Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject: Gobbling food??
Skye is 11mths.
She gobbles her food like she has never been fed! With my other 2 were lucky if they eat there's so I'm not used to it!
Is it normal? She eats her meals in 2 seconds flat! I feed her twice a day. A little wet food mixed with complete food. She also drinks loads too.
We've only had her a week. I don't know if she's been wormed but she has a appointment on Tuesday at the vets.
I know labs can be greedy but she behaves like she's starving 24/7.
____________ MUMMY TO 3 CHILDREN, 3 DOGS, 3 CATS, 2 RABBITS, 1 GECKO AND FINALLY 1 MAN!!
Maybe she had to compete for food at her last place?
I would try and slow her down, maybe put an upturned dish in her bowl so she has to eat slower.
Worming her would be high on my list too. You don't have to wait for the vets, if you know her weight you can buy drontal from the chemist. Probably cheaper too
Is she maybe not used to dry food? That could explain her drinking more. Plus it has been hot recently. And if she isn't used to the exercise?
How about feeding her separately to your others in case she feels her food is going to be stolen?
Then - a brake-fast bowl or dog-pause bowl or even spreading her food out on a baking tray may help. You could also stuff it in a kong and even freeze that to make it take longer to get it out. You could put water in her dry food that slows some of them down. The dry food could also be in a kong wobbler my Sam loves having his food that way!
Maybe you could feed her smaller meals but more frequently so her tum is not as empty and she *thinks* she's had lots of meals even though she still got the same amount overall?
Max was the king of 5 second meals until we got him a slow down bowl at PAH - it's black with nobbly projections to make it harder for them to get at the food and he takes a couple of minutes now!
At her last home she was a only pet.
I also bet she didn't get regular meals.......
I do feed her separate from our other dogs as ours are really slow and I wouldn't want them fighting if she went to get theirs.
I don't know her weight so I think I'm just going to have to wait til she goes to the vets.
This is a bit of a stupid question but, if she had worms would I see them in her poo? I don't know as mine are always wormed etc.
____________ MUMMY TO 3 CHILDREN, 3 DOGS, 3 CATS, 2 RABBITS, 1 GECKO AND FINALLY 1 MAN!!
Most likely she will slow down in time..my Amber was a disgusting eater at that age - its only at 2 that she has finally started to eat more like a lady
Leo my GSP was also a dreadful pig but has got better over the past month.
Keep feeding her separately- you could try putting tennis balls/toys in her bowl so that she has to eat round them - see if that slows her down first before splashing out on a gobble stop bowl!
Our Barney has to be almost talked into eating so we were astonished when Amber came to us and disappeared her food in seconds, just like Skye. She seems to be permanently hungry (when she is well fed) and will steal food too, which Barney never has done.
She is wormed and she eats her meal in her crate with the door shut (to stop her rushing her food down and then going and stealing Barn's) so that rather undoes those theories.
So Skye is not the only one with wobbly table manners, and I suspect you will find there are a lot of other labs who are just the same. Rachel's idea of a toy in the bowl is good, and I will be having a go at that.
Both of mine snatch and swallow food - even though they are fed jn seperTe rooms, grouse as an only dog always has. I think it is a more common lab trait than other breeds, labs are generally, very food orientated.
One thing I do with mind sometimes (you would prob need tk shut your other 2 inside), is feed them in bs garden, I just throw their food on the grass and make them hunt for it - it makes their brains work too (best done alone though, to avoid competition with the other dogs).
Delphi's a gobbler too. She literally inhales her food so that when she's finished she looks hugely bloated and walks around reverse-sneezing and snorting until all the air is out her system. She now has half a brick in her bowl that she has to eat around - it really has slowed her down and she doesn't inhale as much air while she's eating.
Having a gobbler took me by surprise as Laika used to be a very sedate and slow eater before D came on the scene.
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