kendalyn Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 HazelNutMeg's post about feeding made me curious about this. How many people here feed their dogs in meals or just leave it down all the time? Buck has his food available to him all the time. He usually "grazes" throughout the day. We've done this with all the dogs and never had a problem with food guarding or weight gain. I thought maybe Buck would have to be fed in meals and I expected food aggression problems because when I found him he was so starved. I thought he might overeat because of it. But he hasn't at all. For those of you who feed in meals, what is the reason for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumpkin the musher Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 How do I feed 9 Hungry huskies? Lets see- first, fill a five gallon pail half full with kibble, add hot water till soaked. Chop 1 or 2 lbs. of frozen meat, add to kibble till thawed, , then once a week or so, cook 5 lbs of rice, eggs, and maybe cottage cheese(if I can get it) to add parts of thru the week. The other five gallon pail is filled with luke warm water with freeze dried fish meal added to encourage drinking. As we add training miles, the kibble is decreased and replaced by more meat. The meat comes in 50 lb frozen blocks so it has to be chopped up with an ax into smaller bits. I always do this in the kennel so I can let everybody loose after I'm done to clean up all the little bits that fly all over! They love this part- it's like a treasure hunt for them. Oh, and also puppy chow for the little ones ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malamum Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Indy gets a RMB and sometimes a banana about 7.00am. He then gets his main meal at approx 8.30 - 9.00pm (depending on what time we get back from his walk). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsefeathers! Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 We have designated mealtimes and they eat twice a day and usually a snack in between. The reason is because there are 10 dogs in the house and some are scarfers while others would never have a chance to eat. I don't see any way we could leave food down all the time for 10 dogs. Besides that, two of my five cats are on prescription diets for stone prevention and these two cats will eat the dog food if given the chance. Also, each dog is fed measured portions in their own bowls and they are all fed kenneled (even the two cats on prescription food are fed kenneled). This way, I can be sure each dog is eating the right amount with no one getting too much and no one going without. It's also good for me to be able to tell if one is a bit off their feed. I used to just put food out twice a day and give them a half hour to eat, but some of them were really getting fat because they would eat the entire time it was available. Feeding measured portions at designated times has worked out best for mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumpkin the musher Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 :o Ooops. Forgot about Cricket! She gets a snack in the morning, a small cookie or treat at noon and her main meal at about 5. If she helps me feed the big dogs, she'll push some of them out of their dishes and lick them out. Yes, a 5 pound dog pushing around a 55 pound husky... That's a Pom for ya. :niewiem: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kendalyn Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 Hmm... seems like most people feed at specific meal times. I can definately see why that would be the way to go with multiple dogs! Buck is a grazer, but he usually eats his main meal when I eat. He just naturally seems to know that it's dinner time :-) Actually, all my other dogs have done this too. We sit down at the dinner table and they go eat too. So far no problems with chubbiness so we'll stick with the current arrangement. I think I would be afraid that he wasn't getting enough. How do you know that the amount you're feeding is correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pei obssessed Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Hippo eats twice a day (and has a big biscuit against tartar build-up right before going to sleep). Why? Because I hate to see fat dogs and I wanna make sure there is no way this is hapenning to my baby, and because with our current arrangemnet she eats when she comes home from the park and this way she's hungry when off-leash at the park and responds to treats very eagerly :lol: Also, she likes to do a lot of wrestling at the park and I have noticed that if she ate before going there she has so much less energy...and I want her to be able to take those bernese down :lol: Kendalyn, you were asking how do you know how much to feed--it says on the food bag, and depending on the level of activity of your dog, you can decrese that amount or increase it a little.(eg. Hippo's 40lb, and on her food bag they recommend 1 3/4--2 cups a day for dogs 40-60lb. Because she is young, and very active and gets between 3 and 4 hours a day at the park, off leash, she eats almost 2 cups a day and is very slim). Hope this helped :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imported_nea Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I feed three times a day, around 6ish/7ish, 12-3ish, and 6-8ish. This puppy would eat the whole 20kg bag of food if he jsut had that chance! :o He is always ready to eat, anything, anytime. Yesterday he got cought! we found a little baby tooth in the popcorn bowl... Now WHY would a tooth be there if a certain dog hadn't stuck his big head in it? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black GSD Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 My pup gets 2 meals a day. (He would eat himself to death if allowed.) The other 4 have food down 24/7. One is a "grazer" the others usually only eat at night even though they always have food. Also the 3 house dogs that have food 24/7, won't eat if no one is home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xavierandrea Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 We feed ours 1x in the morn and 1x at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mouseatthebusstop Posted December 29, 2003 Share Posted December 29, 2003 twice a day but if they are hungery inbetween they get some biscutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midori115 Posted December 29, 2003 Share Posted December 29, 2003 Oscar eats twice a day -- breakfast and dinner . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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