Three meals a day down to two

Hi all, could I please have your views on when we should start moving our puppy from three meals a day to two?
Wilson is now just over six months old and doing really well. He's a beauty!
I'm more than a bit worried about even slowly cutting out his lunch meal as, like any good lab, he goes frantic when he thinks it's meal time and I can't see him going from breakfast to dinner without (demanding!) something.
Preferably, we'd like to continue to give him a small meal at lunchtime but I've also read on here that it takes 12 hours for a lab to digest a meal hence it's best to have him on two meals at the start and end of the day as he gets older.
Advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

 

Hi, when I did this with Cassie at around 6-7 months of age I just gradually made the lunchtime meal smaller and the morning and evening meals bigger, I think it took a couple of weeks to phase out lunch. It didn't cause her any problems at all. But I don't think you have too, I think it's ok to stay on 3 meals a day

 

Thanks, that's really helpful to know.

 

I've wondered about this also. I still have Marley on 3 meals a day and he's 15 months. Is this not good for him? I know he'd be very disappointed to miss his lunch!

 

My older Labs are three and a half years and still have three small meals a day. You certainly don't have to wait for the stomach to be completely empty before feeding - just like with us

 

This is our feeding schedule, I always make the move gradually, making the midday meal a bit smaller each day and adding the same to the other two meals. The reason we do it is to have a good spending routine, we don’t want a mid day poo.

 

My lot don't have a mid-day poo unless they are unwell. They poo once or twice a day, on walks at either end of the day. I feed three small meals, but they get the majority of their food spread throughout the day as enrichment and/or training. It has no impact on when they go - they go when they have the opportunity (if they need to).

 

Our puppy is 12 months old and she is still on 3 meals a day. I give her a lunch as we eat ours, it seems unfair not to. And as she gobbles it down so quickly, I figure better to have 3 smaller portion than 2 bigger portions

 

That's so interesting, thanks. We'd prefer to keep giving him something at least at lunchtime.

 

The poo thing is interesting. We'd prefer to keep giving him something small at lunchtime but we'll monitor his poo to see what happens Thanks for the feedback.

 

Thanks Elsie. I feel the same, that it seems a little unfair for us to eat and him to have nothing. I suspect we'll end up with three small meals and see how he does.