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My puppy swallows food whole. Is it bad for her health or digestion?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Shih Tzu | Female | spayed | 3 months and 25 days old | 7 lbs

My puppy swallows her food whole, it is a smaller kibble. We were soaking it in water until a few days ago, but she swallows it whole either way. We got a slow feeder bowl to try and slow her down and hopefully encourage her to chew at some point. Is it bad that she is not chewing her food? I thought about changing to a larger kibble, but she is small and I don’t want her to choke/don’t want to mess up her digestion and bowel movements

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Ricardo Fernandez, DVM

Veterinarian, Veterinary Oncology Resident

Published on March 13th, 2018

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! It is important to avoid this as much as possible as this can predispose dogs to things like aspiration pneumonia for example. One thing that has worked for me great in the past for patients that do not eat more slowly with the slow feeder is actually throwing the kibble in a small room like the bathroom for example so that they end up spread out in the room as that will force Millie to eat more slowly as it will take her longer to find them to eat it. While it sounds messy, this has actually worked very well for some of my patients. Good luck and have a great day!

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Dr. Heidi DVM, CVA, CCRT, CVTP, CVSMT, CVCH

    Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist, Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner

    Published on March 12th, 2018

    A slow feeder bowl does not encourage a dog to chew their food, but makes it harder for them to gulp a large mouth-full of food at once. Millie may or may not learn to chew her food, but the nutritional value of the food will not be any less if she does not chew her food. My only concern with dogs that eat too quickly is if they tend to cough and choke on their food. If Millie doesn't have any problems with that, but just eats her food quickly, then I probably wouldn't be concerned about it. You certainly can try a larger kibble size to see if that makes a difference if you are concerned about it. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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