How often do you feed your dog?

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!