Wild dogs and wolves can rarely get food every day. It will be lucky if they can eat every a few days, sometimes they can go on for for weeks before getting the next meal.
Now with the spoiled pet dogs, they can get all the food they need from us.
How often do you feed your dog? Is it natural for them to eat every day?
With previous dogs, I fed them twice a day. This seemed to ward off begging for human food. There is nothing worse than a dog following you around hounding you all day for food scraps.
Misha has to be fed three times a day. She's had a little trouble putting on weight because of her high energy. I feed her two regular meals and small meal at lunch. She doesn't get people food though.
I think this can vary by dog. My brother has a medium size dog who seems perfectly happy getting one serving of food a day and then eating it throughout the day. I have never owned a dog that doesn't devour her food in less than a minute.
It depends on the dog. Dark Lady, my Dobermann, can get through half-a-pot of rice, three times a day. Candy, my Bangkeaw, on the other hand, is fine with just one main meal a day. Benjamas, my Poodle, wants to eat every time I do, the more times, the better.
(06-18-2012, 06:47 PM)Victor Leigh Wrote: It depends on the dog. Dark Lady, my Dobermann, can get through half-a-pot of rice, three times a day. Candy, my Bangkeaw, on the other hand, is fine with just one main meal a day. Benjamas, my Poodle, wants to eat every time I do, the more times, the better.
Isn't rice just a filler for carnivore such as dogs?
They need protein and fat.
What else do you feed your dogs? I certainly hope rice isn't the only food they eat at your place.
(06-18-2012, 12:54 PM)TreeClimber Wrote: With previous dogs, I fed them twice a day. This seemed to ward off begging for human food. There is nothing worse than a dog following you around hounding you all day for food scraps.
Misha has to be fed three times a day. She's had a little trouble putting on weight because of her high energy. I feed her two regular meals and small meal at lunch. She doesn't get people food though.
I think this can vary by dog. My brother has a medium size dog who seems perfectly happy getting one serving of food a day and then eating it throughout the day. I have never owned a dog that doesn't devour her food in less than a minute.
Peanuts is being picky. And the problem with that is she runs a lot. Every night, even. I guess for one, I'm glad she's hyperactive and independent as I seldom need to walk her or play with her because she does that herself. Usually, all I need to do is throw her a ball and off she runs and slides and slips on the floor. But the problem is, she also doesn't eat much because she's become so picky with dog food.
My mom fed her some of her tasty viand that now she expects that her dog food should be tasty as well.
I feed my dog twice a day. The other 4 eat well. They no longer devour their food as they understand that it will come. But they also don't leave it there because they know I will take it away. Peanuts is different, she will just leave it there and ignore it the whole night.
Our dogs get fed twice a day when we are home, but if someone else is looking after them it is once a day. They occasionally get a little treat such as a bone from a steak or pork chop, but for the most part it is commercial dog food. Our inside/outside dog has been taught to stay in the porch during meal times (both cooking and eating) and even when he is outside and I am barbecuing he lays down away from the deck.
We are not gone very often, so the dogs do not suffer in any way.
I always understood that adult dogs just needed one meal a day and puppies more often. That's what I've always done with my dogs.
I know there's aschool of thought that says you should fast a dog for one day a week. I don't think I would ever be able to bring myself to do that though. My dogs always know when it's feeding time and I would feel cruel depriving them of the meal they were looking forward to.
When I had my Shih Tzu it would be three times a day divided into portions.
It would consist of dry dog food in the morning and afternoon and then wet food in the evening. She lived to be 16 years old and never had any major issues in her life. The vet said she was only a pound or two overweight, but she was in great shape. God I miss that little gal.
My dogs only get fed once per day in the afternoon and they happily remind us when the time comes around. I did try feeding them twice a day but they would wake up hungry and want feeding as soon as they woke. This was fine for a while until they realized that as soon as they woke we fed them so they began waking earlier and earlier until we had had enough!
However, my dogs seem perfectly fine with this arrangement but some dogs need more than one meal because of the size of their stomach and the way they digest food. Also young puppies need at least 4 meals a day which can gradually be reduced as they get older.
I have heard of several people (normally dog breeders) who will leave them without food for one day a week. I think this is supposed to help with their body having time to "detox" but I've also heard that it makes them more alert for showing. Personally I don't see the point of starving a dog unless it's ill and my dogs would drive me crazy by telling me in no uncertain terms that I had forgotten to feed them!
