I bought Maya as a fullbred Husky, but somehow she was crossed with a piranah... According to our vet, she is the perfect weight for her size and age, so she is well fed. On his recommendation we feed her Pedigree large breed puppy kibbles (don't know if you are familiar with the brand in the USA).

When you present her with her kibbles, she goes ballistic! She gobbles up the kibbles frantically, shoving the bowl around so that kibbles fly everywhere. Then she does this vacuum cleaner thing where she pushes her nose all along the floor, sucking up all the spilled kibbles. If we do not regulate her intake, she will eat to the point where she will burst i'm sure. Then, if you had to present her with kibbles 5 minutes later, she will do the same. Yet, if you present her with a treat, she will take it quite nicely. Her reaction to kibbles is something like this:

I have tried everything, even some of Cesar Milan's concepts, to no effect, when she sees kibbles, she goes completely nuts. It is not competition, as Sheba is a very well behaved dog, and will not try to steal Maya's food.

We got her when she was 8 weeks, she was a liiter of 5, so I cannot see that she had to compete there. She was also the most feisty, and one of the largest pups.

Any advice?

To slow down Mika's eating when I got her is I hand fed her. I made her sit for every bite and go slowly. While she was eating I would pet her and inbetween servings. She too was a vacuum for kibble. One thing to try is putting a large object (rock) in the center of the bowl to make her work around it. For her though I think securing the bowl down to something work help a little to fix the mess issue. Mika now will eat a little then come see me for attention. She has turned around very well for me. I hope tips from this group will help you out. I do not like pedigree but by the way you worded it, you aren't in the states. So with that, get the best food you can find that fits your budget and dogs digestive system the best.

Good luck

How old is Mya? Kerian the rescue We got eats very fast I found a way to slow her down was to add some yogarit to the kibble and a bit of water them I freeze the food she has to work a lot harder to eat then. Also adding like a rock or tennis balls to the food dish will make her work harder to eat.

Kevin's suggestions are exactly what I would have done. It takes a while, but it works. Hailey was/is the same way. When we brought Feather into the home, competition with a new dog sent her SPIRALING backwards. Soon as Feather left, she calmed down (and had started too the longer she was here). It's an insecurity. They need to learn that you provide the food and you will always provide it.

My female Dalmatian was like this too, for a very long time. I fixed the problem by purchasing an elevated bowl and an omega paw ball. The elevated bowl made it so she couldn't burry her face in the bowl and chow down and by adding the ball, it made it more of a challenge. It helped the problem out a lot!

This is the bowl & stand I purchased for her. It's very durable and comes in different sizes.
This is the ball. You can purchase these at Petsmart & Petco if you're interested.

I don't mean to interject and I know you aren't asking, but have you thought about trying a higher quality kibble? And did you hear about the pedigree recall?

Thanks for the tips, I will try.

Yes, she was on a "high quality" product, called Vet's Choice. This gave her a runny stool, and we had to experiment. I do not think the Pedigree brand we have here in SA is the same as yours, I maybe wrong. Bottomline is she did the same on the other kibbles. She is 4 months old.

Can you post the ingredients? You may want to try the bland diet option, it may help a lot. There have a been a few people on here trying that. Claudia will probably chime in when she gets the chance.

If you have a sensitive dog it's the best way to find out what works

Our Neva is still much of the same way. we have had her almost 6 months, and occasionally she backslides and we have to go back and hand feed her. She is very over-zealous with food. and a major treat hoarder. it has taken a lot of patience, lots of lost patience (i'll admit).

- But, now, after about 5 solid months of hand feeding, i think we are finally on our way to eating from a bowl, normally. Though we still have vaccume suckage, she is chewing more as she is on Hills Science Large breed puppy, because the kibbles are HUGE for puppy food. Its what makes her chew, and that was super important to us. Moving forward, we will work with her to eat more calmly and appropriately. We are working our way to a stationary feeding spot for her, but until she can eat slowly and chew most of it, we will be holding her bowl and controlling her bites.

Cheers
Bearterriers

bearterriers wrote:

Our Neva is still much of the same way. we have had her almost 6 months, and occasionally she backslides and we have to go back and hand feed her. She is very over-zealous with food. and a major treat hoarder. it has taken a lot of patience, lots of lost patience (i'll admit).

- But, now, after about 5 solid months of hand feeding, i think we are finally on our way to eating from a bowl, normally. Though we still have vaccume suckage, she is chewing more as she is on Hills Science Large breed puppy, because the kibbles are HUGE for puppy food. Its what makes her chew, and that was super important to us. Moving forward, we will work with her to eat more calmly and appropriately. We are working our way to a stationary feeding spot for her, but until she can eat slowly and chew most of it, we will be holding her bowl and controlling her bites.

Cheers
Bearterriers

Have you tried feeding her on a mat (no bowl?) Or on the floor of her kennel? Separation feeders? Stuffing her food in kongs? Sticking a kong in her bowl to eat slower?

we're using a Kong Wobbler to feed Dakota now. We put his kibble in the kong and he has to repeatedly knock it over to get his kibble out. He can't inhale his food and he has to use his brain to figure out how to get his food so it helps to tire him out.

We bought ours at Petco but i found a listing on Amazon so at least you can see what i'm tlaking about

http://www.amazon.com/Kong-Wobbler-Treat-Dispensing-Large/dp/B003ALMW0M

Exactly what Crystal said. The Kong Wobbler slows them down a lot. I bought one for Callie, not because she was eating fast, but just to give her some mental stimulation and keep her still for five seconds. She takes a lot longer to eat and has a lot of fun doing it too.

But if you don't want to shell out the money on the Kong, everyone else's suggestions work as well. Slow her down by making it harder for her to get to her food. You can also hand feed (which can be doubled up with some basic command training, killing two birds with one stone).