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Originally Posted by ladyjane  It sounds like this puppy is doing well in terms of eating and gaining weight. I have a foster pup who came to me at six weeks of age weighing .75 lb. She was in ICU for a few days before I could bring her home. She had to be fed around the clock, every two hours and often I felt like I was torturing her with syringe feeding.
When she finally was eating on her own I would never have dreamed of free feeding her. I needed to know exactly when and what amount she was eating so I could observe any changes. Obviously, your puppy is in better shape than she was, but it is still worth mentioning the hazards.
I am not a fan of free feeding, especially in multiple pet homes....some eat more and some eat less and if you don't watch like a hawk you don't know who isn't eating enough. The first sign a dog isn't doing well is a change in appetite. You get weight issues and sometimes can have wars over food .. just two more reasons. |
I definitely don’t think it would work for everyone. Like if your not home with them all day like me then you would never know who was eating what. I have the food in the living room and generally see who is eating. I guess I’m lucky because we have never had any issues of aggression with food. I keep it in a tray that petstages came out with years ago so it’s spread out so all three could eat at once if they wanted to. Ollie will only eat if he is active and Joey is a picker. Penny will throw the tray if it gets empty even if she isn’t hungry. They get a little handful of chicken twice a day that was started because Callie needed to eat in order to take medicine and she was a picker and I didn’t think it would be fair to suddenly stop after she passed. The vet says they are all their perfect weight but I personally think Penny is on the chubby side.