Hello All. I had a thread regarding Cooper not eating breakfast. Now friends with dogs are telling me maybe Cooper only needs to eat once a day.....do any of you feed your grown pups once a day?Cooper is almost 2-1/2 years old this September.....and he certainly is a big boy. I feed him 3-1/2 cups of dry food a day.....just seems a lot of food to give him once a day. Any suggestions from those with older dogs please?Thank you.
I have always fed my dogs twice a day. Both my Labs are 30kg but tall and not fat, I feed half a coffee mug of kibble in the morning and a whole mug in the evening. They have about a tablesoon of tinned meat on the top, for my benefit as I think it is nicer for them
I feed Snowie twice a day. He gets raw food so it's 300gm in the morning and 400gm in the evening. He also gets treats throughout the day for good behaviour.
Stacia, (1) how big is your coffee mug? (2) if your coffee mug only holds one cup (8 oz) that means you feed him 1-1/2 cups a day?Isn't that little amount? You say both are tall but not fat...30kg sounds like a great weight when I know Cooper weighs 43+ kg!!! I really do NOT want him to be overweight.....but right now I feed him 3-1/2 cups......if you could tell me the size of your coffee mug and am hoping it is a large one....I will then know more or less what to feed Cooper. I would much rather feed him twice a day....I think once a day is too many hours with an empty tummy and I know I wouldn't want to go through the day with an empty one! My coffee mugs are quite big so that's why am asking about yours.....thanks.
Good for you feeding Snowie raw food.....I wouldn't know where to start if I did and if I was covering all his needs. Raw would be more natural for a dog.....wish I had the guts to do it. Thanks for your response.
Tatze gets fed twice a day. She's on a little diet to lose a couple of Kg, she weighs 29kg and I like her to be 26kg. ...
Harley gets fed twice a day. Weights vary with different food brands so I think it would be difficult to compare how much unless someone is using the same brand and the dogs were of a similar amount.
Mags how much do you feed her?...My food bag says 4-1/2 cups a day which (in my mind) is way too much. I have been feeding him 2c in the morning and 1-1/2 in the evening. I still think it's too much ....maybe should be 1-1/2 and 1-1/2.
Thanks Naya....yes, it's difficult when dogs weights are different and foods are also. Mine is a big boy but I dont want him to be overweight.
My first dog when I was a kid was fed once a day. It was the norm then. He was an outside dog in a cold winter climate so in winter it was a lot of food all at once. WE had him for nearly 17 years, till I was 21, and I don't remember any digestive issues. Now my dogs are inside and I feed twice a day but some dogs do well with once a day. The only way to see if it will work is to try it. Slowly moving the bulk of the food from one meal to just the other might even show that you could feed one small and one larger and not have to go all the way to just one big meal.
Always fed my adult dogs twice a day and its worked out. I do jiggle the quantity if it seems anyone is getting a little too plump
It is bigger than a cup, just like an average mug, I think I feed them about 320gms a day, if they look a bit skinny I increase it a little, if they begin to look chubby I decrease it a little, but on the whole they are fed half a mug and then a whole mug in the evening.
I weigh kibble rather than use cups/mugs, that way I KNOW how much I am giving is always the same. I saw a programme on telly once which proved how wildly different quantities were dished out using a cup measure. It's easy to reduce by say, 50g if he's getting podgy. You really can't compare quantities for different kibbles. Go by how your dog looks/feels. If his ribs are difficult to feel, reduce. If they are prominent, increase. I think I'd be inclined to stick with 2 meals for the reasons you state.
It does seem difficult at first. But it's really straightforward, much like you'd feed yourself: balance and variety. The best advice I was given was to feed a whole prey model, ie feed the proportions as it would be in an entire animal, for example: less liver, but more muscle meat, because that's the proportion in the whole animal. There are lots of good websites and Facebook pages and people who will support you if ask for it. If you can prepare food for yourself and your family from whole food, there's no reason why you can't prepare food for your dog.
