Do You Feed Your Dog Breakfast?

[Guest Bean_Scotch]

I'm the odd ball out. I feed all dogs here once a day at midnight. I don't usually get up till noon/1pm and then I'm off to work at 5pm till 11pm. Dogs then get fed when I get home....Seems to work very well here.

[kronckew]

just to add as i didn't mention our routine, millie gets fed twice a day. that doesn't mean she eats twice a day. breakfast is half gone shortly after placement. she eats the chunks of canned stuff off the top (i moosh it up into some medium chunks and some small) and goes back for the rest a bit later in the day. same with dinner, with her reserving a portion, usually kibble, for a late night snack. the 'wet' food rotates between tripe mix, chicken chunks, beef chunks, lamb, rabbit, etc. for variety. the 'dry' is a branded retired greyhound-specific mix.

[Guest BrianRke]

Mine eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner

[Guest Brindle2Black]

I guess you could call it breakfast. I give her 2 C in the morning around 6 am (which she sometimes eats right then, sometimes later) and 2 C around 5 pm.

[Guest teed5greys]

We also feed breakfast and dinner to our five (and whichever fosters are residing). Feeding breakfast isn't about enhancing performance for us, as they perform their sleeping duties very well on their own. I had to re-research why feeding greys twice a day is recommended, esp. when they are typically only fed once in the racing kennels, from what I recall. When we began fostering 8 years ago, our foster mentor stated the main reason retired greys are fed twice a day is to prevent bloat (gastric torsion, GDV) and they also should not have strenuous exercise for an hour or two before and after their meals. I know there are multiple schools of thought on raised dishes, but our Afghan hound lived to be almost 15 and our greys are doing well with the raised dishes, also.

 

Have a greyt day!

[Guest SealDogMermaid]

Yes, Walter gets breakfast and dinner and sometimes an afterschool snack of yogurt or pumpkin.

 

Just curious what brand of yogurt you feed? I am thinking of adding a bit of it to my 2's dinner (yes they eat breakfast too hehe) because i hear it is an excellent probiotic (instead of buying over-the-counter supplements) and that it curbs gas! I was thinking of going with a plain unflavored greek yogurt - is that the right direction?

 

I used to use Trader Joe's yogurt--full fat to encourage weight gain. I would think any human kind would be decent, just check to make sure there are no artificial sweeteners.

 

Great! Thanks for the tip :-)

[Guest Jacks_Human]

I feed morning and late afternoon meals (1.5 cups each) with dog treats in between. Annie B gets very little people food mostly because I don't want her begging from me or anybody else.

 

Yes, exactly what I do for Jack, although he does get non-kibble items mixed into his meals. However, the household rule is that non-biscuit food is ONLY eaten out of his bowl. Not that this prevents him from attempting to con new dinner guests into thinking he's allowed to eat at the table!

[RedHead]

I feed breakfast and dinner...and also handouts throughout the day and a treat just before bed I couldn't imagine the whining if he didn't get his two meals. Having said that, it really has to do with routine, and feeding once a day is fine if your dog is used to it and it works for you. Dog's systems are designed, as carnivores, to eat large meals all at once with no eating in between (contrast this to herbivores who have to graze and nibble throughout the day). There is no problem feeding just once if you want to, dogs eating habits aren't like ours (although they like to think they are! )

[seeh2o]

Yes, breakfast, after breakfast treats, dinner and "desert" (same treats as in the morning).

[Guest WhiteWave]

I used to feed just once a day, but then I had two dogs taking meds and had to eat with them so I tried feeding them 2x a day, but the other's weren't going to have that. So everyone eats 2x a day except the puppy who eats 3 times a day. They also eat off my plate, eat my snacks ( I was just mobbed for pretzels), get their snacks/treats. So no one is going hungry!

[Laur]

We feed three times a day: breakfast, dinner, and a before bed snack. We were finding that if Starbuck didn't have anything in her stomach overnight, she'd start throwing up bile in the morning. By giving her half her dinner portion just before bed, she can make it through the night without getting ill. One time a day would not work well with her.

 

We do the same for our hounds.

 

Same here.

[Guest borzoix4]

We also feed twice a day- now at 6am and 4 pm. Now the pups are eating 3 times a day, but we are working on weaning off their lunch.

[Guest KPS915]

I'm fairly certain she would stage a coup and call doggie dyfs if we failed to feed her breakfast. I was in the kitchen this morning making MH his breakfast and she was right behind me wanting to know where hers was, mind you she already ate, walked, and had some treats!

