Feeding your dog: Times a day
 

How many times a day do you feed your Yorkies~? I normally feed mine twice, but tonight when I came back from the gym, he wanted to play. I figured he's going to eat me out of treats, so if I put food down he won't eat many of the treats and be more interested in the food. What do you all say to this~?

Sometimes, it just depends. I mean, in general, I feed 2x a day. But the times always change. Sometimes he eats breakfast at 8am, sometimes he won't eat breakfast until 11am. Dinner ranges between 5-6 typically. But sometimes, for example, if we do a lot of exercise and come home around 3:30 or 4pm, he is very hungry when getting back from a long work out or walk, so I'll often feed him a bit, and the rest later...

i have a little girl and she weighs about 5 pounds and she hardly eats , i keep her someout all day (dry) and then i give her a little wet , she will eat some but not all of it ..she is very spoiled...

I feed ZoE 3 times a day: breakfast 6:30am, dinner 4pm & before bed 11pm. She still gets the same amount of food she would if she was fed once or twice, I just split it up, as it works best for her. She would vomit bile in the wee hours of the morning if I didn't give her food before bed. I didn't want to give her extra food, so I just changed how her daily allotment is rationed. It works well for us.

That is an idea to split up the food for the day. Maybe that is why he wants so many treats or wants to play at times more. But every time I put food down, he thinks it's playtime. So that is difficult when I can't. He hardly nibbles if it is down too, but it is a thought to consider. Thanks.

This is exactly what I do with Riley!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

I feed Morgan twice a day

All of mine eat twice day (breakfast & diner) and get snack lunchtime & bedtime.

Feeds
 

I feed mine 4 x per day as he can get an acidy stomach if I do not.
He is 9 pounds and active and gets a total of 3/4 cup kibble total per day. 6am 1/4 cup, noon 1/8 cup, 4pm 1/4 cup and 8pm (before bed) 1/8 cup. He always seems hungry and eats each meal in 2 gulps. LOL! I need to try and cut it to 3 meals but at the moment, 'if it works don't fix it'.

Peanut gets 1/8 of a cup in the morning, then 1/8 of a cup @ 4

I will also sprinkle a couple kibble's in his bowl around 6/7 and he gets a couple treats!

My two are on a pretty rigid schedule. They will wake me up to eat if I try to sleep in :p

They eat breakfast at around 7 am and dinner around 4:30. They let me know when it's feeding time... They don't like being fed late. They get a shot glass of kibble in the morning and the same in the evening :p It was the best size measuring cup I could find.

Waffles gets fed 4 times a day.1/8 cup servings. If we dont spread it out like that she thows up. So she gets fed at 6am, 12pm, 230pm, 430 pm. She has picked the times :)

Good idea! I use a coffee scoop for Waffles 1/8 cup

They have nice measuring cups at the Dollar Store!!

I feed once a day in the morning. It's best to feed in the AM. Evening feeding can cause them to gain weight. It's fine to feed twice a day as long as you are not increasing the amount they eat all together and feed in the afternoon when they will still get some more exercise before bedtime.

I don't give Gracie many treats and I only give one ingredient all natural treats. The treats they sell in the department stores and pet stores are mostly junk and I prefer to feed Gracie as much all natural or organic as possible. She gets a treat after grooming. I could not train her with treats because she was such a picky eater as a puppy so she is good for doing tricks with out a treat. Most dogs train with treats but once they learn the behavior they should do it without having to have food all the time.

Mine hasn't eaten any today. He wants to play before he'll eat. Even if I put any amount in the bowl, he thinks it's playtime. Any suggestions~?

I would just leave it down for him.. he will eat when he is hungry.

Oh im very happy with our lil coffee scoop. :)

LOL Oh ok.. that is great!

food intake
 

well Bella is a 5 pd Yorkie and I was only feeding her one time a day and she would never finish it, but after she gave birth I noticed she was used to eating alot more since your suppose to feed them more when there pregnant, but I slowly started limiting her food intake cause when I took her to the vet she had gained 2pds more, and now I'm happy to say she's back to 5pds again lol:p

Thanks, but that doesn't work. He loves to eat and play at the same time. I just can't put food down cause he thinks it is playtime. I can leave food out but he won't eat. If he does, a kibble or two is un-noticeable.

