# Feeding once a day thoughts?



## pudlemom (Apr 16, 2010)

I currently feed my dogs twice a day,kibble in the am and I mix a very small amount of wet just enough to put a coating on the food dose, not make the food soggy at all in the kibble in the pm. One of them will usually eats in the am ,one a few mouth full and the other don't eat. 
So I am thinking of feeding only once a day,dose anyone else only feed once a day? do you feed in the am or pm if you do? any thought or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

My dogs ages range form 1 year to 4 years.


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## curlysmama (Oct 31, 2010)

My dogs are both 2, and I still feed am & pm. They act like the are starving at the pm feeding.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

I only feed once a day.


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## curlysmama (Oct 31, 2010)

When do you feed fd? morning, afternoon or night?


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

I feed Millie 2 times/day and Henry 2-3 times/day. I will always do this and I will never feed a standard one meal daily. I really believe it is important with standards, especially, to feed more than one meal a day. Having all of that food in their belly at once is way too risky, IMO, with bloat and all.


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## AgilityIG (Feb 8, 2009)

I have always been a twice a day feeder (breakfast/dinner). My puppies have sometimes eaten three times a day (+ lunch). And, now, my senior boy, Robin, eats three times a day (skinny old man!!).


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## spoosrule (Feb 16, 2008)

I occasionally end up feeding Savannah one meal per day if for some reason I was unable to feed her twice (not home or something like that) but I find that if she goes too long between feedings she will get the "hunger pukes" and throw up bile so I feed her twice a day to avoid that problem.


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## MericoX (Apr 19, 2009)

I feed once a day (it fits my schedule better). And I range from dogs 8-27lbs and 2-6.5YO)


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

I feed at night, cos Paris needs to be left with her food for 10 mins to get through it, and she shadows me in the mornings refusing to have any interest in her food (and I'm not organised to have the time or energy to stand there over her and continually encourage her to eat!) in the evenings she is happy to go and eat, but the mornings she won't let me out of her sight cos she knows we'll be going to work soon and she doesn't want to miss out... haha!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I feed twice a day, but Sophy occasionally does not want her breakfast first thing. Depending on how much she had the day before, and how much running around she is doing, I either skip that meal altogether, or give it to her at lunchtime. I feel food is such an exciting, important event in my dogs' day it makes sense to spread it out and give them twice the fun! I am also a bit concerned at the thought of overloading them with all their food in one meal - 100 grammes is a lot for a 3.5 kilo dog.


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

I feed Vasco once a day (evening), but it's his choice. When he was a pup, I fed three times a day, then down to two, then he stopped being interested in breakfast at about 9-10 months.


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## Olie (Oct 10, 2009)

I have fed once a day with no big problems other than the hunger pukes as well- which does not happen often. Mine is always in the AM.


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## pudlemom (Apr 16, 2010)

Wow a wide verity of feeding scheduled,I guess I will continue to put food down it the mornings and who ever eats, eats. 
one more question if you do feed twice a day and your dog dose not eat when you put the meal down do you pick it up after a certain time or do you just leave it down ?

Thanks for all you input.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

pudlemom said:


> Wow a wide verity of feeding scheduled,I guess I will continue to put food down it the mornings and who ever eats, eats.
> one more question if you do feed twice a day and your dog dose not eat when you put the meal down do you pick it up after a certain time or do you just leave it down ?
> 
> Thanks for all you input.


None of my dogs ever refuse a meal. Well - Henry used to occasionally turn his nose to his kibble meal (dinner) but not anymore b/c I put fish oil on it. 

When I was first getting Henry used to eating on a schedule, (my mom used to free feed him) I _would have_ picked up the food if he didn't eat and I would have put it back down for the next meal. But putting fish oil or adding some pieces of freeze dried raw prevented this from ever happening.

I honestly believe it is very important to feed at least 2 meals daily. Especially with kibble. After going through bloat, which happened when Henry was on an _empty_ stomach and ate a _meal_. 

I do think you can get away with feeding one meal with raw, particularly if you have a big dog and want to feed a large part of the animal as the whole day's food. Raw is more natural, it is real food, it isn't going to expand. But I think there is no reason to feed your dog one huge meal of kibble. Think of how it's going to expand in their stomach...
It's simply not natural. 

