How long should I leave my puppy's food down?

Question

My puppy is 19 weeks and a slow eater, should I pick up her food if she is not interested in eating it as soon as I put it down?

Answer 1

It depends on your dog. Leaving a dog's food down for only the ridiculous time of 5 - 10 minutes teaches them they have to gobble if they don't want to be hungry. Dogs who gobble their food, very often throw it up.

If your dog is one who doesn't overeat and the food is dry, leave it down. I've never had even one dog in over 30 years of owning dogs who was not on self-feed. I've never had an over-weight dog, nor one who didn't thrive on self-feed.

With dogs you can't do that with, leave the food for half an hour - give her time to eat. (Are you maybe over-feeding?)

Answer 2

That's really up to you. There are several things to consider.

(1) If you have other animals, it's best to have meal-time so that you know how much each one is eating. Otherwise, you could end up overfeeding one of them or missing a key sign that one is sick.

(2) With bigger dogs, there is a rare stomach condition they can get from eating too quickly and should be fed from elevated bowls when someone will be around afterwards. This is a rare condition, but why risk it. If it's going to be a big dog, I would get it used to meal time now.

If you do want to get her used to meals here's how: put the food bowl down and leave it about five minutes. If she hasn't eaten it, pick it up and put the food away. Do this a few times a day and she'll catch on pretty quickly that she better eat when you offer the food or she won't be eating. With a puppy it's probably best to feed her 3 times a day (morning, when you get home from work & before bed). With an adult you could cut it back to two meals.

Answer 3

Do not leave this dog more than 3-4 hours alone at a time. Can you come home at lunch and let it go out to the bathroom? At first I would advise taking the dog out every 2 hours on the dot for a restroom break. Now this dog being this young will not hold its bladder 6 hours so I hope you have a way to let it out mid day or expect to have major clean up when you get home. My dogs were able to hold it for 3-4 hours that young but it wasn't until they were much older that they could hold it 5-6 and they only have to do that every once in a while not everyday. I don't think that would be wise. So no more than 4 hours and be sure when you are home to let the dog out every 2 hours on the dot until puppy is trained

Answer 4

I don't understand what the Vet tech Jess is talking about....What is the big deal with food????? IF they don't eat right away, take it away and they will learn when it's time to eat?

You are not running a dog military, are you? I have two dogs. I leave dry food out all day. I give them fresh water about five times a day. I give the Caesar wet food twice daily. If they don't eat it within an hour, I pick it up. Why do you care if it takes them an hour to eat?? Since I have two I watch them closely to see who eats what and how much.

I also give them treats in between. They also get table food if we have chicken, steak or fish. I give them a small portion each.

Answer 5

The best thing that I have found for a puppy feeding schedule is the following: Three times a day, put it down for 20 minutes and pull up any remaining--they will learn in a day or two that they need to eat it all at one sitting within the time frame. This way you can regulate their potty too--which helps with potty training...soon after a meal they should go outisde and eliminate! Eventually around 4 months the lunchtime meal won't be needed anymore--your puppy will let you know...they won't really be interested. Enjoy your new pup! I hope this helped--it worked out really well for me and my new dog.

Answer 6

As a rescue we believe in "free feeding". Bowl of food/water at all times, especially in pups. Yours is at a serious growing stage right now. Some dogs like to "graze" which is healthier than gobbling all up at once.

Think in human terms, we like to have meals but we also like to snack in between. If we get too hungry we tend to gobble up too much at one time, hard on stomach and digestion. We wouldn't like being told to eat now or else!

We feel that a free feed situation creates a sense of stability for a animal. There is always food/water so I don't become food agressive or gobble and puke it back up. We have fed literally 1000s and 1000s this way and none ever become over weight from it. This is especially important for the first year as a puppy.

Answer 7

we have a 6 month old, and for her weight she should get 1 cup of dried food per feeding. so, we give it to her, and if she eats it all, good, if not, its left there. if she wants to snack we'll let her, because we know she's not over eating since we measured it out.

my old dog on the other hand, we used to fill the bowl and leave it for her all day since she stayed at home alone most of the day (the new pup goes to work with my BF). well, she would eat breakfast, then snack on what was left for her, and then eat dinner on top of that. she's about 25lbs overweight and pretty much always has been. we had to put her on a stringbean diet for a while. now she just gets food in the morning and for dinner.

you learn from your mistakes

Answer 8

Either she does not like the food, or she may get too much. I only out out as much as they will eat in a few minutes, twice a day. Usually its gone in 5 min. Sometimes they may leave some, if so I leave the bowl down for the inside dogs.
Inside dogs especially can become fussy eaters-like lazy people. They may not want to eat right away. If the environment is clean-I would leave it out. But, If this is the case every day- the dog may be getting too much. Or, the food may be blah. Real good dog food can be purchased for about $0.75 to $1.40 per pound at the pet store or feed store. I do not know of a decent food sold at the grocery store.

Answer 9

If she's an only dog, and there aren't any other pets or pests that will eat it, I would just leave it. Some dogs are snackers. My mom's dog has his food bowl out and full all day, because he'll only eat a few bites at a time.

Answer 10

Take look at the side of the dog food package for the feeding requirements. Take half of the requirement and feed inthe morning and half at night. This is called free restrictive feeding. Leave it out all the time. If you puppy eats all of the food. You can give a puppy biscuit in the afternoon. Just remember if you give you puppy a few biscuits you might want to cut back onlittle on the food, so you dont overfeed your puppy. Leave out plenty of water.