Digestive Help for Your Beloved Dog or Cat!
Does your pet eat so fast that it’s becoming a health danger? We’ve found a simple, effective, inexpensive solution for you!
A small Virginia company has created a really smart product: The Brake-Fast Dog Food Bowl. It is designed to slow down your pet while he/she is eating. Why would you want to do this?
Simple: pets don’t know any better! They like to eat, same as humans, but you can’t just tell them “Hey, you’re hurting yourself!”and expect them to listen. If they don’t slow down, there are some real risks involved, especially if they are suffering from Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (GDV).
Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (also known as “Bloat“) occurs when an animal eats so quickly that it keeps swallowing pockets of air. The air keeps expanding the stomach, causing digestive distress. Some dogs will vomit to relieve the distress, but other dogs will continually eat and may even go so far as to rupture their stomach.
You may be wondering how a dog food bowl could help eliminate the risks involved with GDV or Bloat. It’s one of those genius-in-simplicity ideas, actually! The bowl has 3 smooth prongs that stick up to prevent your pet from ramming his/her whole face in the bowl at once. The animal has no choice but to gingerly maneuver around the prongs to eat.
In addition, the bowl has no rubber grip on the bottom, which means the bowl will slide around quite a bit, which also slows down eating. Clever, eh? These two simple ideas work together to make your beloved pet eat a lot slower, and gulp a lot less air.
While the bowls are marketed as “dog food bowls,” the company notes that cats can also benefit by utilizing the small size bowl. Pick one up at Amazon today:
Sources (external links will open in a new window):
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March 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
What a smart idea.
I might have to get one of these for one of my dogs. She eats and eats and eats without actually chewing her food which results in her throwing up everything minutes later. It’s not a pretty sight. So, we try to hang around her and force her to eat slower, but she don’t always catch her in time.
Monique’s last blog post..Yeah Dumb Ass, I Understand You
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:15 am
GDV is a particular risk for deep chested dogs, eg Irish setters. You can also reduce the risk by feeding them smaller portions at a time, limiting their exercise right after eating and placing the bowl on a stool so that it is up off the ground. Or you can put large (too big to swallow) river stones in the bowl as well for them to move around.
Ferox’s last blog post..Parasites in Meat
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Thanks, something to keep in mind. My dog drinks his water so fast and then throws up. Pretty gross. He’ll do this with his food sometimes, too.
Lindsay’s last blog post..Read your way to expertise
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Very interesting! I will have to get this bowl for Velvet. Plus is I slow her down she’ll have less time to dog little Albert who eats verrrrrryyyyyyyy slowwwwlllllllly. They really are a mutt & jeff pair.
thanks!
Viveca