Thread: Gorging

What do you feed, Blackdog? Kibble, canned or raw?

Both Dry food and Raw.

I use to use Eukanuba, but changed to Advance because the quality of Eukanuba just doesnt seem to be what it use to be.

Some days they may get a meal that just consists of Raw, and a couple days a week (when im feeling lazy i guess) they will get dry.
But the Raw is made up of steamed vegies, Kangaroo, Kidneys, hearts, Chicken frames, pasta, Fish etc...

It has me really stumped as to what to do to try get him to slow down, i know that part of the reason he isnt putting on weight is because he is eating so fast that he cant digest it properly and has resorted to eating his fecal due to not digesting it...

At the moment i am hand feeding him so that he only gets a lil bit at a time, but that doesnt seem to be doing much cuz it still gets sucked up like a vacuum...

He doesnt have any intestinal parasites, and all pathology tests have come back normal so its not a health issue (at the moment) if he continues to eat in this manner it probably will.

I think i need a doggy shrink for him...LOL

As a 11 week old pup when he first arrived, he did not gorge and was very sensible, now he has the nickname HOOVER!

The problem is with a lot of people is that people weigh a dog and think right the dog weight is this much i will feed it this amount which maybe right in some cases.
Dogs like us all have different metabolisms and all process food differently, and/or maybe more active then a similar dog of his size simply needing more food.
The dog in fact maybe just hungry,especially if it has only started after his growth spurt.
What i would suggest. if you have a kennel/pen, i would place the dog in there giving it enough food and water for a couple of days(He/she may guts the food and dogs and be sick) but if that is the case,refill the food and leave the dog to do it again if it wishes. What this will do is let the dog understand that it will always have food and that there is no rush,after a week or two i would be surprised if you still had the problem

Re. Weight.
Whats his height at the shoulder?
How much does he weigh?
Does he have good cover over his ribs?
How is his activity and general fitness level?

Gulping his food doesn't mean he won't digest it as well - it's what happens to it in his stomach that counts, not how fast he gets it there!

If you're worried about him hurting himself eating so fast, one trick I've heard is to put a large rock in the foodbowl with the kibble, so he has to slow down and eat around it. I haven't tried this so I don't know if it would work for you.

But from everything else you say, I'm not sure that him eating fast is really the issue. Seems that the issue is that he's underweight and eating poop. These two things may or may not be related, and (IMO) probably aren't caused by him eating too fast.

If you suspect he's not digesting properly, you could try giving him a probiotic to help his digestion out. Some folks I've talked to swear by them, some say they don't do anything for their dog, so all you can do is try adding them and see if they work for you. Human probiotics are fine if you can't get canine ones.

You could try separating the raw and the kibble - most dogs do OK on a mixture, but I've heard from some owners whose dogs don't do as well on a mixture as they do on either raw or kibble alone. Perhaps try alternating a few days of raw, a few days of kibble, instead of mixing them up, and see if that helps?

Some dogs however just seem to like to eat poop even if they're digesting their own food perfectly, doesn't seem to do them any harm it's just a grotty habit. I've heard that adding pineapple juice to your dog's food can help prevent poop eating by making the poop less palatable, no idea if this actually works or not since I've (touch wood) never had to try it with my dogs. Otherwise you might just have to remove the poop before he can eat it whenever you can, and teach him not to lick your face.

And like Malornothing says, if he's underweight then he may just need more to eat. How much are you feeding him? I feed my dogs a half raw - half kibble diet as well. For the raw component, I've found that feeding 5 - 10% of the pup's expected adult weight usually works well, so if you're feeding half raw, that's 2.5 - 5% of his expected adult weight, plus half as much kibble per day as what the kibble bag recommends. But again, you have to go by what your own dog is doing - if he's underweight, he might just have an inefficient metabolism and you might just need to feed more.

Thought I'd add my bit to this and bring the subject back up.

I find one of the main reasons for gorging, is that we are not allowing our pups to calm down before being allowed access to the food. A pup/dog that is overly anxious to get to its food, usually eats as fast as its brain is ticking over.

We should never reward or reinforce anxiety..yet a lot of people do when feeding their dog. Its fairly easy to train a pup to calm before being allowed to approach its food. No matter how high its food drive.

I find most pups, when in a more calm and balanced state of mind, tend to eat at an acceptable rate, and not gorg the food.

I am sure we all know we should never give a dog affection or attention when anxious..same rule must apply to food.. both are positive reinforces.