I Found It: A Slow Feeder Perfect for Short-Nosed, Half-Blind Dogs

I have a Boston terrier, Hero, who eats too fast. I got him a slow feeder, and it was a huge help. I got this one, which I read online was good for brachycephalic breeds. (Pro-tip, these bowls are about $6 at Costco.) It worked great… Until Hero started leaving a good 1/4 of his kibble in this bowl. This dog is the definition of food motivated, so this was strange. I finally figured out that it was a mix of him being a brachycephalic dog, and a dog with vision in only one eye. The vision loss is fairly new, and he (and I!) have been slowly adjusting, but I think the combination of him needing to work really hard to get to his food, and him not being able to easily SEE his food, made his current food setup virtually impossible. I have never seen this dog give up on getting some food, but I think he hit is quitting point. I had to figure out a new solution.

A good boy.

First, I tried just giving him food in a regular bowl. He inhaled it. He was completely done with a meal in two minutes. Eating more slowly not only helps him avoid gas and bloating, it also helps him realize he has already eaten. Again, he’s extremely food motivated. If he could, he would eat 10 meals a day. If it takes him longer to eat, it helps him understand that the meal is over, and he is satiated. I tried a few different food solutions, but nothing was 1) Helping him slow down when eating, and 2) Allowing him to actually get to all his kibbles and eat a whole meal. So I went shopping.

I scoured the aisles of Target, I was thinking of getting him a sort of bowl/plate and putting golf balls in it to slow him down. I realized this was maybe over complicated and I didn’t even know if it would work. Then I went to Petsmart. They had to have something, right? And THEY DID.

This bowl is actually a slow feeder insert for an elevated feeder. But there’s no reason you can’t use it on it’s own (it even has little no-skid pads on the bottom). It’s only two inches tall, and the little maze pieces that slow your dog down are spread fairly far apart, AND they don’t’ even go all the way to the top of the bowl. This means a little smush-faced dog can easily get to all the kibbies, even if he can only see out of one eye.

Hero can now make sure he eats every last bite of dinner, and take his time doing it. I even got another one, because it’s always good to have an extra bowl for when you need to do dishes, but you don’t feel like it right now, BUT the dog has to eat. (This genius tip took me over a decade of dog ownership to realize, and I can’t believe I didn’t get spare bowls before.)