Feeding Dogs (no wrong answers)

Do you feed your dog a set amount at prescribed times or do you let them eat freely through the day? Let me know why for your decision and how you use your dog.

Once in the morning.

We fill a big bucket of food and one for water and keep them full for them. They don't eat a lot of it, they hold out as long as they can for table scraps or something better.

I always try to let them have food all the time when they are puppies. It has worked good until the last dog I got. He would eat the whole bag if you let him and look at you like where is the rest. He gets a cup in the morning and a cup in the evening of high quality dogfood

Full feed here. Found they actually eat less that way. We have redbone, Mountain curr and 2 mixed breed not worth the price of a bullet to shoot.

Every dog I have gets a bowl of food in the morning. It’s not up to me when they choose to eat. She is a 135 pound Newfoundland and pretty much useless other than being a wonderful companion for our family.

measured amount daily.

Auto feeder

Our lab gets fed 2x a day and she is starving to death at feeding time. I am sure she would eat herself to death if she had free access to food all the time.

My dog used to get fed when we got off work, as she was a working dog and I didn't want to take the chance of feeding her of the morning, now that we are both retired she gets fed a set amount in the morning.

Feed them? I figured everyone just let them out to fend for them selfs. That keeps all the pest away from the house and saves $100 a month on dog food.



Edit:. You can pick up road kill to help them out without adding much expense. Better for them that dog food with grain in it also.

Lab gets one cup in the morning and two in the evening. I bump it up a little during the hunting season.

Moosetrot

morning and evening, my goldens don't let it sit long in bowls. LOL. They have the special slow feeder bowls. Gone in 1-2 minutes max

1 cup in morning, 1 cup in evening. If he starts getting overweight I will cut it down and when he is very active I will bump it up or add treats.

I don't want a fat or unhealthy dog, and I also think it establishes dominance and respect from the dog when they know who runs the food dish.

Free feeding. Like ADC says, they seem to wait to eat to see what leftover/ scraps come their way.

Ours get fed twice a day ( Morning and evening ) and a few treats in between. Dried premium food with a little canned food or cooked meat mixed in. This has worked well for me in the past and I see no reason to change

Murphy's food dish is always full, and he's in good shape. If he eats extra table scraps, he just cuts back on his kibble intake. I'm never really sure how much he eats. I try to estimate and bring the right amount when we go backpacking and such, but I always end upbringing too much.

All my dogs have been very active with high metabolism they all got free choice and none ever got fat

I feed different dogs different ways. I used to mostly free feed and never had more than mild issues for years, until we got Sherman, a neutered male, Kangal/Great Pyrenees. He would eat all the food that was available and eat out of the bags or other storage containers, if he could. He ballooned up to 237, which I weighed him at and then probably got into the mid 240s. We started putting out food for the house dogs just once a day, in a bowl per dog. Sherman would wolf down his food and then intimidate the other dogs, off of theirs until he got to our 23 pound feist, Dingle, who was Alpha, whose food Sherman would not touch, until she was out of the room for a few minutes. Now we keep the food locked up in sealed containers, feed just once a day and feed Sherman in a separate room.

Once Diane didn't put the locking ring on the dog food container and Sherman ate all the food in it, while we were gone, around 35 pounds. He was miserable. I had to take him out every 20 to 30 minutes, most of the night and he kept moaning.

Keith

Depends on the dog and/or dogs. Some dogs will competitively eat around other dogs until its gone. Some you can free feed and they will take what they need. Others will gorge themselves. Feed accordingly to their traits. Nobody want's a fat dog...but we've all seen malnourished dogs as well.

Best answer so far. I feed my dogs twice a day. Morning, a snack in between, and then evening. I only do this because one dog is food driven and the other only eats what it needs. So I just put out what is needed.

Depends on the dog. Some have food in their bowl all the time and eat when they are hungry. I think some would quickly eat themselves to death if I did that.

Calvin beat me to it.

Our German Shepherd (pet/watchdog) gets 3 cups of food a day... Based on the instructions for his weight on the bag.

Some days he'll wolf it down, but most of the time he snacks on it throughout the day.

Mike

I forgot to say a year and a half old kid is hard on a dog's diet! At least we don't have to clean up the floor ever!

X2....My lab gets feed twice a day with measured amounts. You would think he was starving the way he gobbles the food down.

All my hounds over the years be it coon hounds,bear hounds,bobcat hounds and beagles would all inhale their food as fast as you give it to them like vacuum cleaners.

You shouldn't have shown them that Bruce

I feed 13 dogs currently daily in the evenings. I laugh at the auto feeder comments - all my dogs are like Bruce Ts - they inhale it in less than 2 minutes. I expect my dogs to work for me.........they better earn the $1600/year it costs me to feed them currently. They eat very good feed consisting of lamb, salmon, chicken, peas, beets, and other veggies.....equivalent of some of the best Blue Buffalo feeds. When my dog box door opens - they better go hunt or they don't live long at my house.

