Free Feeding?!?

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by lovespandp

Well Peanut isn't a hog, he always had food down as a puppy and he wasn't a hog then either. LOL He is my little kitty, he is a graceful eater.. and some days he is anorexic.

My two are little piggies.

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

It is a lot easier also to measure free feed one dog then two.

So true! I think this is one of the major reasons people have trouble with free feeding.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by Nancy1999

So true! I think this is one of the major reasons people have trouble with free feeding.

I just have my little monkey so my version of free feeding works good for us except when Sammy comes over then they both turn to little piggies I guess because they are running around and playing the whole time.

[Verbena]

Originally Posted by lovespandp

Well Peanut isn't a hog, he always had food down as a puppy and he wasn't a hog then either. LOL He is my little kitty, he is a graceful eater.. and some days he is anorexic.

Galen is the same way. Some days it takes everything to get him to eat his food. I just got the Open Sky and started mixing it with the Lamb and Millet. I hope he will like it better.

[lovespandp]

Originally Posted by Verbena

Galen is the same way. Some days it takes everything to get him to eat his food. I just got the Open Sky and started mixing it with the Lamb and Millet. I hope he will like it better.

Aw I hope so too!! Peanut loves the Open Sky. Sometimes I would much rather have a hog than a dog that sometimes doesn't eat until I get home from work!! I mean since I've had Peanut on the Open Sky it doesn't happen as much.. not really at all. However sometimes he still won’t eat. I think he does it on purpose to be honest LOL He puts on his little food strike and then I bring out the yummy shredded cheese and yogurt!

[Teresiana]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

I hand feed Callie twice a day but she never even eats 1/4 a cup when I hand feed her so I leave some in the bowl all the time and she will pick at it when we play. Some dogs monitor themselves and some don't.

I do this. I feed twice a day & leave the leftovers for them to nibble on. I have 3 Yorkies & a Lab. The Yorkie's food is in an area gated away from the Lab. I found out the hard way that if I don't gate my kitchen/dining room off, my Lab will eat the little one's food. All of mine are a pretty good judge of how much food they need, even the puppy. Thankfully, they don't overeat & they're not food aggressive. I would prefer not to free feed. But I have one super duper finicky pup who only eats on his own terms & schedule - no matter what I do. So I like to leave food out for him for whenever he decides he's in the mood to eat.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by Teresiana

I do this. I feed twice a day & leave the leftovers for them to nibble on. I have 3 Yorkies & a Lab. The Yorkie's food is in an area gated away from the Lab. I found out the hard way that if I don't gate my kitchen/dining room off, my Lab will eat the little one's food. All of mine are a pretty good judge of how much food they need, even the puppy. Thankfully, they don't overeat & they're not food aggressive. I would prefer not to free feed. But I have one super duper finicky pup who only eats on his own terms & schedule - no matter what I do. So I like to leave food out for him for whenever he decides he's in the mood to eat.

Callie is very much like that she absolutely will not eat before 12 and if she doesn't want to it is not happening.

[theporkieyorkie]

For those who have more than one dog, has anyone been successful in training each dog to eat out of their respective bowls??

Ricky's bowl is elevated because he has such long legs, so he and Princeton should easily be able to tell who's bowl belongs to who...but keeping them out of each other's dish is always a challenge. Even if/when they have the same thing, the food in the "other" bowl always looks better!! LOL!!

I have a problem with my little guy being a slow eater. I have to watch to make sure Princeton doesn't eat his food.


When I do free feed my dogs the dry food, I only put 1/8 cup of food in the bowl. I know what goes in there and I don't overfill it or anything...but recently, I've had to put 2 bowls out, because one starts snacking and the other wants to eat too.

I wish I could get my boys to just eat the dry!!

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by theporkieyorkie

For those who have more than one dog, has anyone been successful in training each dog to eat out of their respective bowls??

Ricky's bowl is elevated because he has such long legs, so he and Princeton should easily be able to tell who's bowl belongs to who...but keeping them out of each other's dish is always a challenge. Even if/when they have the same thing, the food in the "other" bowl always looks better!! LOL!!

I have a problem with my little guy being a slow eater. I have to watch to make sure Princeton doesn't eat his food.


When I do free feed my dogs the dry food, I only put 1/8 cup of food in the bowl. I know what goes in there and I don't overfill it or anything...but recently, I've had to put 2 bowls out, because one starts snacking and the other wants to eat too.

I wish I could get my boys to just eat the dry!!

I only have one dog but my mom has a rescue Yorkie that comes over at least once a week and Callie's nice bowl set it in the kitchen/dinning room but she never really eats out of it just drinks so I have a small dish in the living room where Callie likes to eat and I put a little food in each on days when Sammy is coming over but they will still want to eat out of the same dish one will almost line up behind the other waiting for them to finish then the switch places it really cracks me up.

[Steph311]

Question for those of you that free feed..how long does the dry food last ? I keep Charlie's bowl full at all times, about 2 handfuls. Sometimes he eats all of it in 1 day, sometimes even more. But there are days when he doesn't finish it off (too many treats hahaha). Is it ok to leave it overnight, or should just toss it and give him fresh dry food every day ? (I hate the idea of throwing away food, but I want to make sure he's getting nothing but healthy tasty food !)

[Hrossen11]

I free feed my two little guys but not my big dogs. I give my little guys 1/4 cup dry 3-4 times a day, I keep feeling my stocky boy to make sure he is not overeating, but since my other one is skinny. I try to keep food out for him. My big dogs get feed twice a day and eat out of seperate bowls. They ave trained to only eat out of their bowls or my lab would over eat. It took a few months to train them. I used to stand over them when eating and if my lab tried to go towards my Aussie's food I would say "ah-ah" and redirect her until the Aussie finished. They need to be feed in the exact same place while training. Now after 12 years I can feed them anywhere and my lab knows to eat out of only the bowl I front of her.

[gardengirl77]

Heidi free feeds and she does great that way. When she's full, she moves on to her next project. (Holding down the dog bed.) She is the only dog though, and no cats so its easy to monitor her food.

[buffy512]

I will be free feeding.

[chestermama]

I give chester some food when I leave for work, and because I work at the hospital I may end up being late so he has food available and he gets some wet food at nite when I get home

[Kentuckyyorkie]

I free feed. My female grazes. If the bowl gets empty she will stand and bark until I put more in it. Guess you could call that spoiled? As long as she's not over weight I don't see a problem.