Feeding - How Often?

[gerbilgirl]

Okay, mine are fed once a day, but I've often read (and not just here on the forums) that dogs on the wild will not eat every day.

I'm not being an evil witch (and I'm certainly not planning on trying it

) but surely in that case it would be more natural for pet dogs to be fed every other day or so?

 

[Enfys]

Mine are fed once daily. I think that they wouldn't understand why they weren't being fed at their regular time and it strikes me as being rather cruel, perhaps if they were fed a much larger meal every other day they would get used to it, not something I want to try though. I guess that in the wild dogs/wolves etc gorge when they can, and they aren't accustomed to having food put in front of them at regular intervals.

Years ago I read a book (by Buster someone, a Vet I think) and in that it was suggested that it was beneficial for dogs to have one day a week that they weren't fed, I am sure that he started a natural herbal feeding company.

Just Googled.
Ha! The book was "The animals came in one by one" link is here:

http://www.denes.co.uk/about/history.php

 

[PucciNPoni]

I feed mine twice a day (I know, spoilt rotten they are). Actually I didn it out of necessity. My MinPins always used to get fed just once a day, and when the Border Terrier was fully mature, he also went on this routine. However, about 4 months on, he started to go a bit hypo (vomit white bile) - always the same time of night. I started splitting his feeds in to two, and just give him half of it at night. That stopped the bile! We reckoned that his stomach was just that empty that he was feeling sick. No, hardly a scientific explanation, but it works for us. But we also found it necessary to do the same with the other dogs out of fairness.

I know of people who do the whole starve them for a day. But I don't want to fast myself for a day, so I'm hardly going to do that to my dogs. They are carfeully fed, feeds weighed and of good quality. Mine aren't wild dogs, they are of breeds that have been domesticated and selectively bred for hundreds of years. Don't reckon mine would survive living in the wilds. They weren't bred to. Heck, mine aren't even WORKING dogs - they are pets and while I do treat them like dogs, they are still pets.

 

[Mosh]

My dog (greyhound) is on good quality food and he is given a set amount of food each day but he is allowed to eat it as he pleases

Being a big boy he needs a fair bit of food but he can physically eat this in two meals a day and its not practical to feed him 6 meals a day at the same time each day.
At the end of the day the food he hasn't eaten is replaced with fresh food.
It works for him and us and he looks great, he doesn't go hungry and is full of energy.


The first border collie we had was fed one meal a day and the second collie we had was fed twice a day (usually tried to con us out of more)
Its whatever works best for your dog

Our dogs did orginate from wild dogs but they aren't wild anymore and their diets have changed, just like we altered them for our horses.

 

[Tinkerbee]

Two small meals every day, except when in Ireland where they get one a day.

 

[camilla4]

I feed mine twice a day, but she is not a working dog., I think feeding pets twice a day does break up the day a litle for them. For working dogs, once is more natural and, historically, working dogs such as sheepdogs were not fed on a non-working day - usually Sunday.

 

[CAYLA]

Once for mine, they are very active doggies and I am more than happy with their weight/condition.
I think also in the wild when the dogs do eat they gauge on a pretty big kill, prob a bit more substantial than our domestic doggy meal

,it's probably takes a day to fully digest and get back the energy to hunt again either that or trying to actually catch aother kill

 

[camilla4]

[ QUOTE ]
Once for mine, they are very active doggies and I am more than happy with their weight/condition.
I think also in the wild when the dogs do eat they gauge on a pretty big kill, prob a bit more substantial than our domestic doggy meal

,it's probably takes a day to fully digest and get back the energy to hunt again either that or trying to actually catch aother kill

[/ QUOTE ]

That's definitely right Cayla - it's the reasoning behind feeding once a day, which is probably the ideal for most dogs. We always fed ours once but my current Lab was a rescue who had been fed twice a day for two years so I kept to that schedule for her (quite small breakfast; larger dinner). Would probably go back to once a day for another dog though.

 

[FestiveSpirit]

I feed my two greyhounds twice a day, and have done so ever since I had bigger (i.e. greyhound sized) dogs. It is simple logistics - they are fed all-in-one, and it would take them ages to eat 4-5 cups in one sitting, plus it would be a huge meal for them

I sometimes think that once a day would be easier, but have never quite got around to experimenting to see if the change was possible

 

[gerbilgirl]

Thanks for the link Enfys that's very interesting

And thanks everyone else too, I'm going to do more research on not feeding one day per week, to see if the health benefits are considerable.

I think I'll stick to once a day though, mine take advantage of any excuse to be fussy!

 

[KarynK]

I know that some raw diet enthusiats advocate a fasting day in their diet, but I don't agree with that and since mine sometimes have a soft or smaller meal then I don't honestly see the point, they are domestic after all.

A wild dog would also eat more in the spring and summer, when there is a glut of young and inexperienced prey around and less through the autumn and would probably have to work very hard for the odd winter meal or eat frozen carrion from weaker prey that couldn't last.

I feed once a day with the odd treat and balance their diet over a week or two by feeding a variety of mainly raw meaty bones, fish, offal, eggs and a small amount of liquidised veg. So I don't get het up feeding chicken for a few days if thats what's at the top of their freezer!! Over two weeks it will balance out.

I think that common sense prevails in a modern world and though I keep firmly in mind what a wild dog would eat I don't loose sleep over it or take it to the limit.

Now dogs fed on complete commercial feed are another matter altogether and I wouldn't advocate starvation when on these cooked soft diets, especially those with a lot of carbohydrate in them.