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Comment RSSOn the floor or on the table with a napkin?!
7.06.10 # 8:35 # raw food diet # 11 Comments
Me and Max demonstrating that there are different ways to eat a nice meaty bone and none of them involves a raised bowl or a napkin...
There is a question for all my big friends – how are you eating?! From a bowl? From the ground/floor? OR from a raised dog bowl? I’m a rather small dog (even if I personally consider my self big) but I have raised dog bowls. One for my meat and veggies and one for my water. My hoomans just kept that up because they had big dogs before and it is apparently good for them for the following reasons:
Stomach Bloat
While uncommon, stomach bloat occurs most commonly when dogs guzzle their food from low bowls. The next time your dog is eating, watch how his food will immediately disappear.
Dogs are fast eaters by nature. It is a form of protection against anyone or anything taking their food. What a lot of people do not know is that it is very hazardous for their health to eat from the bowls on the ground.
By scarfing their food at such an angle, most dogs inhale a great deal of air. That air can inflate the stomach and even cause it to turn. A dog with stomach torsion is an emergency.
The majority of dogs that get this painful problem, rarely make it. Those who do make it have a better chance at getting it again. On a less serious note, there is also the gas to deal with, and that is uncomfortable for you as well as your pet. Raising the food eliminates the possibility.
Joints and Muscles
Elderly dogs have a little more trouble bending down to eat their food and is very hurtful on joints and muscles. The concluding tension on elbows and wrists as they bend over causes them to eat fast or poorly.
Imagine attempting to eat your food at a push-up stance. That is how a dog feels after each feeding. The position is bad for their posture and makes eating tough. Raising the food helps reduce pressure on those tender joints.
Less Mess
If you purchase a stable elevated dog bowl, you don’t have to worry about any messes to clean up. There is no longer a reason to quickly throw the food back to the throat, and they don’t have to eat so fast.
With less tension on their joints, dogs rest a bit and enjoy their meals more. If you have a dog that really bolts their food no matter what, consider getting a bolt preventing bowl to an elevated bowl. It will make your pet to slow down.
Elevated dog feeders are easily found either at your local pet store or on the internet. To get the height to your dog, measure your dog at the withers. The withers are the front shoulder joint. Take away six inches and you have the perfect height for your dog’s feeder.
Stomach bloat is the one my mom is most concerned about. Not so much with me although I have a bowl lifted up to the measurements in the last paragraph but with Max. We didn’t take a feeder-thingy on holiday so she just sat in front of him with the bowl in her hands. I didn’t get that treatment and I’m rather sure I got less food too!!!
Now my big doggie friends – what have you researched? Anything different? Are you all eating from raised bowls all the time?
The one thing my mom was wondering about is the “how do wild dogs have their dinner”?! Do they take their pray, scraps or whatever they find into their layer where raised silver bowls are waiting in the corner? Do they put a napkin around their necks before they start eating? Probably not. I wouldn’t wear a napkin! But if you look at wild dogs they eat either standing up while tearing the pray apart or chewing it while lying down. No bowls involved. So does that mean while we are on a nice raw diet, always referring to what our cousins in the wild would eat, we still can’t eat like them because we have become to domesticated? To over-bred?! Hmmmmm… Or do we (my mum and I) miss something here?!
While searching the net for answers we found a company called “Pet-Super-Store”. I tell you – they sell some super fancy raised bowls for us! My hooman says the prices seem to be ok as well but she still won’t order anything because they are located in a far, far away country called US and won’t deliver anything to me. 
I can do it all! Standing up...
Using my bed as table.
Or lying down. See my shiny teeth?!
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I eat from a raised up bowl. It is so much easier on my shoulders and neck not to have to bend down. PeeWee has his bowl on the floor, but he is short.
Slobbers,
Mango
Hmmm – but your “little one” is bigger them me… Hmmmm…
This was a good post. I guess I never thought about it and that raised bowls were just making a fashion statement. I also know that bloat is a huge thing; it happened to a friend’s Akita. I know they make bowls with things sticking up in the middle to make you slow down when eating, but I’m also curious about this…
My mum was laughing about the fashion statement thingy… But we think if you have dogs that eat their dinner too fast a bowl as you described it makes sense. Saying that – every breed with some “terrier” in it might just eat the whole bowl
Hi Teal’c,
I also eat from raised bowls, although when I have my raw meaty bones, it doesn’t make much difference as I tend to just take them straight out of the bowl and eat them off the floor (and that’s a long way down for me!) but I guess this is how dogs would eat in the wild so maybe it’s not terrible. I do sometimes lie down if the bone is one that takes longer (a recreational bone) but for my chicken wings, lamb brisket, etc – I just eat them from the ground.
Actually, my human heard from a friend with a Great Dane that there was research which also showed that raised bowls can actually contribute to the risk of bloat! It is all very confusing and I think nobody really has any answers because there haven’t been enough scientific studies done. And maybe it’s one of those things where there are no easy answers – like cancer, where sometimes you do all the right things but you still get it!
Yes, I also have the same problem with my human being busy and struggling to leave comments on my friends’ blogs but I always make sure that she leaves comments as often as she can, coz I noticed that if you don’t, doggies are less likely to come and visit you too and then you’re very lonely with few friends and nobody to read your posts!
I think it’s coz everyone is so busy and there are so many blogs to keep up with, so everyone always makes more effort to visit those who also make an effort back – sort of like “give to receive” – you know what I mean? 
Anyway, that looks like a super yummy bone you’ve got there!
Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane
Hi Honey! Why does your hooman bother to put them in your bowl in the first place?!
My mum says with dogs owners/vets it is like with photographers/doctors: ASK 2 AND YOU GET 3 DIFFERENT OPINIONS, THEN TAKE YOUR PICK…
Yeah – we also try and say hello to everyone but sometimes my mum is just too busy. Stupid money-paper-stuff….
Slobbers Teal’c
I eat from a raised bowl… but also off the floor for scraps… no wastage ensure
Thanks for such an informative posting, Teal’c. Most US stores do not ship internationally, boo to that… but thanks to Aussie stores, whom normally do ship international 
Licks, hero
We think Aussie companies ship internationally because they have to – no enough people here on the big island
…
hmm…. bowls on the floor for tony and spike but i think i should probably get them raised bowls. molly the tripod already eats from raised bowls so she doesn’t have to bend down. that would put too much strain on her one hind leg!
Tealc’s mom: As Honey said – sooooo many different opinions but I think it is better to have them raised. It kinda makes sense…
Hi, Teal’c. That’s a very interesting post. I also thought it was just a fashion statement, but now I have learned some thing new!
I’ll have to have think about it.