Twice a day vs. once a day feeding, 19 month-old OES
Our boy used to be a hearty twice a day eater. He weighs 65 pounds, and has a fair amount of flesh over his rib cage, although he looks thin. We continue to feed him twice a day, three cups of dry food in the morning and three cups of dry food in the evening. Although we put his food down for him at 8:00 AM, he'll look at it, eat a mouthful, and then walk away. We are told that he generally comes back to his food at about 11:00 AM. We feed him again at about 7:00 PM, and he generally will eat his food soon after we put it down. We feed him (three parts) Natural Balance Ultra Premium Formula Dry Dog Food and (one part) Hill's Prescription Diet Canine/Dry W/D (the W/D to firm his stools up), totaling three cups on each feeding. We are wondering if, perhaps, he is telling us that he is ready for once a day feeding, if it is OK to leave his food down - - even though he does not eat it right away - - and allowing him to eat it when he is ready, or if he is telling us that he really doesn’t like the food we are feeding him. He's been on the W/D for quite some time, and about two months ago we moved him from ProPlan lamb and rice (dry) to Natural Balance, based on his breeder’s recommendation. He was eating the same way with the ProPlan. One thing that we do notice is that on the rare occasion that we add some Triumph wet dog food to his dry dog food, he eats it right up. We really do not want to feed him wet food regularly. We would welcome your suggestions. Thank you. |
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| Whaat???? 3 cups of food twice a day for a 65 pound dog?
Yikes! I imagine he is not hungary... 
My dogs are fairly active, and kept trim. I like to feel a very thin layer of flesh over the ribcage...You should be able to feel the ribs without applying pressure. The shouldn't protrude, but you should be able to find them easily. Weight-wise---Bosley is a sleek 70 pounds and gets 4 cups daily...split into 2 meals and Dixie is 60 pounds (and a but chunky) and gets 3 1/4 cups daily...split into 2 meals. Plus treats...but not a lot. Some dogs do well once a day, some twice...depends on the dog. You might even give him a smaller portion at one of them...see how that goes. And if the activity level is low, then the food required is less, too. Young dogs and puppies seem to eat an amazing amount of food....Bosley during his first year was eating 6 cups a day, and Dixie even more...But that goes down as they get older...and aren't in the constant growing stages.. |
| My mistake, he gets two cups twice a day. I went back to the measuring cup to look. So much for being a Domestic Diva.....I thought a measuring cup was three cups.
He gets one or two large Milk Bone's a day. No table food. |
| I do scheduled feeding because it works best for my schedule. My dogs seem to do fine with it. Some people prefer to free feed or to leave food down. If that works for you, it's fine. If you want to keep him on a 2 x a day schedule and want him to eat all of his food, you could cut back by 1/4 or 1/2 a cup each feeding or else remove his food after say, 15-30 minutes.
2 cups 2 x a day is what I generally have always fed after my pups get beyond the 3 x a day feeding stage. My first OES loved to eat and would have eaten much more if he had been given it, but as it was, he was a little pudgy. Archie, on the other hand, sometimes skips a days' food for no apparent reason, and with no apparent ill healthy or ill effects. He's just not a big eater. My 3 (78 lb Sophie, 93 lb Sherman, both 13 months old and 88 lb Archie) all are given 2 cups twice a day. With recent warm weather, all 3 are leaving food behind at both feedings. Archie has never been a big eater and is quite thin. Sophie is usually happy to eat and I can tell that I will have to watch her or she will pack on pounds--she's almost pudgy now; Sherman is just a big, growing boy who is 'just right' as far as the whole rib feeling thing is. Everybody seems very healthy, so I'm thinking perhaps we just need to cut back, at least during warm weather or until everybody adjusts to spring. |
| We feed Barney one giant scoop (I don't know how many cups) in the morning and one in the evening. Most of the times he'll gulp it down, but there was a phase where he would just kind of look at it and ignore it. I think he was actually about your dog's age when he did that. Maybe he is signalling that his growth is done or majorly slowing down. |
| I just attended a seminar on bloat and the surgeon strongly recommended offering your dog multiple small meals (2-3 per day) over one large meal. |
Yes, feeding just once a day isn't that great of an idea. As for the free feeding, I think that it is fine if you have one dog and know he is the only one eating it!  In most cases they will graze at it thru out the day and that's great for our big guys!
