Slow Feed Dog Bowls
Does your Sheltie eat too fast? Does he suffer bloating and hiccups after meals? Slow down Mr Gobble Guts with a slow feed dog bowl.
A slow feed dog bowl
When our Sheltie, Howard, was just a little puppy he used to graze on his kibble all day long. But as soon as we got Piper, the competition was on! Imagine our surprise when we fed the dogs that first night. What ensued was a 20-second frenzy of snarfing and gobbling, followed by hiccups, burps and bloating.
Gross! But having a dog that eats too fast is more than a passing nuisance. Your dog will also invariably suffer from:
Bloating. Vacuuming up his food means your Sheltie swallows a lot of air, causing uncomfortable stomach bloating and hiccups.
Digestion. Snarfing his food without chewing bypasses the first stage of digestion, making him more likely to regurgitate or vomit after meals.
Dissatisfaction. Eating too fast means dinner is over in a flash, giving your dog less time to enjoy his food and leaving him unsatisfied.
Slow feed dog bowls were originally created by vets for sick and obese dogs, and have become a popular alternative for healthy dogs who simply eat too fast.
Slow feeders work by making it physically impossible for your dog to wolf down his food. The maze and spiral designs mean he has to eat around the obstacles, prompting him to pause and chew more frequently.
Our Shelties often had hiccups after dinner, and vomiting on the carpet was all too common. After we introduced slow feed bowls, meal times at our place became a lot calmer. Dinner was still very much a focused affair, but it was no longer a race to see who could finish first and start pilfering the other one's food.
Whether or not you use a slow feed bowl, it's still strongly recommended to feed multiple dogs several meters apart, and preferably out of each other's eyesight. This means they can focus less on resource guarding and more on their delicious and stinky kibble.
There's a bunch of slow feed bowl designs to choose from, including the bestselling Outward Hound Slow Bowl on Amazon.
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To learn more about the wonderful world of Shetland Sheepdogs, download my 160-page PDF ebook, Shelties: The Complete Pet Owner's Guide, now in its fifth edition. The guide features hands-on advice on raising a Sheltie illustrated with 100+ photos from Sheltie owners around the world. It's much loved by those who followed the adventures of Howard and Piper Woofington Moon, the inspiration behind Sheltie Planet. |
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