Blackdog feeds some lucky dogs. I feed 12 beagles. All are on feeders as puppies, Most adjust fine and
don't overeat. I have 2 that I feed daily during the summer when they are less active. I also supplement with
some beaver meat during winter.

Fed all my hounds beaver carcasses during the winter in the 70's and 80's.Did have to watch it as the hounds would get fat on it.

All dogs working or not get fed high protein dog food once a day. 50 pound dog maybe 1 1/2-2 cups adjust up in the winter when they are burning more calories

My adult dogs get fed once a day. Any adult dog that is on meds and all pups get fed twice a day. You need to condition your dogs to eat when food is presented. That way you can put weight on them when they need it.

I'd never heard of Blue Buffalo dog food, just checked the prices, that's high dollar. Online it was $50 for a 30 pound bag. Didn't read the fine print.

Here at work we sell Kenny O's dog feed. Different prices, different protien/fat content. Prices have went up, but it sell for $32 for a 50 pound bag. A year ago we sold it for $22.50 per bag.

Years ago we sold Joy dog food, that was a good feed. Not sure if I can get it now?

About feeding, I never did like to feed before hunting. I'd wait till I got home.

I only have one dog now, 15 month old Walker, big tall dog. I've been mixing her food with water. We've been fairly cold here lately, the water bucket is frozen in a half hour. I had her out today and noticed her eating snow.

I've only had this new dog for 5 or 6 weeks, but once we get situated, I'll probably only feed her once a day. If you put out too much, the starlings eat the rest, I don't need them out back.

when I had 2 dogs big and small had to feed the big dog every day and it would eat all of it and often the little dogs food also

often closed the little dog in the mud room with their bowl in the evening so they could eat without competition

now that big dog died , keep a little food in bowl and little dog only eats a little.

That's crazy,but funny as h---

It is funny now, but it was definitely not funny then. Every time I started to fall asleep, Sherman would start moaning. I would just barely get him outside the door and he would release a torrent of loose stool, that didn't look digested at all. I was not happy. It was a miserable night.

Sherman approaching peak weight.




Sherman now. A fairly spry 10 year old playing with Louie, a 1 year old Catahoula.




Sherman got a waste line back.

Keith

I have a malamute and a wolf lab cross.
When I was trapping, I used to feed them upwards of 80 frozen lynx a year combined with beaver, both are very good feed.

I save all moose scraps, lungs, most innards, hide, head, bones, hooves and all the visceral fat.

Then alternate between frozen fish and frozen moose, and what table scraps, game scraps, and or dry fish, once a day. They get a treat usually a piece of moose hide to tear up all day or a hoof.

The malamute also eats kibble dry dog feed, but the wolf dog wont hardly touches it, would rather starve.

Got any photos of the wolf dog Youkonjeff?

I have never done well self feeding Beagles, mine get one scoop, (2 cups) in the evening, plus whatever scraps come down the pike, and they always do a bang up job cleaning pots/skillets etc! LOL

I thought of this comment last night. I left the new dog in the truck while I ran into the store. He accuse busted open the food bag and ate himself stupid. Took him out a few times last night and still puked twice inside by the door.

I feed my hounds in the evening, except when coon hunting, then after the hunt. Feeding at night helps keep them warm on the cold nights. I feed 3-4 cups Blue Buffalo. I have a source that I get my BB from for .35$/lb.

My vet recommend that I keep food in front on my pup till he reached 10 months old, then feed him twice a day. That was almost two years ago and does well self regulating himself so will keep it up. I will say that he is a messy eater but cleans things up once the bowl is empty.

Lab gets fed 2 cups in am and another 2 in the pm..am feed - he sometimes nibbles thru the first half of the day, but he usually hits the pm feeding pretty hard

My two idiots have a dish that gets filled and they eat what they want. It holds more than either of them could hold in their stomach so they can't hog it, but they have never needed that lesson. The female used to bully the other dogs over food but once I established how the rules work it stopped being an issue. Now they just eat what they want and if the dish is empty and they want more, they will tell me that they need more food. Funny thing is that I can understand Izzy's words she uses and almost always understand correctly. (food, potty, gimme your plate, treat, etc)

Holy cow, my hounds have never overeaten

Diggerman,, I use that source as well. The last time I was there the price has climbed to $.48 lb. I also feed my hounds in the evening.

My female Shepard get 3-4 cups a day in two feeding
Often at night in have to stand by her and tell her to eat her food.
I feed old Roy high protein about 25$ a 50 pound bag
She is 94 pound of pure muscle and fur