[TwiggysMom]

Twiggy gets breakfast, 2nd breakfast, and dinner!

 

Now I don't know anything about the scientific arguments for/against feeding more frequent meals, but Twiggy demands 1-2 hour walks nearly every day after work, and gets upset with me when I turn her around for home after 1 1/4 hours! Just sayin' ! (and in case you don't know, Twiggy is an almost-8-year-old tripod/osteo hound!)

[beledi]

Buddy wakes me up around 6 every morning for his milkbone (that's why I'm up now). He is like an alarm that increases in volume. He'll wine softly and if I don't repsond whine louder, the louder and finally bark to tell me to get him his dang milkbone.

Ahem, and who started the early morning milkbone conditioning, LOL.

 

I feed six a.m. and four-thirty in the eve and a doggie milkbone at bedtime. Sometimes a bit of something in between.

[Guest masa]

Yes, both of mine get fed in the morning, and at night. They also get one or two large milk bones at night, Swirl because if she doesn't have something later at night in between supper and breakfast her medicine will make her sick. Molly because the time space is just a little to long for her between breakfast and supper, she's a greyhound in a small fluffy dogs body or so she'd like to think! She doesn't get fed as much as Swirl. Molly is a chihuahua/terrier mix .

[Gryffenne]

I'd better or they would be crushed. They lubs thier breaky- it is the meal with the yogurt and other goodies. And on the weekends it is a big country breakfast: 4 eggs( fired on Sat & scrambled on Sun), toast, sausage or chopped steak etc., maybe some grits or other goody thrown in. Often times there is a bully stick for dessert afterwards. Mine LUBS breaky.

If Sammi didn't get breakfast, I would be the one crushed... by her!

 

If it is a school/soccer morning with an alarm, I get the 15 minutes of snooze-cuddles. But if I hit the snooze again... then it starts. The polite whine... then the not so polite whine. Then a zoomie attack. And then... that split second of silence. Just long enough for my brain to register the zoomie has abruptly stop and that I have 0.5 sec to move before 84 pounds of hungry greyhound lands on me.

 

Sunday mornings I get an extra few hours before we start with the polite whine and progress to the landing.

 

In fact, with my messed up sleep schedule, she gets more than 2 meals. Same amount of food at the day's end, just split up a bit. A biscuit when I get home from work after potty trip outside IF we are getting up at 6am for school in the morning. If I want her to sleep in, she gets a mini b'fast and goes pott before bed. This ensures no trouble until about noon. Then she gets a small lunch. Dinner is about 7pm.

 

School days, she gets the biscuits at bedtime, B'fast (mini meal) at 6am when DS gets up and takes her out to potty. Then she gets brunch (the rest of b'fast) and another potty break before we go back to bed after he goes to school. This buys me time to sleep.. usually about 230pm she wants up. A biscuit or a handful of kibble and then dinner is 7pm.

 

As for human breakfast food. Sammi loves eggs on her breakfast. Oatmeal, too. I remember years ago, a boyfriend trying to teach me my bane as a cook. Over easy eggs. (I can cook just about anything you ask of me, but for 33 years I could not make an OEE without busting the yolk.) So Sunday mornings were the full on breakfast mornings. And my OEE egg lessons. Well, any eggs that I busted the yolks on became Sammi's eggs.

 

And then it happened... the morning I made 6 OEE and not one busted yolk. i was so proud! BF leaned over my shoulder and then looked at Sammi to sadly announce, "No egg for Sammi, Mommy didn't bust a yolk."

 

I look down at my forlorn grehound laying so patiently on her kitchen doggie bed. Look back at the eggs. Back at Sammi. Look at the eggs and BAM!! nail one with the turnerthingamabob. "Oops, I broke one!"

 

Nowadays, where busting a yolk is rare, she gets one no matter what. busted or not.

 

ETA~ The biggest reason that I split her meals up (besides my love of sleep) is that ever since she had to go off of raw (no freezer space/availability issues in podunk) if she eats more than 1 cup of food at a time, she will get the big D.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Gryffenne

[Guest greytone]

Freddie gets breakfast, dinner, and a snack before bed.

[Guest gomiesmom]

My guys DO Eat breakfast, as well as dinner & they love it.

BG - before Greyhounds, I did feed my min. collies just dinner, but in talking to the vet, switched them to a breakfast /dinner regimine.

Hounds seem to do fine, & in fact, let me try to sleep in - bottom line - it aint happenin' !!!! They want their breakfast.....