Hi guys, I need some help - I just don't know what to do. We've been feeding our dog a raw food diet for about a month. We predominantly feed her chicken and duck necks, and once a week we'll throw in an organ meat for her, and from time to time we'll feed her lentils and/or vegetables as well. She inhales her food without really chewing it and then she barfs it all up. She's not barfing after every single meal, it seems to be at least half the time though. This is a recent development that has been happening in the last couple of weeks - it hasn't always happened. And then sometimes she'll just eat up the barf (because what happens is that she eats it and then either part way through her meal or right after eating she'll barf so it hasn't even been digested or chewed for that matter). If she's eating the barfed up food she doesn't seem to barf again after that. I feel like it's just an issue of inhaling her food but I'm at a loss. I feel like a terrible parent here! What do we do?

I don't know if this will work for raw food, but I have heard with kibble when they do this you can put a rock in their bowl (a fairly large one that they can't swallow even if they wanted to nor move it very easily) so they have to work around so it slows them down when eating their food. Others may have better advice. May try hand feeding so she can only eat as fast as you let her (that one's a bit of a pain on you but it's an option).

If she eats it all up again after - it's normal. It's regurgitation. I never clean up anything that doesn't have bile in - they eat it again anyway.

How many times a day are you feeding her and does she get anything bigger?

Feeding her small amounts up to her daily allowance 2-3 times a day should help with her not throwing it back up. But also Chicken and Duck necks aren't huge. So she's more than likely not chomping or anything and just swallowing whole - hence the need for them to come back up - her stomach cannot digest them like that.

If this is the case - try feeding them frozen - that way she has to at least chomp them to size a bit. Or hold the end of them and hold them until she has learnt to eat them properly.

Or feed her some bigger foods. Mine get chicken carcasses, whole rabbits, squirrels - things they have to take their time with and eat properly - it's very rare that they regurgitate their food when they have been taught to eat properly and what they're eating isn't too small to be swallowed whole

Thanks for the help. We went back to feeding her morning and night to see if maybe she was just so hungry that she inhaled her food and she still puked some up so since then We've tried freezing (or partially freezing) them and it's slowing her down and forcing her to chew. I'll have to source out some bigger foods for her to eat from time to time as well to really make her work for it. Also glad to know that her eating her puke is not a huge problem as long as there isn't bile - that's a relief. She seems to be learning to chew her food now and she hasn't puked up in a while so that's progress. She seems to be doing well!

Thanks again for the advice and reassurance!

Honestly, I wouldn't be concerned. Cato does this sometimes and I just let him eat it...it's a normal habit of dogs who eat pray. However, try turkey necks instead f the smaller ones, that will help

My dog was inhaling his food when I first got him due to be practically starved for a while, but now he's actually pretty unconcerned with food and takes his precious time.

The way I did it was teaching him not to touch his food until I told him he could. He had to work for it by doing simple commands, and he only got a little bit at a time for each trick. He eventually just chilled out and realized that either way, he's going to be able to eat. When I got him to a certain point, I just put water on his food(kibble) so that it was soft enough that he wouldn't have a problem. He got so laid back about it after a while that I can feed it to him any way and he's pretty good.

I understand this is harder with raw, but perhaps you could try doing a ground mixture and working back up to solids? This would give you time to portion it and work directly on the speed at which she's eating, before you give her the bigger pieces again. You can get mixtures with the bone ground right in.

If you are predominantly feeding her duck necks she is probably experiencing too much bone to digest. Try feeding her more meat and less bone. Remember necks, wings, etc. all have more bone than meat. RAW feeding should be at 80% meat and only 10% bone. I experience similar barfing the first few times I fed my girl raw, I realized she was throwing up because I was giving her too much bone in her food. I switched over to the spare chicken breast I had in the freezer and she's been fine ever since. Remember, less bones more meat  

Hi,
maybe bring to your interest re: chicken and duck necks, I wouldn't feed those to mine as there are too many lymph nodes around that areas and I am sure you know what does these nodes' job

Feeding necks is fine for a dog, just add more meat on the next day to even it out. Eating glands and other offal with make a more nutritious dinner and provide a variety or nutrients.