I've seen bloat at the hospital, I never want to see my boys with that! Awful!  |
| Definately 2 feeds a day for the bloat factor.
If you are worried about wether he is eating enough, do the rib test, if you can just feel them when you run your hands lightly down his side, weight wise he is fine. If not then over weight, if sticking right out, underweight. That is always a good guide then going by how much they weigh. Mine have variety and are food piggys, as I can't imagine just 2 cups of Kibble morning and night everyday. Kibble is the main part of there diets, I swap between premium brands to keep the variety for them going. Add cooked chicken, fish, veggies, fresh meat, just to give them variety on occassions and it stops them becoming fussy eaters. |
| I find free feeding is best. Even with 5 dogs, there is always food in the bowl, no pigging out, no fighting over food, everyone gets enough. |
| I'd stick with 2 meals a day so he doesn't overload his stomach.
http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm I've got 3 spayed females that currently weigh 59, 63 and 64 pounds. Each gets a cup of kibble at 5am and a cup at 5pm. We supplement with cooked meats, vegetables... we usually add small amounts of fruit and plain yogurt too. The amount of food given depends a lot on the number of calories per cup and the energy level of the dog. Some brands of dog food have more calories... some less. |
Oscar gets fed 1 & 1/2 cups of kibble twice a day, with extra kibble here and there for a treat. He's 112 lbs  , and the vet wants him around 107 lbs, so we are working on that.
Besides the bloat issue, I like having regular feeding times as it makes it much easier in the event your pup has to take any meds with food. Then you are sure he has eaten before giving him any pills. Laurie and Oscar |
I'm concerned about bloat as Truman will eat only once a day - his evening meal. We've tried feeding him in the morning also and leaving dry food out during he day but he doesn't eat it. For some reason, he will only eat in the evening. Sometimes, he even ignores that food and it will be there the next morning! Does anyone else's dog do that? I guess he'd getting enough food or he would eat it.....  |
| Talk to your vet to see if you need to change Truman's feeding schedule. He may say he's fine with the way things are. I guess I get so concerned about bloat because a friend lost his sheepie to it.
When we first put a dog on a feeding schedule, we leave the dish on the floor for maybe 10 minutes. After that time, the dish is picked up and the contents thrown away. The dog goes until the next feeding with maybe one small treat to tide her/him over (yes, you'll feel guilty). When the next meal is served, the dog has more in tuned to eating. If not, the same thing happens. They are usually ready to eat by the 2nd or 3rd meal. If it takes longer than 3 tries (a healthy dog of course), I'd talk to your vet. A side note here... Sorry if I confuse things a little but since I am definitely no scientist nor do I have any expertise what so ever in the field of bloat, it's only fair to provide another view on this "bloat list". We recently switched over to Eagle Pack Holistic Select... yeah, from Purina ProPlan to a holistic food. This is so really NOT me but my pack needs some help and we haven't found a solution with the conventional medical approach so we need to test another idea. I wrote to Eagle Pack and got a reply yesterday. I was told that the citric acid thing on this bloat list I provided previously is questionable... http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/o ... _study.htm When there is conflicting info, we each need to review both sides to determine if it's useful or not. Again, sorry if I muddy the waters but I believe we should have as much info as possible so we can make the best choices. |
I haven't been able to get Marley and Morgan to eat twice a day for almost a year. Marley is such a picky eater that she doesn't even always finish her two to three cups a day (I am a bit sloppy with the measuring) SHe weighs 65 pounds and is fairly active - we walk a bit and she does some agility training. she almost seems like my kids were - some days all they wanted to do was eat other days it was too much of a bother. she gets half a Canidae biscuit in the morning in a kong with peanut butter and some training treats when we are training, otherwise not much int he way of treats. But she seems in fine condition (sometimes a bit grouchy  ) should I try to get her to eat in the morning? Morgan on the other hand would probably eat all day if he wa sallowed to. he weighs over 100 and gets about four cups and a few more treats daily. should I be concerned about bloat? |
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