If your dog is refusing one of his/her kibble meals, I would either:
*Make the overall amount smaller. Decide how much you KNOW they will eat and divide it into 2 meals. 
*If they still turn their nose to one of the 2 meals, put some toppings on their kibble so they are enticed to eat it. With Henry I always use either fish oil or Stella & Chewey's freeze dried raw - broken into pieces.


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## pudlemom (Apr 16, 2010)

*CM* where do you get the freeze dried raw from we live in a small area and it is hard to get anything can it be ordered online? Petsmart just started carrying Wellness a couple of weeks ago here to show you how behind the times we are. I would love to feed raw but we just don't have enough resources here for me to.


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## Olie (Oct 10, 2009)

pudlemom said:


> if you do feed twice a day and your dog dose not eat when you put the meal down do you pick it up after a certain time or do you just leave it down ?
> 
> Thanks for all you input.


With kibble. I learned to pull it up. I wasted LOTS of time on waiting for dogs to eat. I put it down waited 20 minutes. If they did not eat it went towards their next meal.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

pudlemom said:


> *CM* where do you get the freeze dried raw from we live in a small area and it is hard to get anything can it be ordered online? Petsmart just started carrying Wellness a couple of weeks ago here to show you how behind the times we are. I would love to feed raw but we just don't have enough resources here for me to.


Oh I totally understand - I feed 50/50 raw and kibble because I simply can't afford to buy premade raw all the time and I haven't taken the leap into homemade raw. I don't think that kibble is bad, I just think we have to be careful how we feed it since it isn't "natural". Maybe I have become overly cautious...

It would be hard to feed a full diet of freeze dried raw, but these are good toppers/treats/snacks. Stella & Chewy's - Where to buy


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## pudlemom (Apr 16, 2010)

Thanks *CM* I am going to order some today and see if that dose the trick. My Luke has a real senitive stomach it took me nearly a year 1/2 to find something that he could hold down on a regular basis and he is the only one who eats his breakfast.


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## penny_ann (May 29, 2010)

Penny's food is put down twice a day. I started picking it up after 20-30 mins though to get her to actually eat twice a day. The breeder was a fan of free feeding which I have never liked.


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## pap2labc (Jun 25, 2010)

*once*

I feed once a day, somewhere between 9:30 and 11:00 pm, when they all go to bed. Dogs range in age from 3 to 10 and between 6 lbs. up to 45 lbs. Puppies, of course, eat 2-3 times a day but I move them to once a day when they're older. If I ever had a dog that needed to eat twice I'd do it, but as of now, they do just fine 1 time a day.


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

Riley eats 1 raw meal a day at lunch. He isnt a morning dog, so wouldnt eat breakfast. Was way too hungry to wait until dinner. 

If i fed kibble then i would feed 2x/day. I feel comfortable with raw to feed once a day.


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## georgiapeach (Oct 9, 2009)

Because I'm now up to 4 dogs after taking in my MIL's cockerpoo last week (she fell and broke her hip/can't live in her home anymore), I decided to try going with feeding once a day at night to preserve my sanity. I've been getting up at 5:25 to take the dogs out/prepare the dogs' breakfasts/get ready for work/take the dogs out again after they ate. It was really wearing on me.

I started last night, and they LOVED getting the extra food, of course. This morning, the chow hounds are staring at me for breakfast-natch!. The poor things don't understand, but they'll hopefully get used to it. Maybe I'll be able to sleep 10-15 minutes longer on work days! I'll give them a tiny snack (just a couple of bites) for a couple of mornings so their stomachs can get used to the new routine gradually - I don't want hunger pukes! :hungry:


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

How about stuffed Kongs for breakfast? You could prepare them in the evening and bung them in the fridge or freezer, and they would make a few mouthfuls last longer!


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## georgiapeach (Oct 9, 2009)

fjm said:


> How about stuffed Kongs for breakfast? You could prepare them in the evening and bung them in the fridge or freezer, and they would make a few mouthfuls last longer!


Sounds doable - thanks for the suggestion!


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## georgiapeach (Oct 9, 2009)

I tried cold turkey this morning, no kongs, no nothing until dinner. Everyone survived with no hunger pukes - yay! Dinner is a totally joyous occasion for our dogs, obviously!


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