I feed my dog three times a day. He lives in the country and he loves to dig and catch the pesky gophers . I have hurdles at my house and he also loves to jump, so he has a heavy workload (he's not overweight )
My dogs all are used to having food in their bowl at all times. I have 3 very small dogs and they can take all day to go through a bowl sometimes and other times they are done with it by noon. And they appointed their biggest (youngest though) sister to bring mommy the bowl when it gets down to less than "acceptable." BTW I never have a problem with them running out of water because she brings me that bowl too...before it's empty...
I feed my dog twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. Even though I feed her this often, she is still unbelievably skinny! I feed her a big serving as well. It is very true that animals in the wild can survive days without food. However, when they do catch some food, they sure do get a big feast.
(07-23-2012, 04:19 AM)dashboardc33 Wrote: I feed my dog twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. Even though I feed her this often, she is still unbelievably skinny! I feed her a big serving as well. It is very true that animals in the wild can survive days without food. However, when they do catch some food, they sure do get a big feast.
What food are you feeding to your dog? Maybe you need to check the quality of the dog food if the dog is eating a lot but still very skinny?
Sure animals in the wild will eat as much as they can when they have the chance, but just like for humans, several spread out smaller meals are better than one big meal. Less stress on the digestive system.
(06-25-2012, 04:06 AM)Dani72 Wrote: I always understood that adult dogs just needed one meal a day and puppies more often. That's what I've always done with my dogs.
I know there's aschool of thought that says you should fast a dog for one day a week. I don't think I would ever be able to bring myself to do that though. My dogs always know when it's feeding time and I would feel cruel depriving them of the meal they were looking forward to.
OMG I can't imagine what my dogs would do if I tried this! They all will bring me their bowl when it is empty...and the bowl is bigger than Kotton LOL It's not that they are hungry...they just can't have an empty bow, I think they all get their OCD from me
For my puppy (GermanS-Lab mix) it was about four times a day since she was growing so quickly, but with my other dog (a fully grown Lab-Retriever) it is three times a day. It sounds like a lot but I don't give them big meals, and these animals are excercising constantly. I live on the lake so there's plenty of swimming and running around to be done for them. A dog will eat more than it needs to and the results show quickly, so how I fed them was based on how they look. It really depends on the breed, except at the kenel I work at. There we have regulations on when to feed the dogs.
We weren't on a set schedule, but then again I had 3 dogs. They were kind of picky about all wanting to eat out of the same bowl in the same spot, so sometimes they would fight over it. So the times any one of them would eat throughout the day would always vary. We would just keep the bowl full throughout the day and let them eat whenever they wanted. Of course they always wanted plenty of human food and would beg like crazy for it. The only issue we every really had was with our beagle, who developed cushings disease and was eating and drinking water like crazy, so we had to hide the food from her at times.
(07-26-2012, 03:30 AM)ohiotom76 Wrote: We weren't on a set schedule, but then again I had 3 dogs. They were kind of picky about all wanting to eat out of the same bowl in the same spot, so sometimes they would fight over it. So the times any one of them would eat throughout the day would always vary. We would just keep the bowl full throughout the day and let them eat whenever they wanted. Of course they always wanted plenty of human food and would beg like crazy for it. The only issue we every really had was with our beagle, who developed cushings disease and was eating and drinking water like crazy, so we had to hide the food from her at times.
I have heard Cushings mentioned a couple times, what exactly is that? Is it rare in a dog or is it certain breeds?
My Kotton had her own bowl and everything for 3 years, being an only "child" until we got the other two girls...on the same day LOL long story...and she had problems sharing at first, so we decided that she would no longer have food always available until she could share (she was used to 24/7) and she got over it pretty darned quick...although she still has her moments where she makes her sisters wait...or she waits until Koko comes away with her piece, drops it and Kotton swoops in...
The thing is with my dog, the feeding times can get subjective. Hugely in part because he likes to be subjective and tells us what is wrong with him while sitting by his bowl waiting to be fed. Most of the time though, its in the morning and late-afternoon. We don't usually feed him at night time for fear of him leaving us a surprise in the morning, but other than that, it's usually these times.
