Jump to content

Feeding One Time A Day Vs Two Times A Day


Guest FordRacingRon

Recommended Posts

Guest FordRacingRon

Many of us remember Bill and the trouble with Bill and his dinner. I think Bill channeled in Leia. Now Leia is being picky.

 

Let me preface this with,,Leia is 10 and no where near as active as even 6 months ago so I am sure her appetite is waning. She is healthy, we just had a wellness exam including a blood panel and she was fine. But getting her to eat in the morning is just a nosebleed.

 

Her old standbys ,or should I say add ins to her kibble, do not work any longer. Small bits of chicken or ground beef or sardines will not entice her to eat. Nothing that used to work does. It is a fight.

 

But her dinner is never a problem. The only difference between dinner and breakfast is we do not put her fish oil in her breakfast but we do dinner,,and she will eat dinner no problem. So I have two ideas.

 

First is just one meal a day now. Just dinner.

 

Second is,,super super small breakfast and super large dinner. She eats a cup and a half a day. I was thinking less then half a cup for breakfast and the rest for dinner.

 

Thoughts? I guess I really want to know does anyone feed just once a day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Clawsandpaws

In most kennels they are fed once a day. The adoption group I volunteer for feeds one large meal at around 7:30 a.m, and then some cookies at bed time (8:30 pm). No issues, although they complain a lot in the morning after their first turn out at 6 a.m

 

What times do you feed meals?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FordRacingRon

In most kennels they are fed once a day. The adoption group I volunteer for feeds one large meal at around 7:30 a.m, and then some cookies at bed time (8:30 pm). No issues, although they complain a lot in the morning after their first turn out at 6 a.m

 

What times do you feed meals?

She usually eats breakfast around 9 -930 (she is walked in the Am at 730) and dinner is about 530. I was thinking of pushing breakfast back even later and dinner maybe at 6.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have other pets in the home? If not, you could put a little dry kibble out for her in the a.m., then incorporate any that's left into her dinner in the p.m. If you do have other pets, wouldn't hurt to try feeding once a day :) .

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

General rule is twice a day, but if she's better off with once, then you should at least give it a try.

 

My 20 month old puppy is the. pickiest. eater. ever. She's holding her weight fine and perfectly healthy, she just doesn't want to eat sometimes, usually breakfast. I have no idea why. I've stopped trying to stand on my head getting her to eat. I fix the meals for everyone, the same every day, every meal. If she comes out and eats - YEAH! :yay - if she doesn't - OK. And I pick it up and she gets it at her next meal. Which she usually then eats. She rarely skips more than two meals in a row, and almost always gets at least one meal a day.

 

This has made our breakfasts and dinners a lot less stressful for me!

Chris - Mom to: Felicity (DeLand), and Andi (Braska Pandora)

52592535884_69debcd9b4.jpgsiggy by Chris Harper, on Flickr

Angels: Libby (Everlast), Dorie (Dog Gone Holly), Dude (TNJ VooDoo), Copper (Kid's Copper), Cash (GSI Payncash), Toni (LPH Cry Baby), Whiskey (KT's Phys Ed), Atom, Lilly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

as some dogs age the are less active(you mentioned that) and need less food. that's most likely what you are experiencing. my finikey salukis ate once a day, i gave up after dealing w/ green tripe and who knows what else and they still shut down and stopped eating every time they gained some weight. so, i learned once a day, food is put down for 10 min., if not eaten, it's taken up. by my last saluki i fed him dry kibble w/o any added goodies. the finikey dogs used to suck the goodies off the kibble.....and spit the kibble out. (it was all good training and preperation for becoming a mom!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Queen and I get up at about 7am but she never seemed interested in eating or even going out. we go out between 9-10am and she get some treats [usually a commercial jerky] only then will she THINK about doing her morning business. she may run a bit, usually before first and second poop. she also will chase the local critters [rabbits etc] we come in between noon and 1PM and go out again between 2-3PM she MAY remind me it is time to go out. She bumps my are and really, REALLY whines until I feed her at 5-6PM, then as soon as she is finished she rubs her nose on my arm until I take her out for a quick pee break, and she goes out for a final time at about 11PM, then she usually jumps back to bed and snuggles up and goes to sleeep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My angel Echo was always a pretty picky eater and she was very thin. I found out early that if she missed a meal, she'd miss the next and so on until we had a vet visit to make. She never really liked her breakfast but she usually ate part of it. When she got to about 10, I found that if I cooked a meat and veggie stew and put it in with her kibble, she would eat the whole thing. Eventually she'd get tired of this so I would switch to sardines, venison or some other meat long enough for her to be willing to eat the stew again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest greybookends

The most success I had with feeding Bill was when I went to just one meal a day. It did not solve all my problems but it did help A LOT. I however am a raw feeder and there is less volume involved in feeding one meal a day. I think it might be harder to go one a day if you are feeding just kibble. To get the same nutrients in one meal of kibble can require very large portions all at once and will more then likely fill up the tummy pretty quick before they have eaten all the meal. Some of your higher end kibble require smaller portions but are considerably more expensive. I understand your problem because Bill flat refused to eat in the morning. I know everyone says they will eat once they get hungry but there are some that take it to extremes and it is simply unhealthy and you do what ever you must.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FordRacingRon

My angel Echo was always a pretty picky eater and she was very thin. I found out early that if she missed a meal, she'd miss the next and so on until we had a vet visit to make. She never really liked her breakfast but she usually ate part of it. When she got to about 10, I found that if I cooked a meat and veggie stew and put it in with her kibble, she would eat the whole thing. Eventually she'd get tired of this so I would switch to sardines, venison or some other meat long enough for her to be willing to eat the stew again.

