I found out my female, Bambi is an extremely fast eater. She has been having acid reflux symptoms and she has been on medication but I do not think they are helping much. I have also changed her diet. She has always been fed in her crate and I did not notice her eating fast but sometimes she would lay down to eat in the crate. I decided to elevate her bowl and feed her outside of her crate and this is when I noticed that most times she inhales her food. Does anyone use and can recommend a slow feeder dog bowl? I have a couple that I bought for Bowie and rarely used so I packed them up. I would like to get out the one that someone recommends. The only thing I do not like is that I will have to mix her food and supplements in another bowl and then transfer it to the slow feeder bowl because there is not much room for mixing ingredients.

Jennifer

You can try a simple solution, put rocks in the dish, big ones that she can't swallow. Then she has to work and eating around them… It is an old trick we used for years on horses that wolfed down their food and would likely colic.

They make ones that have a stainless steel ball that you put in the bowl and they har to move it around in order to get to the food, this way you can out the ball in after mixing her food and just before you give it to her, I also find this slows them down rather than slows them down and annoys them ( and they are much easier to clean!)

might want to try a food dispensing toy - like Buster cube, except I don't like the buster cube b/c it's really noisy, but something like that would probably work and work her little brain as she eats.

Thanks for the suggestions! I think Bambi would probably sample the rocks to see if there were food. If I do not feed her enough food then she will eat things in the house like the furniture covers, the furniture, pillows, etc. I feed her a little over 1 cup of food per day. I have to feed her a mix or she will gain too much weight on just regular dog food. She is 9 years old and is on thyroid medication but what is odd is that her dose is large for her size but each time that I have had her retested, the results are good and no change in medication is needed. This past week, I saw her put something in her mouth from the grass and I made her drop it and it was a large dead cicada and it was still intact as she had not eaten it yet. Bambi will just about eat anything!

Jennifer

If the rocks and ball look too much like food, try getting a bowl that has "walls" on the underside. If you turn over a regular bowl, some brands have these connecting bars between the inner and outer bowl walls. Put the food in the underside of the bowl and the dog has to work around these walls.