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Originally Posted by Maximo  I want to add that Jackson may be self-regulating right now because of the heat. Teddy has been saving his breakfast for after our morning walks and activities. |
Very true with the heat! Didn't even think of that, either.
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Originally Posted by kjc Yes, in large breed dogs, twice daily is to prevent bloat.
In small breed dogs, twice a day (for adults, 3-5 times/day for puppies) is to prevent hypoglycemia. The small dog's metabolism is faster, and their stomachs are small. They would never be able to consume enough food in one sitting to keep them going for a full 24 hours.
Jackson, being bigger, may do okay on one meal, but personally, I would always offer him two meals, or 3-4 treats at least in the morning, and maybe an hour or so after strenuous exercise.
My LS dog is about 13 lbs now, and she'll eat twice a day. But, bc she has LS, 4 or 5 smaller meals would be better for her. She refuses to eat more than twice a day. I do try to give her treats (fruit and veges) but I can not get her to really eat a meal more than twice a day. She is also very active, but that has no effect either.
With this heat, all mine are eating less. |
OK, I wasn't even thinking about the larger dogs needing to prevent bloat. I dogsit for 2 Boxers and was told this before, totally forgot. Yeah, Jackson maintains at about 15lbs right now. Question is... should I offer him just dry kibble in the morning? Or mix it with wet like I've been doing to get him to eat in the mornings?
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Originally Posted by fadeddenim i've got two yorkies. one is 4.5 lbs and the other is 12 lbs. i give them their food in the morning and they'll eat half of the portion. i leave their food on the ground the whole day while im at work. for some odd reason, they won't eat while i'm gone. it's not until i get home from work is when they'll finish the remaining portion.
then later in the evening, my bigger yorkie will walk to the cupboard where i keep his food and whine letting me know he's still hungry. the little one seems to do fine eating just one serving a day. this seems to work fine for us |
Thanks for the info!
... like, if I leave a bowl of kibble for him in the mornings, he won't touch it, unless I mix it with something yummy like wet food. So sometimes I feel like I'm almost forcing him to eat (but I'm not, when the food has wet mixed in, he voluntarily goes over and eats it) but in the PM if I pour kibble into a bowl around 5pm, he WILL eat it. Even without wet. So, to me, that's showing me he's not particularly hungry in the morning but he'll eat it just because he loves wet food so much.
He does get treats throughout the day and he always gets a treat in the morning when he comes in from potty.
I dunno, I guess I'll just see what he does best on. The only thing I was concerned about is the pooping 3x a day rather than 2x. I've been home alot these past 3 weeks so it's no problem me letting him out for an early afternoon poop, ha, but I don't wanna feed him breakfast and then have to leave and him be holding it all day, etc.
Hmm... well thanks for all the info and suggestions
Hopefully I'll figure out what works best for us.