# I've Had It!



## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

bubba has always been a gulper....

whilst he has gotten better with boney foods, he still tries to swallow boneless whole..


i figure this has been going on for a year and a half....and whilst he might not be the brightest bulb on the block...

if he hasn't learned by now...i have a feeling this is bubba and the way he eats.

thing is, i am tired of him horking up certain cuts of meat, like pork butt or beef or lamb chunks...over and over...

it can't be good for his esophagus....or throat...for that matter, his teeth...he reminds me of a bulemic except he keeps licking and eating this disgusting frothy saliva ridden glob...

he does get a work out with his bone in meals...i'm going to start cutting his boneless meals....is that worse for him than five time horking exercises?


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

When Snorkels does that, I just think she gets to eat twice! She hasn't done that more than one time though.

I don't have any advice, but I want you to know that I know have a great visual in my head of what food looks like when it's come back up five times


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

xellil said:


> When Snorkels does that, I just think she gets to eat twice! She hasn't done that more than one time though.
> 
> I don't have any advice, but I want you to know that I know have a great visual in my head of what food looks like when it's come back up five times


glad i could make your day. it always makes mine.....

i just think he's doing more damage horking with foods that are coming back up over and over again...than if i were to just cut it a little smaller..


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## lily (May 16, 2011)

i always cut annies meat up otherwise shed swallow it whole,dont really see how it makes any difference as she get her workout with her boney meals,karen


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

I am with you Re. I hateit whent hey hoark stuff up - mostly for myself though as it grosses me out. He is alittle guy so that can't be good for his esophogus. I cut my gulpers meats smaller so they won't swallow whole. I get tired of hearing the hoarking up sound too. Yuk.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

granted, liz, i can't stand the sound he makes.....

i also think making his life easier and mine....can't be a bad thing.

that's what i'm going to do....they don't have to be teeny sized, but this has got to stop....

a few years of this constant horking....seems to me, the possible damage is not worth trying to get him to use his feet and tear...


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

I think that as long as he's getting a good work out with his bone in meals your fine to cut up his bone less meals. Duncan was always a bad gulper too so I'd cut up his bone less meals too.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

I cut up Rocky's because he's just not a very good chewer. He'll chew boney stuff really well, but boneless stuff he just seems to choke on and gack back up again (that's our term for it!). He actually has to have it fairly small for his size or up it comes. 

I'm actually glad to hear that Bubba does this and that I'm not the only one with an inept dog! Rocky only does it once, not 5 times in a row like Bubba so I think I would probably cut Bubba's up for him. (and for your sake!)


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

chowder said:


> I cut up Rocky's because he's just not a very good chewer. He'll chew boney stuff really well, but boneless stuff he just seems to choke on and gack back up again (that's our term for it!). He actually has to have it fairly small for his size or up it comes.
> 
> I'm actually glad to hear that Bubba does this and that I'm not the only one with an inept dog! Rocky only does it once, not 5 times in a row like Bubba so I think I would probably cut Bubba's up for him. (and for your sake!)


he understands every word i tell him, but he cannot 'get' eating. LOL

i want to say because he wasn't raw fed as a child...but malia was ten and she's the most careful chewer i've seen.

you'd think bubba would watch and learn from her...and if he only horked once, i'd probably not even bring it up..

but any meal that is boneless and he has to work at.....he just swallows it whole....i tried giving him bigger than his head, and he would try to swallow that whole too.

i'm glad i'm not the only one with a stupid eater. 

at least he crunches bone....he did swallow an entire drumstick when we first started....sweated that bone for a few days....now he eats bony food right.


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

Same here with a couple of mine. I was most worried about 2 of my doxies not chewing because they eat at lighning speed when they were on kibble. Now that they're eating raw they both chew pretty well. Still fast but they get the job done. A couple of my Chihuahuas though do the gulping in one piece and kack (the term I use) it back up wherever they might be standing at the time. Thank goodness it hasn't happened on my bed yet BUT in order to try my best to avoid that I've started cutting it up into bite size pieces. If it's not getting chewed anyway why should I worry about it.....


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I see no harm in cutting up boneless meals since the real dental benefits come mostly from RMBs. 
Annie regurgitates semi-frequently. I haven't started cutting her food up much, but I might. One thing that seems to effect her is the shape of the boneless meal. "Strips" settle better than "balls" do, if that makes any sense. I have no logical explanation to this, it's simply what I have observed.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

What if you fed it to him frozen? Would he try to gulp that?

