Hi everyone, would be very grateful for some advice on my 11 month old Lab bitch.  She has always been very greedy and wolfs her food down but seems to be getting worse and is regularly choking on her food and making herself sick as she is eating it so quickly.  I do have another dog and have tried feeding them separately as I thought she may be rushing in fear that my other dog would take her food but this has made no difference.  She is fed on a dry diet of James Wellbeloved.  Any ideas would be much appreciated as I am becoming very concerned.

Hi

Ok Question time :D

How old is your other Lab ?

So when did this start to happen ?

Where did you get her from and how old was she when you got her :)

So if she is sick does she then eat it again ? :)

Lucy
xxx

We got Sadie from a reputable breeder in Norwich and have had her since she was 8 weeks old. She has always been rather greedy but it seems only lately that she is choking on her food and nearly knocking her teeth out on the bottom of the bowl   She does the go on to eat it once she has been sick.  Our other Lab is 4 years old and is quite the opposite.

You could try scattering  her food on the floor instead of putting it in a bowl so she has to hunt for it which should slow her down. Or try putting a large ball ( bigger than a tennis ball but smaller than a football) in her bowl so she has to eat round it and can't then grab large mouthfuls of food. Make sure the ball is big enough so there is no danger that she will swallow it

Do you moisten her food or is it completely dry?  If it's completely dry and they try to eat it too fast, it can make them sort of cough it back up again.

How much do you feed her per meal?You could divide her meals in to 2-3 per day. Is she greedy or could she perhaps be starving hungry?

>If it's completely dry and they try to eat it too fast, it can make them sort of cough it back up again.

I agree.I have never fed plain dry food,partly because plain dry pellets are completely foreign to the dogs system,partly coz of the boredom factor of plain kibble for every meal,and you have the added concern of bloat after she has wolfed down her food. I add fresh food to my dogs every kibble meal,which could consist of naturediet,naturesmenu,green tripe,dinner left overs,meat(chicken,lamb,duck,beef)fruit/veg,tinned fish,yogurt,cottage cheese etc etc.Some people like to add water,but i and my  dogs prefer more flavourful and healthier additions :D

Hi,

You could also put her meals in a treat ball or a kong - which means she will have to work at getting the food out of the toys and won't be able to wolf it down as quickly.  She'll probably enjoy it aswell. :-)

Karen

Hi
If your dog is really greedy it may be worth raising up the feeding bowl so she is not gulping in as much air when she eats.
I have a GSD who is a very fast eater (her nickname is  Lady Scoffalot)
and I found raising the food bowl about a foot from the floor helped to slow her down , I,m offering this as a suggestion as there could be a real risk of bloat if you have a greedy dog.

Hope this may help
Sharon

Hi and thanks for all your responses.  I have to say I am really concerned about the bloat issues which is why I have been reluctant to make her food any more enticing by putting extras in it. If she eats it like this when it is just boring kibble, I hate to think what she would be like if it had chicken etc in it!

Any ideas about what I could put it in a Kong with?

In answer to the earlier question her meals are divided into 2 a day.  I think she is greedy rather than starving as she is certainly not underweight at all.  I suppose she could still be hungry but then you have the problem of them becoming overweight and the issues that go with that.

Will try the ideas mentioned and hope for some improvement.

If she loves her kibble that much you could just put in the kong dry without extra treats. It sounds like she'd happily sit down with that and work at pulling the food out. If she needs encouragement a small treat at the bottom with a little cream cheese stopper wouldn't add too much extras.

Hi Indiana Hope

We only use our Kongs for wet food and have a treat cube for dry. I dont know if you have seen them but its like a large dice with a hole at the top. You drop the treats inside and they go down a spiral inside the cube. My dog has to work really hard to get these out since the cube doesnt move around as easily as the Kong. Im sure something like this would slow your one down. HTH.
Good Luck.

The treat ball and kong are good idea's as long as you dont have impatient dogs like mine,who just give up after 30 seconds and look at me for help in getting the food out,i ended up giving our treat ball away as even i lost the plot trying to get every last kibble out for them :rolleyes: Kongs and treat balls equalled frustration in this house,and my dogs arent that food orientated to persist in trying to get the food out. I know people who never feed out of a bowl,they make their dogs work for every morsel,by either using the toys,or sprinkling food around the garden etc.
I bet you're baby would love a big raw meaty bone,it would keep her occupied and in food for hours,instead of 10 seconds ;)

JWB is not a "dry food" but a complete food", contains between 8- 10% moisture .if you are going to criticise a type of food get your facts correct .Millions of dog eat complete foods and are healthy .The problem here is the breed not the type of food, any one who has owned lab will tell you that they are walking vacuum cleaners. As other post have suggested make the dog work for its food .Also worth trying a raised bowl.

>JWB is not a "dry food" but a complete food",

Emmm to whom are you referring alistair? Jwb IS a dry food,complete or not,doesnt make a difference :rolleyes: What excactly would you call a dry food,if not dry pellets such as JWB?

>Millions of dog eat complete foods and are healthy

I think you should get you're facts correct.Especially about the "healthy" part.

>if you are going to criticise a type of food

Oh and while we are being pedantic....who's critisised JWB on this thread??

> think you should get you're facts correct.Especially about the "healthy" part.

You've examined them all?

Well, Santa can get around to all the houses on Earth in one night ......... ;)

Daisy

Thanks to everyone for the helpful tips.  Have presently been scattering food for her to hunt out which has certainly relieved the tension at mealtimes.  Will sort out the raised bowls and other ideas after xmas is out of the way.

It seems the post now seems to have gone off line and I don't want to start a great debate about dry/complete foods and how healthy they are as this is not the issue here.

If anyone has any other ideas would be great to hear them.

Hope you are all enjoying Christmas.

Indiana

I have a friend with a very busy Lab X ESS and she feeds him dinner in one of those treat balls just to satisfy his need to search, hunt and destroy dinner. :-) I have both a ball and the cube and the cube is a lot of work. I can't get the last piece out. The treat ball would supply a slow, steady supply of food. If it was just to slow down eating I would probably try one of those first. (cheaper too I think) I suppose another trick would be to freeze kibble in broth in a kong. Broth wouldn't add much in the way of extra calories.

I hope she enjoys all the hunting she's going to get to do. ;-)

Please be careful before you introduce a raised bowl.  For years people have believed that raised bowls would reduce the risk of bloat or gastric torsion.  Recent studies say that it may actually increase the risk.

Purdue report.

Hi eveyone,  have been and bought a treat ball for Sadie which has been a great success and has made meal times far less stressful.  She wasn't sure what to do with it at first but now she has the hang of it it has been a great success

Thanks for all your responses and Happy New Year to you all.

Sharon