Georgie gets fed twice a day whether he eats is a different story. I usually just put a little down to see if he will eat it. If he does then I will give him more. He also gets a lite snack before bed:)

I was free feeding Tinkerbell before Isabella came to live with us. Tink is a nibbler and likes to eat a few bites her and there throughout the day. This worked out well for us as I would just put her daily 1/4 cup in her bowl in the morning and she was good all day. I can't do that now because Isabella is a little piggy and will eat Tinks food. I still don't have this completely worked out yet, but I am trying to get Tink to eat when Isabella eats at 5:00am and dinner at 4:30pm.

I keep food out because my female grazes. She wants to eat several times in the day and even in the nite. She barks if the bowl gets empty! She is 6 lbs but not overweight so I free feed. My male will only eats good onced a day. Usually in the evening but sometime he will eat in the morning some.

If I put something on top of his food that has an odor, he will do circles and will be anxious to eat. I may have to start doing that again. Do any of you all mix any wet over the dry for your dogs~?

I bet he would do circles for non fat plain regular or Greek yogurt. That's all we put on Georgie's dry food sometimes. We also mix with coconut oil and plain pumpkin or sweet potato.

Tibbe free feeds except when he "asks" for food, at which time I boil hot water to soak his food in, cool it and put some canned on top of 1/4 cup kibble. Usually he eats twice a day but some days he just eats once at that is usually at night anywhere from 5 - 8 p.m.. In addition to his meals, he gets kibble s a treat every time he comes in from pottying or does something special, such as "Leave it" when I tell him to or "come" when in another room or outside, etc. His kibble treats might add up to a teaspoon to a tablespoon per day, depending upon whether or not I had him run through his list of tricks for me or I am teaching him a new trick/obedience.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've even used warm water on top of the dry, but he doesn't seem interested. I've changed foods too many times to name and I'm not going to again. I presume he's not hungry or is wanting attention.

Recently, I gave up on the yogurt. I was giving it to him for a nightly treat and oh boy did I have a mess~! He not only threw up but had diarrhea everywhere. I had to send the carpets out to get cleaned recently. Dogs aren't suppose to have dairy either. The Vet is the one who told me I should give him a teaspoon of it and it would help his belly (when he had issues) but that has been a while and maybe I gave him more than a teaspoon~!

I'm a firm believer in "they will eat when hungry." Put the food down in the AM, take it up after 20 minutes. Put the food down in the PM, take it up after 20 minutes. Dori eats 1/4 kibble (TOTW) each meal. A few training treats and she is good to go.
My vet and dog trainer are BIG advocates of wet food. Dogs prefer it and seem to thrive. I haven't seen the need for it with Dori.

When Gracie was a puppy she would not eat kibble.(she still won't touch it) She refused it despite the fact I purchased some of the very best brands of food. I actually found YT when doing a search for recipes for making my own dog food. They do have some homemade dog food recipes in the sticky section of the Yorkie health and diet area here. I cooked for her for a few months and found that she hated grains. When I replaced grains with sweet potato she started eating like a little pig. I was very careful about balancing her diet and I also used all natural supplements. I learned a lot of unpleasant things about the pet food industry. Although she was dong well on the homemade food I decided to switch her to a commercial grain free frozen raw food from a really great company. She loves it and eats well now.
After looking into how kibble and other pet foods are made I don't agree with the "let them starve until they eat" idea. There are not many food products as unnatural as kibble. Most are packed full of synthetic vitamins due to the fact that all organic material is killed in the high temperature cooking process. I just feel if a dog feels so repulsed by a food that they refuse eat it that there is a problem.
I know many people do not feel comfortable feeding raw so cooking for them is a possible alternative. Although home cooking does destroy some nutrients it is not as destructive as the super high temp 3X cooking process that kibble goes through. A more all natural canned food is also an option. Gracie now eats a healthier diet than the people that live here do and I think she may outlive all of us!