You can't say "s/he gets 1 cup of that brand, so my dog should get 1 cup of this brand". Dogs are different. Different kibbled have different caloric density. A cup of lettuce doesn't have the same number of calories as a cup of butter. As Sue says, you have to go on the look and feel of your dog. My two are on the same brand (different varieties) and get massively different amounts. At the moment, Shadow is on about three times as much as Willow. They weigh the same, just over 22kg. As for how many meals? Well, my two get fed three times a day at two years of age. It suits us all. They have kibble morning and night and raw at lunchtime. At the moment, this tends to be raw mince frozen in a couple of kongs. I think food is something that enriches their lives, so splitting it up into a couple of meals means they get a couple of times for enrichment. With just one meal a day, that's a long time before the next "wow" moment. Not to mention, if I have a really big meal, I feel horrible and sluggish. We all work a lot better having several smaller meals.
I have no intention of feeding one meal, but it's still very much the norm in NZ. Xena's breeder recommends dropping to two meals at 16 weeks then one meal by 6 months! Even my obedience club president says to feed one meal, and then he used working dogs as an example. That's like comparing apples and oranges imo but everybody does what suits them and their dog.
Very similar regime I think to Stacia and Snowbunny. Our dogs two have 2 very small meals of a dense high quality kibble. It works out at 70 - 80 kg per meal for my 2.5 year old dog (entire), and slightly less for my 7.5 year old castrated boy. I top their kibble with salmon oil, which they love! They also get frozen kongs, with a a little soaked kibble, topped with organic turkey (Hermanns organic range) Sometimes I drop these amounts if they put on a little weight. They also get kibble or treats hidden in cardboard or toilet rolls in the garden, they LOVE that game, it helps build a bond by helping them to find them. I also make a lot of their treats and bake in carrots, peas, sometimes broccoli into their treats. There is evidence that cooked veggies are good for our dogs. Occasionally I will give them a breakfast of cooked veggies with a little organic tinned dog food
I dont want to do one meal a day either.....and intend to keep the twice a day. Right now he will not eat at breakfast-time but yes at lunchtime. Then dinner. Strange! I really want to do what is good for Cooper so will stick to twice a day. I will have to "play" with how much each time and see how it works out. Thanks fort your input.
What do you mean by "dense high quality kibble"? I have been comparing the different foods and decided on two 4 star...Fromm and Blue Buffalo....this one is 100% grain free and number one in its ingredients is Duck...Fromm h as grains but the first two ingredients are duck and lamb. He is sort of "off" Kongs for some reason....I always gave him one or two a day with wet kibble and topped with either cheese, banana or peanut butter and then into the freezer. For some reason his eating habits have changed.....he had to go to "boarding school" (day care and night's at a caretakers) for 10 weeks while I had two knee replacements and Rehab'd so maybe that is part of the change. He was very happy where he was both times but it certainly was a change from his usual. Thanks for your input and advice.
Dozer was really odd where he would only eat once a day but I made the attempt of feeding him twice a day regardless. What I did was attempt his morning feed and if he didn't eat it, I just left it so if he needed a little snack during the day he could enjoy it. I think it has to do with the dog food too as I stick with (according to pet food advisor) the best and healthiest dog food. Dozer was getting 2 cups in the morning and 2 at dinner time regardless if he ate his morning food. With regular vet visits and daily exercise he was always right at that ideal weight (again according the vets recommendation) until he started having arthritis issues when he started gaining weight at which point I slowly reduced it down to 1 1/1 cups at feeding times. Stryker also gets fed twice a day. Breakfast time and Dinner time but because he is still a puppy he gets just about 1 cup at both feeding times but he eats his as soon as I place it down. His weight is regulated according to vet recommendations. He was just recently checked and he weighed 5kg's and will be weighed again on August 30th. Vet said she doesn't care what the scale says but takes in to consideration how tall and his body length. She said, "Stryker has a very sexy bikini figure" which was perfect and suggested I keep doing what I was doing as far as feeding and exercise goes. That and along with everybody else, he gets treats through out the day.
