# Do dogs CHEW their kibble?



## loganbean (Dec 3, 2008)

I know not everyone will say yes or no, but I am stumped. My border collie never chewed his kibble; I worried about bloat and/or the effects of swallowing his kibble whole on his digestive system. So, I got him canned food. 
Enter second dog. He eats fine- I hear a crunch or two. Then, last week he threw up shortly after eating. The kibble looked the same as it did before he ate it! 
So now I'm wondering.. How many of your dogs chew their kibble? 
If your dog doesn't chew (_i.e._, inhales his food) is that bad for them?
This whole dry and wet food situation is making me seriously consider feeding them a raw diet!


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## canteloupe (Apr 30, 2009)

I don't think dogs have the type of teeth that can grind up food. None of the cats or dogs I've had "chewed" their food, exactly, although they do crunch it a little before they swallow.
I think animals need molars to grind food up, and in general carnivores don't have those.


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## Bellasmom (Aug 14, 2008)

My Bella chews every bite and it takes her quite a while to eat as she has an underbite. You can her her crunching every bite over and over though.


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## rosemaryninja (Sep 28, 2007)

Dogs do chew their kibble. Some dogs are just so food-obsessive that they scarf their kibble down before chewing it. This can cause vomiting (as you have noticed) so what some people do is put large rocks in their dogs' bowls. The dogs have to maneuver around the rocks to get to the kibble, so they eat more slowly.

There are also bowls designed to force dogs to eat more slowly; I can't seem to find any links right now, though.

Edit: Here we go.
http://www.brake-fast.net/
http://www.eatslowerpetdishes.com/


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## w8ing4rain (Sep 4, 2008)

When we got Nanuq her teeth were rotted and infected. We had to have most of them removed. I asked the vet about food because I wasn't sure she could still eat her kibble. He said that it would be ok. Lots of dogs without teeth eat kibble. He said that a dog's digestion starts in thier stomach where with people it starts in the mouth. He did recommend getting a smaller kibble to make it easier to swallow. She has been swallowing her kibble whole since November and so far she hasn't had any problem with it.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

Some dogs chew, some dogs inhale, some will take their food, one kibble at a time, into another room and play with it for a few minutes before eating it and going to retrieve another.

I have a couple of inhalers.


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## AkiraleShiba (Dec 9, 2007)

Akira is not crazy about his food, he likes it but does not inhale it and he does not chew. Dogs have very acidic stomach and do not need to chew to break down nutriments.


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## loganbean (Dec 3, 2008)

Thank you for your quick replies. So, maybe I will change to kibble. Small pieces and use the slow-down bowls (I did purchase one bowl- but only used it once it because I was feeding my bc wet food at the time, and it took him like 15 minutes to lick his food out of it). I got the bowl at PetSmart (it has plastic "spikes" in it- making it more difficult to gobble the food). Plus, I wasn't sure about the bowl's effectiveness with the dry food, because does it really matter if they inhale it piece by piece or inhale lots all at once)?
So, the money I will save on the wet will allow me to purchase the "more expensive" Innova that we used to feed (when we only had one dog). Both dogs can eat the dry out of the funky bowls. Problem solved (although I do want to educate myself on the raw diet).
Thanks all!


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## wolfsnaps (Apr 27, 2007)

Its funny that this thread came up just now because I was going to ask this on a new thread. Last night I gave mt dogs a taste test of sorts with some samples I got. One kibble was pretty small and my small dog loved it and licked it down. No chewing, just straight down the gullet. It made me wonder if that was bad for him to do. And the big dog likes his food moist so it just slides down the hatch. 

SO what I am hearing is that this is ok? Thats good because I am thinking of getting this new food. YAY.


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## AkiraleShiba (Dec 9, 2007)

Well it depends, if your dog eats too fast he may be at risk for bloat (some breeds are more prone to this) You can either wet the kibble, use a special bowl, a ball that distributes kibble or even put a ball in the dog's ball.


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## FourIsCompany (Apr 18, 2009)

3 of mine don't chew, one does. I put warm water on their food to plump it up a little before going in.


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## Cheetah (May 25, 2006)

Mine don't. Even if I were to hand it to them one kibble at a time, they'd still just swallow it.


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## HORSEandHOUND (May 28, 2009)

Have you ever watched a dog eat its food? It’s actually quite entertaining, since it’s so different from how a human being eats. After all, a dog has no hands; its jaws are suited for biting and cutting vs. chewing.

The mechanics of a dog’s mouth cause all breeds of dogs to eat the same way. 

Have you ever watched a dog swallow its food? This normal process is called "bolting." The dog will pick up a piece of food with its front teeth. Then with a sudden, quick movement of its head, the dog will toss that piece of food back onto the top of its tongue. The piece of food is then rolled to the back of the mouth, still without being chewed. As the food gets to the base of the tongue, a reflex causes the back of the tongue to push the food back and upward into the esophagus. The food is carried directly into the stomach. Quite a process! This is the most comfortable and satisfactory way of a dog getting its food from its bowl into its stomach. 

Sometimes the food given to (or found by) a dog is too big to be swallowed; so bolting does not work. When a piece of food is too large, the dog holds the food with its paws and uses its front teeth to tear off smaller pieces that can be swallowed. If the food is too tough to be torn apart by their frontal teeth, the dog will cut it into pieces small enough to be swallowed, using two specialized jaw teeth called carnassial teeth.. 

Carnassial teeth act like scissor blades which can cut through such tough substances as muscle, hide, gristle, and even bone. While the powerful jaw muscles of a dog are useful for cutting chunks of food into smaller sized pieces that can be swallowed, these muscles are used very little for actually chewing those pieces. 

It’s no surprise that a Chihuahua would want to be fed smaller sized dog food pellets than a German Shepherd! However, each of these dogs has adequate teeth to be able to cut through the tough materials that were the dog’s diet before commercial-grade dog food was widely available.


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## alphadoginthehouse (Jun 7, 2008)

RonE said:


> Some dogs chew, some dogs inhale, some will take their food, one kibble at a time, into another room and play with it for a few minutes before eating it and going to retrieve another.
> 
> I have a couple of inhalers.


Roxxy will stand/sit and eat her food...won't let Mortimer near it (he's taken a liking to dog food). Butch takes a couple of pieces in the living room, eats it, then comes back for more. They both chew it..Butch more than Roxxy. When I had Daja, she inhaled it.


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## Love's_Sophie (Sep 23, 2007)

I have one who inhales, and one who chews, even small bites dog foods.


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