Perhap you could stuff the boneless meals in a kong or something, just to get him to slow down a bit.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

donna....he is still on his towel when he starts horking. it disappears down his throat....and then circles and it comes back up and he'll go through this process until the towel is filled with foamy stuff and finally, finally he gets it down...but it could happen anywhere from three to five times...and it's not looking like it's stopping.

linsey, i'll try strips and see what happens....i'd rather not cut up his meat. i'd like a little more careful eating....it's not that i'm worries about choking..i'm more concerned about acid coming back up....constantly over a period of years....

and the third reason is it's annoying a sound as i've ever heard...it's not puking....with that rhythmic oh crap sound....it's horking....i hate it.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

lauren43 said:


> What if you fed it to him frozen? Would he try to gulp that?
> 
> Perhap you could stuff the boneless meals in a kong or something, just to get him to slow down a bit.


tried that....and he was so anxious from it, he bit the top off the kong....LOL

frozen doesn't stop him.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

Well, he is a little pain in the rear. LOL

Those were all the suggestions I had.


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Tess does this as well. I usually cut up her boneless now. I don't see the harm as she still gets the dental benefits from the RMBs.


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## KC23 (Nov 17, 2010)

I always cut my dogs' boneless meals (beef, chicken, fish, pork, organs) into pieces for them. I weigh things out, so it's easier for me to just plop pieces of cut-up meat onto the scale when I am making up their portions. They eat bone-in chicken pretty much everyday for one of their two meals, so that keeps their teeth clean.

Also, I find that adding water/meat juices or broth to their boneless meals slows them down, so I often do that.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

Ha Ha you just described Ziva to a "T"except without the horking, she inhales EVERYTHING it doesn't matter how big or how small the piece is, she can finish 6oz of meat in 1/2 a second flat. I have YET to find the cure for her inhaling food, frozen, cut up, nothing helps her slow down.


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## Love my lab (Dec 9, 2010)

Mine has been a gulper from day 1....prob. never change I would guess. So bad side....ya cut up meat~ bright side~ dog still gulps, just smaller pieces. lol. I add water to Reahven's meal to "slow" her down...yeah right, the dog is a piglet...... I have just come to terms w/ that. Guess some dogs are more careful how they eat and chew just like humans....some take the time to savor and enjoy what they eat and some just inhale it sitting there when it is all gone thinking man I am still hungry. haha. I think cutting is in your permanent future.


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

In the past I did not cut up the hoodlums' boneless meals because I had 7 cats mewling at me, winding around my legs, testing my patience...but they would snarf it up in less time than it took me to get the knife out of the drawer to cut their portion OFF!

With bone in meals, I throw it to them in their crates and they have to chew.

With boneless meals, now what I do is feed the vocal felions first, and then cut up the hoodlums' portions in to chunks, little over bite sized, and hand feed it to them. This makes it last longer, making me feel more appreciated, and we build a bond that way. This also teaches them that one has to sit and fricken WAIT while the other eats and they are not allowed to get all uppity with the other while I feed. It works very well, actually. 

They've never really horked their stuff up, they just inhaled it and it was gone. The cats, on the other hand....Oh LAWD what a mess they can make. The really fun part?! Trying to race over there to clean it before all the other cats and the hoodlums reach it cause that is just disgusting.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I've been cutting up my boneless/ bone in meats for the dogs since the beginning, especially since Cayenne had gotten a turkey neck stuck in the early stages, and that was not a cheap endoscopy. They said that there probably would be scar tissue from that neck being there for a long period of time before they were able to remove it, so yeah nothing wrong with cutting up their meats in the least. Our doggies who are gulpers have mouths bigger than their throats!:becky:


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

you hit it robin...his mouth is wide, so he thinks he can swallow anything.

his throat. not so much.

thanks everyone. i won't cut them into bite size. that presents a choking problem...but chunks should do it.

i feel better knowing i am not the only one with a stupid eater.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

KC23 said:


> I always cut my dogs' boneless meals (beef, chicken, fish, pork, organs) into pieces for them. I weigh things out, so it's easier for me to just plop pieces of cut-up meat onto the scale when I am making up their portions. They eat bone-in chicken pretty much everyday for one of their two meals, so that keep their teeth clean.
> 
> Also, I find that adding water/meat juices or broth to their meals slows them down, so I often do that.


i may try putting some water/meat juices in his bowl....see if that works.

thanks.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

I have always cut up large hunks for the pups, because most of them are gulpers.

I don't see any problem with it, they don't get a good workout from it anyways since it just goes down in one swallow so might as well cut itup and let them enjoy it the first time going down!! 

