Puppy doesnt chew his food

[banzai75x]

My 11wk old Cav. King Charles inhales his food. He doesnt chew. He gets so anxious and just swallows. I dont hear any chewing. Is this ok or normal?

 

[Tinaweena]

For an 11 week old dog, he should be eating three times a day. What kind of food is he on?
Also, you can hand feed him one meal a day, to slow him down. If you want him to eat out of the bowl, leave the bowl on the floor and put a handful in at a time, but don't take the food he can see away from him.
At that age he usually won't chew anyways, cuz his molars aren't big enough to crunch it.
You can let it soak in water for a while so it softens up and that may help.
However if you have him on a quality puppyfood, the manufacturers take that into account, and make it easy to digest even if it isn't chewed.
Take a look at the other end of him, if things seem ok there....then don't worry.

 

[banzai75x]

I'm feeding him two times a day. Can't get home during lunch. We are feeding him Innova Puppy. He is taking to it okay. His stool has finally firmed up. Although his pooping schedule is wacky.

I try hand feeding him. He just gets so crazy and licks my entire hand when i do one kibble at a time.

 

[Saje]

lol that's a cute image. What's his history? Do you know why he might be acting like this?

Try wetting his food right before you feed it. That's always a good idea anyway

 

[sheps4me]

My shepherd also inhaled his food when he was very young. Many times, I was lucky to get the bowl on the ground rather than have it knocked out of my hand. His meal was gone in seconds and it never did him any harm.

 

[mutt_lover]

Same thing here. My Brutus, Lab/Dane mix, finally stopped the wolfing down at 4 months. I wet his food until then because it freaked me out.

 

[Mordy]

chewing food before swallowing isn't a natural thing for dogs to do. they don't have the teeth for it.

adding water to dry food is always a good idea, but putting the food on a flat plate or cookie sheet instead of into a bowl slows dogs down as well.

putting a heavy object into the food dish also helps, since the dog will have to eat around it.

a more fun way for the dog is to simply use a treat ball. it not only slows him down but is also much more fun and mentally stimulating.