That is the rub,,he favorite things to add (sardines, beef, chicken) do not work any more. Last night she wolfed down her dinner,,she only had about 1/3 of her breakfast before I dumped it. She ate her dinner with so much gusto I added a handful of kibble and she ate it too. So I think i am going to try the 25-75 plan today. 25% of her normal kibble in the last Am and the rest at dinner.

 

As Bill's mom said, I am more worried about her not getting the nutrition she may need with this finicky eting and I will do what I have to in order to get her to eat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FordRacingRon

Well,,following two other threads here about what to give dogs to entice them I used that advice.

 

I did my trick of giving her 1/4 of her meal at breakfast and 3/4 at dinner. But I had that small can of Nutro Holistic Pate food lying around (I buy cans of dog and cat food,,not for me as I have only 1 dog and no cats,,but to feed strays that may wander by and need a meal) so I added 1/4 of it to her kibble, and left out the ground beef and anything else but the broth I use. For two days now she has eaten like a champ for every meal.

 

So I am off to Petco to buy a couple of more cans of Nutro (the ingredients are perfect too) and may try the trader Joe food that is being raved about in a couple of other threads.

 

So i assume she likes the new taste for breakfast but doesn't get really full, so come dinner time she is starving and eats like the old days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Scarter55

Interestingly, Lady was a fairly picky eater and often wouldn't finish meals until she got Giardia. We had her on plain chicken and rice for a few days and ever since then she wolfs down all her meals. I'm not sure if that is a coincidence or she was scared straight.

 

In general, I'm somewhat concerened about bloat, which I acknowledge might be a little irrational. My sister had a Great Dane die early from bloat, but I know that breed is much more susceptible to it than greys. In the research I've done on the topic, and what the vet told us when we first got Lady is that the best guess about some causes are feeding too much at one time or running right after a meal. Basically, anything that might "stretch" things out in there. My sister's GD gained a lot of weight aroudn 3 yrs, after my sister had a baby. (She was allowed to eat anything that was dropped from my niece's high chair) In retrospect, that over eating could have led to bloat. Again, it's probably irrational, but I'm over cautious about feeding too much at once, so stick to 2 meals a day.

 

It's good to hear that one meal a day seems to be a very standard practice with greys so I don't need to worry too much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too was going to mention bloat. We used to feed my German Shepherd one HUGE meal a day (He was over 100 lbs.), and never paid any attention to whether or not he exercised immediately before or after eating. He died at age 7 from bloat. It the time, I had never even heard of it. I've read much more about it since, and although there is no real prevention or cause documented, I feel as though his one huge meal attributed to it.

If you have no other pets, you may want to try free-feeding her kibble. When my Murphy got older, he did not want to eat all at once. We left his food out, and sometimes he'd get up for a nibble at 2 a.m. :)

 
Forever in my heart: my girl Raspberry & my boys Quiet Man, Murphy, Ducky, Wylie & Theo
www.greyhoundadventures.org & www.greyhoundamberalert.org & www.duckypaws.com

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FordRacingRon

Bloat has been on my mind since day 1 of Leia coming home,,there has been so much talk about it';s causes and how to prevent it over my years here on the boards I am well aware of it. I used to obsess about it, now I am just aware, always.

 

Thing is,they say one cause,maybe ,,is eating too fast. Leia used to eat like it was the last food on earth, now she eats like we seniors do, slowly and with a purpose. Second one cause may be exercise before or after eating. For over 7 years I never let her do those two things. So I am not that concerned about bloat, I am doing what I am supposed to do.

 

But as I said,, she eats 1/4 of her food for breakfast, and 3/4 of it for dinner and it seems to be working very well, along with just mixing in something wet with her breakfast. Because she eats so little in the AM she seems to have no problem at dinner now either. Her "output" is still good too.

 

So bottomline it, she still gets fed twice a day, just the amounts have been adjusted and the add-ins have changed. Seems she likes wet dog food better then ground beef. go figure

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Bean_Scotch

I feed once a day. I work a weird shift, often 12-1pm-10/11pm. It's about midnight when I get home. I feed all my dogs at Midnight and then we go straight to bed. Wake-up is about 11am-12pm. I've never had issues, all dogs eat their plain dry dog food without complaints.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest sirsmom

For a senior dog I would prob. feed 3 times a day and smaller amounts to be sure she s getting all she needs to maintain her muscle mass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest FordRacingRon

For a senior dog I would prob. feed 3 times a day and smaller amounts to be sure she s getting all she needs to maintain her muscle mass.

that isn't a bad idea actually,, i think she would believe she was getting rewarded if she got 3 meals a day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...