We got a box of boneless chicken breasts for a really good price and I tried giving morgan a whole one this morning....seriously...gone in a flash.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

It really gets VERY old VERY quickly!!

Brody does the SAME thing...Ive gotten where I butterfly his boneless meat, then put it into a Tupperware container with a water/meat juice mix and freeze it...he gets to go at that for his meal!LOL


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

ok. maybe a stupid question....but eating frozen foods...is there a potential for harm to the nerve roots of their teeth?


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

magicre said:


> ok. maybe a stupid question....but eating frozen foods...is there a potential for harm to the nerve roots of their teeth?


Ya know I have no idea. Didn't even think of it!LOL


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## lily (May 16, 2011)

i would imagine that it goes down so quick that the meat hardly touches the sides so cant see that being a problem magicre ,even if i were to give annie a whole ox heart she would struggle because she doesnt know how to hold onto the meat with her paws!!,same with chicken backs she tends to suck on the fatty bits as the back moves about ,like i say not a clue how to hold it with her paws lol,karen


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

lily said:


> i would imagine that it goes down so quick that the meat hardly touches the sides so cant see that being a problem magicre ,even if i were to give annie a whole ox heart she would struggle because she doesnt know how to hold onto the meat with her paws!!,same with chicken backs she tends to suck on the fatty bits as the back moves about ,like i say not a clue how to hold it with her paws lol,karen


bubba uses his paws on bone in meaty stuff...like the bone in lamb he got.....and when he's got to get the meat off the bone, he's fine.

it's the boneless he can't do anything with...except heart...since heart is not tough..

today, however, they had beef and pork..i cut it up but not tiny.....and no horking. brekkie was a pleasure...

and that's what we're gonna do....he gets workouts...

but i can't see horking three to five times during a meal as being helpful to him...

plus, i would think eating frozen foods not cut up might affect his teeth roots. it would mine if that's all i ate.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

I don't think eating frozen food will affect their teeth roots. Rocky and Shade eat about their weight in ice cubes every day and they actually chew them up. I had a Samoyed who spent half her day dragging large chunks of frozen ice out of creeks and eating it (this was Vermont). She had great teeth until she died at age 12. 

Rocky even eats his beef ribs straight from the freezer. He thinks there's nothing better on a 100 degree day then a frozen beef rib!


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I have 2 who will eat their frozen beef ribs right away, the other one won't touch it until it thaws out a little, not sure if it is because it hurts her teeth or if she doesn't like the cold.


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

I thought maybe with one of my Min Pins I should try giving her a piece of frozen chicken to slow her down. Didn't work. She swallowed it whole and the look on her face was, "Holy crap, that wasn't supposed to happen!" I was sure she'd throw it right back up but it stayed down. Probably frozen to the inside of her stomach lining...


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i think i've solved my problem....

if the bone has lots of meat on it, he uses his paws and tears the meat off the bone, so life is good.

if it's a rib, he pretty much crunches without horking.

if it's boneless, i'll cut it up in bigger than bite size and he can inhale them....or give them a crunch and then swallow.

and that shall end the horking. i think a year and a half is long enough to figure out he's not going to learn how to eat boneless thoughtfully.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Donna Little said:


> I thought maybe with one of my Min Pins I should try giving her a piece of frozen chicken to slow her down. Didn't work. She swallowed it whole and the look on her face was, "Holy crap, that wasn't supposed to happen!" I was sure she'd throw it right back up but it stayed down. Probably frozen to the inside of her stomach lining...


that was funny....'probably frozen to the inside of her stomach lining'.....


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## Khan (Jan 17, 2010)

So are you telling me that for over a year I have been creating more work then needed. I have ALWAYS cut up their boneless meals! How stupid is that! Granted they are in pretty good size chunks; but it never occurred to me to leave it in a BIG hunk! Wow! I guess on the plus side, I've not had over a year of "Horking"!!! LOL!!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Khan said:


> So are you telling me that for over a year I have been creating more work then needed. I have ALWAYS cut up their boneless meals! How stupid is that! Granted they are in pretty good size chunks; but it never occurred to me to leave it in a BIG hunk! Wow! I guess on the plus side, I've not had over a year of "Horking"!!! LOL!!


i don't have the problem with malia...it's bubba who can't eat fast enough because he is S T A R V I N G

so let me reverse that....do you mean i've been watching this dog foam at the mouth, horking all over the place for a year and a half and it didn't have to be that way LOL?


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