Free Feeding

Galupy

Galupy

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The free feeding discussion on kerilli's post made me wonder ... does anyone have experience with free feeding and food aggressive dogs? I have two males who are both food aggressive and gulp their food down. I also have a female beagle who has to be fed gated separately from them because they just bully her and take it if we don't. Interested if always having access to food would make this better or worse? They are currently fed twice a day.

Thanks
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I leave dry food down for my two and neither of them are particularly interested in it, they pick at it now and again and if one is really hungry it gets eaten.

They get fed once a day on other food.
 
The beauty of ad-lib feeding is it's always there so there is no reason to gollop it down; it's still going to be there so there's no need to rush or be aggressive. It was because of them rushing their food that we changed to ad-lib and it was the best thing we could have done for them I feel. Beforehand, years ago, we would feed in separate bowls but you would always have the fast eaters who would then rush around to the other bowls and there would be arguments although ours never fight as a rule even if strange dogs come in. After that, we tried feeding them in a line from the floor which worked very well but you still had those that tried to rush it down to get more - which is something you don't want with bassets! After we tried ad-lib (amongst a lot of trepidation, there was no way I could see the bassets saying they had had enough or the terriers either for that matter!
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) it was a different scene altogether after the initial stuffing their faces full had stopped before the end of the first week.
We now have an orderly queue to the bowl, they have their pecking order and even Fudge and Modget, the two pups - well they're almost two now, when they first started eating with the family, soon learnt that they had to wait their place in the queue; some eat together, others like to be alone but they all know where they stand at that even if they're bottom of the pile, it will still be there. I'm pretty sure your beagle would do the same!
Just make sure your bowl is big enough or there are several bowls to go around, a bit similar to hay piles in the field, always do one extra!
 
Thanks for the information MFH_09. I am slightly worried about doing it too (like you were) but I can see the advantages. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose! It seems to have worked well for you and as two of mine are greedy beagles, it might make sense to try it.

deicin - is it canned food you feed once a day? Mine have a mix right now but obviously you can't do that free feeding unless you do feed it separately.

What are the disadvantages to this? (other than if it obviously isn't working and they don't get to the point where they stop eating ...).
 
We do it with dry food and they both get different verieties of canned food twice a day.
They eat it if they are hungry, but never wolf it down. And I have an incredibly greedy terrier. They dont fight over it... when the ridgy knows that the terrier has first picks!

They used to 'bicker' over set feed times.... the terrier ate it at record speed then bullied the big one off hers! This way is much easier (and less stressfull) for all of us!
 
We free feed our four. We used to feed twice a day and it was a nightmare. Dominant bitch would chase the others off and even if we separated them the others were still loath to eat if they knew Freya was nearby.

We have a couple of big washing up bowls down all the time (big dogs!) with dry food in and that is all they have. They are all fit and healthy, none are fat, they are very good at regulating themselves.

I can highly recommend free feeding
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Thanks littlemisslauren and MrsElle - we are seriously considering doing this to see if it can help improve the food issues the boys have.

So I had a practical question - do you often have to throw food away? In other words, does it sit for long enough to where you want to freshen it all or do they get through it by that point?

Sorry for so many questions - I want to make sure I know what we would be getting in to
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I have friends who do this and their dogs *are* a bit tubby and I would worry about lungworm because slugs to tend to crawl over food here if it is left out.

(Obvs for inside dogs this isn't as much of a risk)

I fed mine beside one another this morning out of interest (never done this before) and they were fine, not much difference in speed and didn't bother with each other.
 
I free feed mine - dry food. And have done for years now. We have lurchers and tehy jus tpick at it as and when - no feeding frenzy and we only have one bowl of food down. We just fill it once it is empty. Non of ours are fat. We have several dogs that come to stay with us, 2 labs, a springer, some other lurchers and a collie. All pig out on day one but by day 2 they are simply eating when they want and not wolfing it down. Even the lab doesn;t see a full bowl as a personal challange, she just has a bit every now and then. Helps reduce windy bottoms as no huge amounts of air gulped in with the food, and the stomach doesn;t have a massive amount fo food in a short space of time, just a trickle feed.
 
Strange you mention windy bottoms because one of the beagles has an awful one
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. Totally caused by gulping his food down - I think he shoves it all in at one go and then just swallows actually ...

So I think I will talk to my vet about it to make sure because one of them has a sensitive tummy and I would worry the initial introduction phrase might cause him some issues. Of course it might suit him better to pick as well because of his stomach once he is used to it.

Ok, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
 
Hmm, a couple of mine lean towards chubby so we will have to watch that but they are very well exercised so that will help. They are indoor dogs too so we shouldn't have the worm issues. Never seen any other critters in our house either ...

I think there would be a death if we tried feeding ours side by side. They growl at each other when we are preparing their food and they are sat waiting ... once they are done eating, they creep quietly by each other into the room where the other dog's bowl is and lick it and then creep quietly back to their own. They are strange dogs ...
 
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