Elevated Food Bowls

[Andrija Markovic]

I read that the food bowl should not stand on the floor.
It should be up to the dog to eat better.
I made ​​a pot rack for food at a height of 30cm.
I would like to hear and your opinions.

 

P.S.Sorry for my bad english I hope you understood me

[Cornelia]

 

 

Wölfe fressen auch immer in einer Höhe von 30 cm ..... ;-)))

Das ist wirklich egal .

Liebe Grüße

Conny

[Marco]

Info pulled from here.

In many ways, the jury is still out on the topic.

Initially, the idea was that elevated feeders would help reduce the incidence of bloat. However, new studies have shown that a lot of the things we once recommended to owners of bloat-prone dogs (including elevated feeders) may actually be causing more harm than good.

Purdue University did one of the more recent large studies that tested out a number of the recommendations and found some pretty surprising things:

Factors That Make Difference - These measures, long been thought to reduce the risk of bloat, were found to have no effect:

Restricting exercise before or after eating
Restricting water intake before and/or after meals
Feeding two or more meals per day
Moistening dry kibble before feeding

Factors That DO Make A Difference

These four (4) factors ARE associated with an increased risk of bloat in large breed dogs

1)Raising the food dish more than doubled the risk for bloat
2)Speed of eating -Dogs rated by their owners as very fast eaters had a 38% increased risk of bloat
3)Age: The study found that risk increased by 20% with each year of age. Owners should be more alert to early signs of bloat as their dogs grow older.
4)Family History: Having a first-degree relative (parent, sibling or offspring) that had bloated increased a dog's risk by 63%.

Bloat (GDV) Study


I know one thing for sure...if I had a dog at high risk for GDV, I would most definitely get his/her stomach representatively tacked when they got spayed or neutered.  Years ago I got my GSDx a raised feeder. If looks would kill, I'd have been dead a long time ago - he was not impressed. He would actually take his food out of the bowl, drop it on the floor, and eat it off the floor.

Posted by Lioness

[Lee May]

Hi and welcome Andrija, bottom line. fast eaters become faster as they age. and thus swallow more air which may cause bloat. First you need to know if your dog/pup woofs down food, if so there is a ring bowl you can buy or pit a rock in their feeding bowl so they must circle around to get food and thus eat slower, I would also add a little warm water. also food quality is a factor. No corn or soy for it swells in the stomach. Raised bowles been their did that, no diffrence, fast eaters will only eat faster with raised bowels. Peace Lee

[Dries Lloyd]

Personally, I think us humans sometimes try to impose our own personal (human) preferences onto our pets, and thereby sometimes do more harm than anything. Think back at our primal wolf ancestor - did they have raised food bowls? I think not. containment - yes - no excercise after meals, smaller meals.

 

[Thomas Stegall]

Dries Lloyd brings up a valid point,

In the wild they were not eating baked food that is predominantly filler that is undigestible for them.  The primary cause of bloat is kibble dog food which usually has alot of grains (corn, rice etc) as fillers.  These fillers literally rot and decompose in the dogs stomach producing gas, this gas causes bloat.  Swallowing air contributes, but is not the actual cause.  We make our own raw whole food mixture for our three dogs with friends that have two great danes, and we have zero issues with bloat because there are no cheap undigestible grain fillers to cause it.

 

The rate that a dog eats is largely a learned behavior based on the dog's pack order withint their litter and size of the litter they were in.  A dog that was whelped in a litter of 3 has little competition and so there is no need to compete for food.  Puppies born into large litters on the other hand have to compete for food and learn to eat what they can while they can.  This develops into gulping food as an adult. 

[Midhad]

Thomas it is great to see you posting on this forum. This explains why my pup is a slow eater. He comes from a litter of few, but I guess it is a good thing that he doesn't eat fast.

Thomas Stegall said:

 

Dries Lloyd brings up a valid point,

 

In the wild they were not eating baked food that is predominantly filler that is undigestible for them.  The primary cause of bloat is kibble dog food which usually has alot of grains (corn, rice etc) as fillers.  These fillers literally rot and decompose in the dogs stomach producing gas, this gas causes bloat.  Swallowing air contributes, but is not the actual cause.  We make our own raw whole food mixture for our three dogs with friends that have two great danes, and we have zero issues with bloat because there are no cheap undigestible grain fillers to cause it.

 

The rate that a dog eats is largely a learned behavior based on the dog's pack order withint their litter and size of the litter they were in.  A dog that was whelped in a litter of 3 has little competition and so there is no need to compete for food.  Puppies born into large litters on the other hand have to compete for food and learn to eat what they can while they can.  This develops into gulping food as an adult. 

[Thomas Stegall]

Good to see you out here to, looking forward to seeing you and Kubu next weekend.  Copper will be one year old tomorrow. 

Midhad said:

Thomas it is great to see you posting on this forum. This explains why my pup is a slow eater. He comes from a litter of few, but I guess it is a good thing that he doesn't eat fast.

Thomas Stegall said:

 

Dries Lloyd brings up a valid point,

 

In the wild they were not eating baked food that is predominantly filler that is undigestible for them.  The primary cause of bloat is kibble dog food which usually has alot of grains (corn, rice etc) as fillers.  These fillers literally rot and decompose in the dogs stomach producing gas, this gas causes bloat.  Swallowing air contributes, but is not the actual cause.  We make our own raw whole food mixture for our three dogs with friends that have two great danes, and we have zero issues with bloat because there are no cheap undigestible grain fillers to cause it.

 

The rate that a dog eats is largely a learned behavior based on the dog's pack order withint their litter and size of the litter they were in.  A dog that was whelped in a litter of 3 has little competition and so there is no need to compete for food.  Puppies born into large litters on the other hand have to compete for food and learn to eat what they can while they can.  This develops into gulping food as an adult.