# Help for a gulper



## Imgliniel (Sep 1, 2011)

Hello all!

I’ve been lurking around for a few weeks and decided to dive in and see if you guys can help me. I have a 65 lb Doberman mix named Lucy who I would like to get on raw. However, she is a TERRIBLE gulper. The general wisdom I have seen says you can hold one side to get them to chew, but this upsets her. Or feed bigger than their head. Well I gave her a whole lamb shank as an experiment (def bigger than her head!). And she managed to shear/break of a large hunk of bone and swallow it whole. :shocked: She then barfed it up, still whole, a couple hours later. She scared the crud out of me. Do you guys have any good suggestions for getting her to slow the heck down and CHEW things? Or at least stop trying to swallow chunks that are way to big? I am not comfortable going forward until I get this sorted out. 

Thank you for any wisdom and suggestions you can offer. I am happy to give more info or back story if you want, just ask!


----------



## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I have several gulpers. They always have been. They will crunch a chicken leg quarter two or three times and then swallow the rest whole. We have never had an issue with swallowing large chunks of bones. 

I suggest you start with chicken leg quarters since your dog is 65 pounds. If she crunches it a few times and swallows the rest, that's completely normal. Dogs don't need to chew their food like humans do. Digestion for them starts in the stomach so there is no need to mash things up well. What they have to do is make the raw meaty bone fit down their throat. 

Some dogs meticulously chew their food. But it's not necessary for them to do so.


----------



## Imgliniel (Sep 1, 2011)

It's the constant barfing it back up that has me worried. She has done this with chicken quarters as well. (I started with chicken, she got the lamb shank after I read the feed larger thing, so I tried to find the biggest bone in thing I could to see if that helped). Nothing I have ever let her try has stayed down. She swallows huge chunks.. one to three hours later, the huge chunks come back up. 

I know they don't chew to a pulp. My kitties both don't chew chicken wings to a pulp. But they chew off appropriate pieces and don't barf things back up. (Ok except the time Figaro stole a big hunk of liver while I was portioning and hid under the bed with it. I couldn'te get it back before he got it down and it made him sick. To much at once for the little guy, lol).


----------



## pogo (Aug 28, 2011)

Have you tried giving her the bone still frozen? It can help slow them down and they can't break off big pieces so easily


----------



## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

My two gulpers got frozen food, after a while I tried partially thawed and then totally thawed. They figured it out. It took a while but they chew a decent amount now and never throw it back up.


----------



## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Maybe try smashing it up for her a bit so the chicken leg quarter is one gooey mess with small bone chunks? Once she's used to digesting raw foods decrease the amount you smash them. I think the fact that it's whole large raw chunks of bone is what's causing her to vomit later. Hope this helps.


----------



## Cliffdog (Dec 30, 2010)

I did the frozen thing with my Doberman. I guess she was about 58lbs or so when we started, maybe up to 60. I slowly gave less and less frozen foods. She still chews minimally, but well enough that she doesn't barf anything up anymore.


----------



## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

I have a gulper also and she downs a turkey neck like its nothing, I started holding it and that helps and teaches them and I have given her frozen stuff also, which also helps slow them down. She is still a gulper but everything that comes out is digested.


----------



## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

for my pug it was a time thing.....he still eats too fast. but now he only horks up big pieces of boneless...so we cut up boneless meat into chewable portions...

when i fed bigger than his head, he ate three days worth of food before i could get to him 

i guess he got tired of horking up bony ribs and chicken...

we also held things for him and fed him frozen and time took care of the rest.


----------



## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

Morgan is our gulper. I tried holding onto her meals for about the first 6 months of raw feeding- then I took Natalie's advice and just let her do her thing. Gave her a little trust and she seems to do MUCH better eating on her own than she did with my help. It did take her a bit to figure it out, but now she has slowed down enough that you might even catch her laying down to eat. :wink:

If it makes you more comfortable, try feeding them frozen/partially frozen and smash them up a bit with a hammer so that the pieces are already broken up. Also keep in mind that she is new to raw, which may be why she is throwing up on occasion. The body needs time to adjust to processing raw foods and throwing up is normal in the transition period. 

Hope this helps.


----------



## RaisingWolves (Mar 19, 2011)

I have a gulper and I know how you are feeling! I have to take deep breaths watching her eat.

I'm curious, do you keep your dog quiet after a large meal? Mine vomit if they rough house after a large meal. The only time mine have vomited several hours after feeding is when I fed too much bone. My girl would vomit clear liquid and bone pieces because she was digesting the meat, leaving bone in the stomach which was irritating. That happened the first month after transition.


----------



## 3RingCircus (May 24, 2010)

Imgliniel said:


> It's the constant barfing it back up that has me worried. She has done this with chicken quarters as well. (I started with chicken, she got the lamb shank after I read the feed larger thing, so I tried to find the biggest bone in thing I could to see if that helped). Nothing I have ever let her try has stayed down. She swallows huge chunks.. one to three hours later, the huge chunks come back up.


I've got a dog with a condition which causes him to vomit up what our family calls owl pellets, undigested food. On raw this has occurred less and less, a record of 7 months apart now. Recently, he regurgitated a whole chicken hindquarter. I was shocked that it could come out of his mouth that way, undigested, but it did. And this is my dog who systemically pulverizes his food before eating it. When he pulverizes, it looks as if he's eating an ear of corn, he crunches the bone up and down the full length before biting off pieces and swallowing it.

I wouldn't worry about your dog's barfing. (Unless of course he has an underlying disorder.) You could slow him down by serving it frozen or partially frozen.


----------

