I have a four month labrador retriever and up until yesterday i have been soaking her dry food, as the breeder had done, and i decided to not soak it anymore as i thought it was time she ate it dry but everytime she's had a meal she gobbles up the food within a minute without crunching it first (i have two cats which also eat dry food but they sit and crunch up each piece)  i've never had a dog before so i dont know if its a habit she has got into when eating soaked dry food or is it normal for her age?? 

Dogs don't generally chew - they hoover! Labradors in particular tend to be enthusiastic eaters - one who picks at its food is usually ill!

If she's eating her food dry make sure she has plenty of fresh drinking water available - she'll need to drink a lot more as she's not getting the water with her food.

Yup - I'd be very worried if mine didn't hoover their food up :D

Daisy

Thanks... she's normal then!    yes she has always got plenty of fresh water, i'll now continue feeding the food dry and not soaked now i've started!!

My nine month old lab has always eaten  his food so quick , never chews doesnt taste it .
gill

Labs are hoovers, if you notice one is not eating, its probably because it's been dead for two weeks :D

Before changing to raw, I fed dried food, to stop them guzzling too quickly I put water in their feed bowls, to the same level as their food (not soaked) immediately before putting food down to them.  Having to drink the water helped slow down the intake...

Daisy don't say that!  I've got a cocker who takes ages and ages to eat his food because he eats each biscuit individually!

I hear my dog crunching her kibble, she lays down in front of her bowl in a leisurely fashion to eat her food a lot of the time. I've just cut up an apple and she's crunched through that as well. In fact I heard her crunch her worming tablets yesterday.  She doesn't chew meat though, that goes down whole.  Is she abnormal?

Mine have always seemed to take pleasure in crunching up their food even when the pieces are really small enough to go down whole.

all mine chew! they arent labs though. each lab ive seen just inhales food!

If mine took more than 30 seconds I'd be down to the vets, Jacky :D :D :D

Getting pills in them is easy as I just push it into the meat and it gets swallowed in one gulp :D The only time they take a bit longer is when they have chicken wings etc as they do chew them - so they might take a minute or so :D The rest of the time they push their bowls around the floor checking that they haven't missed a bit that has gone on the floor :D

Daisy

A bowl of biscuits can't be done in less than 20 mins, a chicken wing probably takes 5 mins.  Some bits of stewing steak generously donated after making a casserole were still on the floor the next morning!

OMG, my dog inhales food too rather than chewing any of it.  the only time she ever chews is when there is a pill in it and she sucks or chews the surrounding food and spits out the offending pill.  She does a really good spit and despite inhaling food she can differentiate between something she wants to eat e.g. chicken and something she doesn't e.g lettuce or spinach and the soggy spinach ends up on the floor.

Blimey! A bowl of kibble is gone within a minute, and a chicken wing (if I hold one end make sure it gets crunched) takes almost 15 seconds!

sounds familar jackjat.:rolleyes:

Phew so glad I am not the only one who has dogs who aren't "normal".

Tansy is an odd eater. She doesn't eat her food in one go, she crunches up each piece of kibble individually. She walks around the room with it, happily crunching as she goes, and then goes back to her bowl for another kibble. We have tried sitting by her, stroking and praising when she stays in one place, but to no avail. We have decided to let her get on with it...at least she eats :-) It is only kibble she does this with incidentally...a couple of times she has had scrambled egg, or some mashed potato, and has ate that in seconds!!