Not at ALL Picky Eater - re Slow Feeder Bowls

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Its kind of refreshing to post a discussion about a doodle with an eating problem that ISN'T about being picky. I know I've been a part of those discussions myself, more than once, with Miss Picky Pants, Lucy. Now we have Oscar, who is the polar opposite of Lucy. He inhales his food, sometimes literally. If allowed, he'll eat so fast it immediately all comes back up. Therein lies the problem. I've tried 2 different slow eater methods, one the Brake-Fast bowl, and the other, a large ceramic ball you place in the food bowl. The first works, but only if I put a couple Tbls. of food behind the 'protrusions' at at time, which means having to stand there and wait until Oscar has finished and then put a couple more Tbls. in. This can take 4-5 'courses' with me standing watch over the bowl the entire time. The ceramic ball, the Omega Paw Portion Pacer, doesn't slow Oscar down enough. The meal still comes back up with it.

The silver lining in all of this is that Oscar is EXTREMELY food motivated. At his first puppy class last night the trainer was amazed at how Oscar sat facing me the ENTIRE class, his undivided attention on me, waiting for the next treat. He would do back flips, I think, for a treat. The other puppies were distracted, barking at one another and totally unfocused on their owners.

Back to eating fast, my question is, with those of you with 'problem' eaters like Oscar, what have you found to work the best? I saw this funny looking feeder online and I'm very tempted to get one. The price is very high and the thing would be a bear to clean (with Oscar's current 3 feedings a day I'd be hand washing it twice a day and washing it in the dishwasher every night). http://www.pamperedpawgifts.com/products-dog-bowls.html

I can't imagine feeding Oscar the way I currently am for the rest of his life. Its such a bother. Any suggestions are welcome and MUCH appreciated! Oh, BTW, we've also tried a food dispensing ball that rolls around on the floor. It didn't work well at all on our hardwood floors. I've only tried one, and maybe there are some that work better on smooth surfaces?

[Adina P]

She never has.

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

this is how Bender eats :) 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Cute. I think she has beaten Calla by a long shot. Love the bowl re-check.

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

Hi Debb!  My Bender eats super fast too.  He's been like that since the day I brought him home.  He rarely ate too fast that it comes back up but hes almost 1 and hes slowed down a lot.  Ive never used feeding devices before but i noticed he eats slower when I use his deeper bowl vs the bowl that's curved and easier to reach the kibbles.  

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Hi Joanna, well, we can only hope time will help. From what I understand, the food comes back up because they swallow too much air while gulping down their food.

On a another note, Oscar is a loud and messy drinker too. When he was first home at 7-1/2 weeks we thought it was kind of funny how loud he drank and blamed it on his long tongue. Then we learned about his overbite and blamed it on that.  Now that his lower jaw is just about normal (the extraction of his lower canines freed up his lower jaw to grow properly) he's still as loud as ever, and still dribbles a lot of water when he finishes. I have noticed in recent weeks his drinking water isn't nearly as cloudy from backwash as it use to be, though, so maybe there is some improvement. I'm not sure we'll ever not have to wipe his face after he drinks, though.

[Mara, Sadie & Zoe]

We had used the Kong Wobbler but if I had seen this I would have tried the grass thing first. The Kong Wobbler would get slammed into cabinets and sometimes sail across the room if she got too enthusiastic.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We had a foster who truly inhaled his food by the time you stood up from bending to set the bowl down.  We bought a small sectioned bowl similar to this: That was not enough so we then added small balls in each section.  The balls were a cat toy. This slowed him down a bit more.

[Christine & Shelby]

I think the grass feeder thing looks awesome! Yes, pricey but could be a great solution. Another option... I have one of these for Shelby and she loves it.... The buster cube!
http://www.amazon.com/Buster-Food-Cube-Large-Colors/dp/B0006G54OU

[Rita and Fazzy]

We have even used a muffin tin, putting small amounts of kibble in each of the sections....it worked well, but we wound up with a brake-fast bowl...and still use it.