# What is your feeding schedule?



## Ginagbaby1 (Aug 1, 2011)

Casper gets fed around 7am and 4:30-5pm. He is getting 1/2 cup each time with a Tbs of canned. Sometimes at breakfast he isn't interested at all in eating but for dinner he'll usually eat all his food. He's on TOTW and I rotate the canned food for variety. For a while I was thinking that maybe he was bored with his food but now I'm wondering if maybe I'm feeding him too early in the am and too early at dinnertime. 

We went with this schedule as a puppy to give him enough time in the morning to poop after breakfast before we had to leave the house. My kids also have sports and activities so during the week, we get him at 3 and then leave at 5:15 for practice and are back about 7:30 pm. Any suggestions on a good feeding schedule?

Like this morning, for example, I put his food down, he walked by it, smelled it, and then turned around and walked away.


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## frankgrimes (Nov 28, 2011)

We just switched Ralph to two meals per day at his 6 month mark last week. We feed him breakfast at 5:30 AM _(we were feeding lunch at noon)_ and dinner at 4:00 PM. Some mornings he doesn't want to eat all his breakfast and other mornings he does. I have stopped worrying about this. He is a healthy weight and I figure if he is hungry he will eat, even if it is too early for his liking.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

How old is Casper? Pups often go off kibble when their mouths are sore from teething. If he is not teething, and is the right weight for his age, and is otherwise healthy, I would probably reduce the amount I was feeding him while sticking to two meals a day. Since I started feeding mine raw/home cooked there have been no problems with them being uninterested in food - I think they would happily eat on the hour every hour if I let them!


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## Ginagbaby1 (Aug 1, 2011)

fjm, Casper is 8 months old today! 1/2 an hour after I set the bowl done, he went back and ate about 1/8 of a cup. (I gave him 1/2 a cup plus the tbs of canned). He weighs 15 pounds as of a couple of days ago and he's got plenty of energy, lol so maybe I will just try not to dwell on it _too much._


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## zyrcona (Jan 9, 2011)

I give my dog different things for each meal:

Breakfast: dry dog food (usually Taste of the Wild, but sometimes dog gets other grain-free foods and occasionally decent dog food with small amounts of rice in)
Lunch: an 'animal food' (bony/cartilagenous meat/offal/etc) plus usually a piece of fruit from my lunch as a treat. Also gets gristle/blood vessels/fish skin etc. from my lunch if there are any.
Dinner: Tinned dog food, frozen dog food, or more animal food. Or sometimes more dry dog food.

Offering a variety of foods may make meals more interesting for your dog, if the dog has the digestive constitution to handle it. Dogs seem to find meals more exciting when they don't know what it's going to be. Also it would be lousy as a human if every meal you ate was steamed chicken + broccoli + potatoes with vitamins sprinkled on them, even if such a meal might be perfectly nutritious.


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## Ginagbaby1 (Aug 1, 2011)

Thanks Zyrcona. I'm sorry for the dumb question but was is tinned dog food? I've never heard of this before. 

Also, where would I get frozen dog food? We get our TOTW from a small dog shop in our area.


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## PaddleAddict (Feb 9, 2010)

You might be feeding him too much. My mini is 16 pounds and he eats 3/4 cup dry plus a few tablespoons of canned per day and he is very active (40 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes walking per day, plus dog park, daycare, etc.).

When he was younger and growing, we fed 1 cup a day, but when he was around Casper's age we cut breakfast to 1/4 cup and kept dinner at 1/2 cup (plus canned) and that seemed to do the trick. He won't overeat if he doesn't need the food, which is nice.


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## sgeorge (Jul 31, 2011)

Fleur is currently having 3 meals a day. The first at about 7/7:30am when she wakes up, the next at about 12:30pm and then at 5/5:30pm. 

For morning and breakfast she receives the same thing: pieces of chicken neck, a little of a fresh meat roll, a chicken wing and sometimes some diced beef. 

Lunch consists of a small amount of Artemis dry food, she's not really fussed by this though. 

She also gets a tsp of ricotta each day, either mixed in with her dry food or in with her dinner. Often she will gnaw on some raw carrot and steal some bok choy leaves from the rabbit as mid-day/mid-afternoon snacks.

I wouldn't be too concerned, Fleur self regulates her food intake and Caspar is probably doing the same thing. However, 1 cup a day of a high quality dry food does sound slightly more than necessary. As PaddleAddict said, maybe 1/4 cup at breakfast would be better.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

We feed twice a day, too. Breakfast is at about 6:30, dinner at 4:30. We only give dry in the mornings. It sounds like he is getting too much food to me. My small standard gets 1/2-3/4 cup in the morning and a cup or cup and a quarter at night. She is highly active, too. He is a lot smaller than she is. 

Some mornings Bonnie only eats a couple bites and some she finishes it all. She eats all her dinner, which has 1/4 can of wet in it and warm water. I only feed dry in the morning because that way it isn't wasted if she isn't in the mood for breakfast. I just put her bowl up until dinner and the food stays good. I don't worry about it if she doesn't feel like breakfast. She eats it most mornings.

Many poodle self regulate.


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## Carley's Mom (Oct 30, 2011)

I also feed twice a day 7 and 4.


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## Rowan (May 27, 2011)

I feed my three adult MPOOs twice a day. Once at 0600 and again at 1700 with a snack before bedtime at 2100-2200.


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## zyrcona (Jan 9, 2011)

Ginagbaby1 said:


> Thanks Zyrcona. I'm sorry for the dumb question but was is tinned dog food? I've never heard of this before.
> 
> Also, where would I get frozen dog food? We get our TOTW from a small dog shop in our area.


lol, I guess in the USA a tin is always called a can. 

You can often buy frozen minces and various burgers made of ground-up/squashed meat with vegetables and bits in them from pet shops. All these foods have different textures as well as different tastes -- the dry food is crisp, the meat is chewy/crunchy, the tinned food is gelatinous, and the frozen food is squishy -- and that makes the dog's meals more interesting. I also seem to notice that dogs who have been fed the same food all their lives often can't tolerate any change in food, so I hope feeding my dog like this will make her more robust in this sense.

Also check, as other people have mentioned, that you are not simply giving your dog too much food. The guidelines on the bag usually err on the high side.


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