he has been wormed so it is not that and we have not got any other dogs so he is not eating incase another dog takes his food. When he has other biscuits as treats i am finding that sometimes he swallows them and another time he chews them, he has the denta sticks and the rawhide chews and he does chew these, but it is his biscuit feed that is the main problem, i have tried telling him off but then he seems put off to eat when you are watching him and i do not want to make him frightened to eat but i am concerned that if he does not chew them will it make him feel bad, it hasn't seemed to up to now but other people i have spoken to say that there dogs chew their biscuits okay. Can anybody help as to why he may be doing this, or is this just how he is going to eat his meals, he has around 100gram of biscuit a day which works out around 35 biscuits in each meal as i feed him twice a day, somebody said it may be that some dogs eat quicker than others but he wolfs his food down in around 1 minute and licks the bowl and then starts looking for more but i am frightened to give him too much incase he gets too fat, i just don't know really what to do with him, he is lively and looks fine so it obviously isn't doing him any harm but it just seems strange to swallow the biscuit without crunching them.

Thanks
Helen and Hamish

Dogs don't really do chewing food as we know it :D  Their teeth are designed to rip, tear and slice prey.  They do not have flat molars like omnivores and herbivores to grind cereals and grasses.  Dogs are also hard wired to eat quickly in case their food disappears or someone else comes along and nicks it :D

Relax, don't tell him off for the way he eats; he probably thinks your eating habits are weird too :D

Hi,
Relax! I've never known a dog that chews small bits of food like this! Large bones, bonios etc yes, but not small stuff. If it's small enough to swallow in one, that's what they do. Their natural habit is to 'hoover' their food so fast it doesn't touch the sides - in case someone else takes it from them.
:)

Hi

Thanks for your response, should he clear his bowl as quick as he does, and if so does this mean that i am not feeding him enough and should up his food, as i said he eats his meal within 1 minute and then licks the bowl and comes in looking for more food, i am following what it says on the bag for his weight but people have said that maybe he is still hungry and needs more food, as a dog should eat until he is full and then leave a few biscuits!!
I am just concerned that if i up his food too much that he will get too fat, but i have always looked on it that a dog is always hungry and will eat and eat if you let them, but is this true, i have never had dogs before so am not sure what i should be doing with food, but i don't want him ending up too fat as i know that this can be bad for them.

Helen

IMO yes, he should eat that fast, and that a dog which leaves food is ill!

If you put down enough food for 5 days, they will eat it all in one go, and probably still look round for more - it is the natural behaviour of a scavenger who doesn't know when/if they will ever eat again. Please don't worry. It is far healthier for a dog to be slightly underweight than overweight - and my vet reckons about 80% of dogs which come into his surgery are too fat. After accidents and cancer, obesity is the main cause of premature death in animals.

When you stroke his sides, can you feel his ribs without too much difficulty? If they are sharp and pointy, then he is too thin. If you have to really press hard to feel them, he is too fat.
:)

Hi,
I think 100g doesnt sound like enough for him,i measured it out in a cup before replying and my dogs get triple that per day(i dont weigh their food),i have shih-tzu's ranging in weight from 5.7k to 7.5k,if they polish off everything in their bowls i usually add some more food,altho keep in mind my dogs arent greedy gutses,they will stop eating when they are full,i always feel a little better if they leave a little in their bowls,which they do fairly often,we have no weight issues here,infact i think one of them is a little underweight. I never take the package instructions to be set in stone,some dogs need less others more,i think your wee one needs more.
Have you thought about upgrading to a better food such as Burns? It has much better ingredients than euk. and should satisfy him more,or you could add steamed green beans mixed in with his meals,this should fill him up without adding on the pounds or even better,why not mix in a little fresh meat.
I would up his food but keep an eye on his weight,iff he starts getting too pudgy reduce the dry and add the beans.

Jeangenie i have to disagree with "dogs that leave food are ill" In all of my years in owning dogs i have never had one that would eat 5 days of food all at once or anything similar to that,big dogs are different eaters than little ones,most biggin's will eat till they bloat but i have found that with small dogs they stop eating when they are full,or maybe i have just been lucky with mine,i have never owned a fat dog and i feed them as much as they want,mine get 2 meals per day + natural treats thru out the day,sometimes they even refuse a treat as they arent hungry.

good luck

christine :)

Christine, as I said in my post, it was my opinion that dogs who leave food are ill! I have never owned breed smaller than a labrador, and with my dogs, leaving food is a sign they are off-colour. Even when I had solo dogs anything available was eaten (they would even go out, vomit into a corner for later, but come back to finish the 'fresh food' first!). I said that a dog would eat 5 days'-worth of food in one go, because one of my solo dogs did exactly that - plus ate a loaf of bread and half a pound of butter as well. I'm surprised she didn't explode!

I have friends with all sorts of smaller breeds, cairns, westies, JRTs, crossbreeds etc though, and they say exactly the same.
:)

Hi Jeangenie,

My experience with small dogs - Cairns, Boston Terrier & Yorkies - is that they eat until they are ready to burst.  :-)   In fact, Cairns are known as the "labs of the terrier world."  

Only dog I ever owned that really was not food oriented was a GSD.  She would eat so slowly I'd have to guard her dish from my Cairn, who would quite happily stick her head in the same bowl whilst the GSD was still eating and inhale the contents. 

Stacey

Hi Helen

Dogs cannot chew as we (and herbiverous animals) can - side to side.  Their jaws only go up and down and their teeth are designed for crunching (rear) and tearing (front).

They might do a few crunches of their biscuits but mostly they are too small to bother with as can be swallowed whole

Hi
I feed both my Westies on Royal Canin (mini variety) they happily crunch away on that. Probably because the pieces are so small.

Wendy