Is Your Dog Eating Too Fast? What a Slow Feeder Actually Does

Some dogs finish a full bowl before you have straightened back up. It looks like enthusiasm, but eating that fast usually means swallowing a lot of air along with the food, and a meal that is over in seconds does nothing for a dog that is bored the rest of the day.

What a slow feeder does

A slow feeder is a bowl with ridges, a maze, or raised shapes built into the floor. Food settles into the gaps, so your pet has to work around the obstacles instead of scooping everything up at once. The same amount of food takes minutes instead of seconds.

That extra time is the whole point. It breaks up the gulping, and it turns a meal into a small puzzle — which is useful enrichment for dogs and cats who spend a lot of time indoors.

Does your pet need one?

Watch one meal. A slow feeder is worth trying if your pet:

• finishes in under a minute,
• coughs, gags or brings food back up shortly after eating,
• pushes other pets away from their bowl, or
• paces and looks for more straight after eating.

If your pet regularly vomits after meals, see your vet before changing bowls — a bowl is not a fix for a medical problem.

A lick mat is the same idea for wet food

Ridged bowls work best with kibble. For wet food, yogurt, or a spread of something special, a lick mat does the same job: the licking takes time, and licking itself tends to be calming. It is a good way to keep a dog occupied during a nail trim or a bath.

How to start without a food strike

1. Put a little of their normal food in the slow feeder alongside their usual bowl for the first few days.
2. Start with the shallowest pattern. A maze that is too hard on day one can make a food-motivated dog frustrated rather than slower.
3. Once they eat from it happily, switch over completely.

Our 5-in-1 Slow Feeder Bowl Set includes a slow feeder, a lick mat and plain bowls in one set, so you can try each and keep what your pet takes to. If your cat is the one making a mess at mealtimes, the problem is often the water rather than the food — see why cats knock water out of the bowl.