How long does it take for a dog to digest food?

Montys Mom · #1 14th May 2007, 07:39 AM

I have a 5 month old puppy that threw up his food from last night this morning, and the kibble was still in a very... 'kibble' like state? Not really sure how to word that correctly, but it looked just like dry food that sat in water for a few hours. It wasn't really broken down. Is this normal? Does it usually take that long to digest food?

Thanks.

**gmacleod** · #2 14th May 2007, 05:40 PM

Well, kibble isn't the easiest thing in the world for a dog to digest, and it can take quite a few hours for the food to clear the stomach. It shouldn't take much more than overnight though, and just as importantly, it shouldn't be in solid state by that point (irrespective of the vomiting issue itself). From the sound of all that, your guy isn't doing too well with this form of food. Hard to say if it's a problem specific to the food you're feeding or if the same would apply to any dehydrated biscuit type food.

Montys Mom · #3 16th May 2007, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmacleod

Well, kibble isn't the easiest thing in the world for a dog to digest, and it can take quite a few hours for the food to clear the stomach. It shouldn't take much more than overnight though, and just as importantly, it shouldn't be in solid state by that point (irrespective of the vomiting issue itself). From the sound of all that, your guy isn't doing too well with this form of food. Hard to say if it's a problem specific to the food you're feeding or if the same would apply to any dehydrated biscuit type food.

Hm, he's on Canidae All Life Stages, and by the looks of everything else (weight, coat, etc..) he's doing really well on it other than the digestion if he's taking that long to digest it. He was on Nutro before and was just looking skinny and his coat was really dull, as well as loose stool. I switched him about two or three months ago to the Canidae and he loves it and put on weight almost immediately and he has firm stool now.

Thanks for that suggestion, I'll keep that in mind and talk to the vet about it.

Anything else it could be?

**gmacleod** · #4 17th May 2007, 03:42 AM

Well, has this happened just the once? Or is it a regular thing? If it's the former, then the cause may simply be tummy upset that may not even be related to the food (though I guess you'd still expect the food to have been more processed by the time it came up). But if it's a regular thing, then the answer is more likely to lie in him having trouble with digesting this sort of thing.