Feeding, stick to the schedule or not.....

[Sheltiemama]

I have always wondered what is the best way to feed a dog. I know my cats eat like they would if they were in the wild with small portions several times a day. How about a dog in the wild? How would they eat? I don't think that has ever been addressed. We've been told to feed three times a day for pups and twice a day for adult dogs, but what is the research with wolves or other wild canids as far as their feeding habits. Are the feeding schedules for our convenience? What about free choice food (limited to their daily allotment) which is the better way to feed?

[Giny]

I'm not sure, but I know different dogs seem to eat differently. My dogs are free fed, with the exception of one meal of raw food per day, and seem to do great with that method. They both aren't overweight or underweight. But I have heard of some dogs being serious gobblers and the choice of free fed is not an option. It also seems more prevalent in some breeds. It's and interesting question though and I can't wait to hear other response to it.

[momtobella]

I have a rottie that I have to feed once a day, if I try to feed her 2x a day, she acts like she is starving. My bulldog I feed twice a day.

[fay]

Mine are on dry food which is always available and then tripe in the evening, and none of them are over weight. But they don't gobble it at all even though there are the three of them,they seem to eat little and often.

[Jenny]

I feed my adult dogs once a day. Not that they are the same, but wolves are designed to binge and fast. My old dog used to have to have a snack in the evening or else he would puke up bile from having an empty stomach. Guess it just depends on the dog.

[Mellie]

I cannot free feed my dogs. Bubba is too much of a pig and will gobble all food accessible to him in minutes. I've so far trained him not to eat from Peanut's bowl, even after she has finished and left a few stray kibbles in it. And Peanut was trained to only eat from her bowl long before we got Bubba (she has shared her life with 2 other companions previously). They are on different diets (he's still a puppy at 6 1/2 months old; she's a giant breed). They have feeding times. And they get treats besides their regularly scheduled meals.

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

I agree that it depends on the dog as well as their environment. Most of mine for instance inhale their food and free feeding is out of the question because of that and the fact that with as many as I have I find it best to feed them apart from one another.

Feeding them away from one another prevents fights that would more than likely occur with such a large group and free feeding would make it difficult at best for me to monitor their intake. I would literally have no way of knowing who was eating as "normal" and who may be ill and eating less or not eating at all.

[elegy]

i feed two meals a day. i would never free feed. the dogs i have now would both eat until they exploded, and luce has to eat twice a day or she gets empty belly pukes.

i also think the bowl of food coming from the owner on a schedule is beneficial in the whole person-controls-the-resources kind of way.

[SalemWitchChild]

I free feed Kota. She eats a little throughout the day. Normally she has one heaping bowl gone by the evening.

[Aussie_Dog]

My dog gets fed 2 times a day, half a cup each time (a heaping cup, that is, so he gets between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 cups a day). And he still has problems losing weight, lol (and to think, I once fed him 2 cups! *shudders* lol). I recently tried to divide the portions yet some more, so I could feed him 4 times a day, but it was too difficult. math just isn't my strongest point, lol