how many times a day should you feed a dog...or should you just leave food out all the time?

Question

I personally believe once a day would be correct.....more often should not be necessary to good health and is a burden on the owner and leaving food out all the time seems inapproriate and possibly bad health wise for most dogs.

Answer 1

I have had dogs all my life since I was little and now grown up and married. I feed my two furfriends each a can of soft alpo in the mornings and then I just leave their kibbles and bits down all day long. Everybody says the dogs will eat and eat and eat and that is not the case . If you leave food down for them they dry food not the wet food since it will spoil they will know they always have food and eat only when they are hungry . I have never never had a dog with a overweight problem cause of food being down all day long.
My sister feeds her dogs only twice a day and they gooble up their food so fast they dont enjoy it and are hungry again in a few hours. Just like humans you sit and eat so fast you dont enjoy it and then you are hungry within a matter of hours.

There is nothing wrong leaving dry food down for them. I have two dogs one a Siberian Husky and one a 6 month old collie . I leave the pup puppy chow all day and she dont eat all day long and neither does my Husky she eats till she is full and leaves. I only go through about a 20pd bag of food for my husky every two weeks.

Answer 2

Its actually better for the dogs to be fed twice daily. Its helps them get into a routine and its much easier to potty train. The 13 year old may have a problem with the change but I'm sure he or she will get use to it. As long as they each have their own bowls during feeding time you should be fine. I have my dogs on a twice daily feeding schedual. They get their first feeding at 3am when I wake up and they all know what time it is. By the time I stumble out of bed they are waiting in the kitchen ready for their food. I feed them, take a shower get dressed do my morning routine and when i'm done they know its time for a walk, they all sit by the door ready to use the potty. Then I feed them again around 2 or 3 depending on what time i get home from work. The oldest is 4 years old and the youngest is 9 weeks, and he's already gotten use to the routine.

Answer 3

it depends entirely on what you are feeding the dog. I have kept, shown, bred, rescued and fostered dogs for 30 years and in all the time I have fed kibble. I leave a huge bowl out all the time for the dogs to pick and nibble at when they want. I do this for several reasons. Firstly, it reduces the risk of food guarding agrgession. Since food is there all the time it never becomes something high status. Secondly, kibble was designed to be eaten this way. It is dried and extruded and if gobbled up in a big lot, and a good drink of water afterwards, it will swell in the dogs stomach. This will elad to stomach pain and even bloat and torsion in large breed dogs. Thirdly, small dogs need more than one meal a day and puppies need at least 4 meals a day.
And lastly, if food is always available, they never feel the need to gobble more than they need simply because they are ravenous and know that they have to wait a whole 24 hours before they get offered anything again. Hence they eat more than they need in one go and tend to get fat. If they nibble just enough throughout the day to stave of hunger pangs, they tend not to overeat and get fat.
I have 6 dogs here at present all ages and all sizes and most rescues. Not one is overweight and none of them would dream of lifting a lip or growling at anyone going near the food bowl since it is not important to them being there all the time.
I fail to see how putting down a big bowl of kibble and leaving it there is a burden. Surely it is more of a burden to fill the bowl every single day? I fill the bowl once a week . Much less hassle than your once a day. What is inappropriate about ad lib feeding? How would ad lib feeding be unhealthy. In a lot of cases it is actually more healthy and could stop a dog dying from bloat and torsion.

Answer 4

Hi,
I had a dog-it died just a few days ago. But I would NEVER reccommend leaving the food out all day. As a puppy we would give her food 3 times a day and once she grew into adulthood we gave her about twice a day. If your dog is ages 2 and under you should give small portions of about 3 times a day. The way we measured it is we used an old coffee cup and we would normally give her 2 coffee cup amounts of food twice a day-breakfast and dinner. Also, along the way I learnt that you are actually suppossed to feed your dog after you eat. I think it is suppossed to be a sign of you being the alpha-dog, kind of like you are the boss. Thats just some little info I picked up.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

Answer 5

Once a day for a healthy skinny dog.
Once every two days for a fat dog.
Once every three days for a chronically obese dog that needs help right away.

BUT also make sure the dog has a raw meaty marrowbone split longwise down the centre all the time to chew on, and throw it away and get a new one every week.

Some dogs are idiots and will just keep eating if they have the chance.

Answer 6

once a day is the technical recommendation, however, twice a day is also acceptable. I think its a good idea to feed your dog twice a day, once in the morning, once at night. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first one being that the dog will feel part of the 'family', if it is fed around the time that everybody else is eating (breakfast and tea). The second reason is slightly more obscure. Feeding your dog in the morning, first of all will give him or her a fairly full stomach, and may put those ideas of wandering around the backyard (or possibly breaking out!!) to search for food, out of your pup's head. If by chance, your dog does somehow find itself wandering the streets, you can at least be comforted by the thought that it will probably return for dinner!
While leaving food for your dog is not a good idea, (dogs rarely have the idea of 'saving and sparing' their food throughout the day!) food can be left tactfully. There are a wide range of dog toys on the market, such as kongs which can be stuffed with food to keep your pup amused for the day. It is a good idea if you are leaving food in a toy for your dog, to reduce the total amount of feed you give in a meal. This will keep your pet interested in trying to get the food out of the kong, and keep your pet from stacking on the kilos!

Answer 7

Most breeds should be fed TWICE a day. It is easier for the dog to maintain his weight and be satisfied at every meal. You could have a dog that will gorge it's self if you only feed him once a day. Think about how you would be if you only ate once.

Free feeding is not that bad. If you only have one dog, this could work fine. But, only certain dogs do this. Most will eat their entire bowl in one sitting. Alot of times free fed dogs just decide on their own to free feed. It is not something you can train.

Larger breed dogs definitely should be fed TWICE a day. But, I really feel that every dog should have that luxury.

Answer 8

I have rat terriers and they are free fed. They are very active dogs and they dont eat alot at one sitting. They will nibble a few kibbles and then go back to playing so there is no worry about them getting to be overweight. Most of your small active dogs can be free fed. When I had a lab, she had to be fed once or twice a day only or she would sit and gorge herself in one sitting. We also had to lock up her food or she would stick her head in the bag of food and eat until she could eat no more. It just depends on the breed and how active the dog is. I would imagine most of your large breeds have to be fed at certain times. The small active dogs seem to be able to free feed without problems.

Answer 9

You're going to get some conflicting suggestions on this one I'm afraid, but for the benefit of your dogs health, he should eat some kind of canned food for fresh protein in the mornings, (doesn't have to be alot) on top of his dry food, and leave his kibble down all day so he can munch if he is hungry. This gives him his calories for the day to be burned off and give him energy just like humans.

Answer 10

I think how you feed a dog depends on the type of dog you have. I have two retired Greyhounds...they are susceptible to the bloat so we feed them two smaller meals a day..two cups of dry dog food once in the morning, once at dinner time. We feed them in their crates and they rest in their crates for one hour. What they don't eat in the hour...we discard.