Feeding Twice A Day

[Daisy]

I always feed my dogs twice a day (mine and the fosters), and have been giving them approx 1/3 of their food in the morning and 2/3 in the evening. I got home late from lokelani's party last night and my son hadn't fed them, so decided to only give them a small meal last night before bed and give a bigger one this morning.

This started me thinking, are dogs like people and better off having their bigger meal in the morning? Or would 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 in the evening be better?

[huski]

I was wondering the same thing funnily enough! Would it depend on how active they are during the day? Ours don't get walked to late evening, and have their dinner as soon as they get home. We give them 1/2 and 1/2. They have dry food in the morning and only ever have meat at night.

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

We feed 50%/50%, approx 6.00am and 3.00pm.

[bridgie_cat]

I feed dry in the morning and meat in the arvo... about 1/2C dry and 3-4 chicken necks worth of meat...

[olly]

I feed 1/2 dry at 6am, the other half at 3pm plus meat. I find the 3pm feed gives them plenty of time to get bowel movements out before bed time.

Edited November 18, 2006 by olly

[Flying Penguin]

1/3 dry food when she gets up, 1/3 at lunch and 1/3 dry food + a spoon of wet food and some vegies or whatever left overs we have.

[squeak]

We feed 50/50 (1 .5 cups dry morning and night) here at the moment, thought I've been wondering about it as well. Stormy gets feed about 1/2 hour after her morning walk at about 8.00am and then she gets feed sometime after we eat of an evening. We reduce the amount of kibble she gets on the days that she gets lamb necks or kangaroo tails during the day... but I'm still learning exactly how much to reduce it by! I'm also yet to learn what time to feed her kangaroo tails/lamb necks so I don't get woken up in the early hours of the morning by her needing to go out and poop. She's fine all night when she just has kibble all day, with a chicken wing. We'll get there some stage, I'm sure.

I'm been wondering about the rations morning/night mainly because over the last two weeks, she has been refusing to eat her breakfast more often than not. She's very hungry in the evening, so I often wonder if I should increase her evening meal and reduce her breakfast, or if that will just create a vicious circle of her not wanting breakfast. I feed twice a day in the hopes of reducing the risk of bloat.

[huski]

We feed 50/50 (1 .5 cups dry morning and night) here at the moment, thought I've been wondering about it as well. Stormy gets feed about 1/2 hour after her morning walk at about 8.00am and then she gets feed sometime after we eat of an evening. We reduce the amount of kibble she gets on the days that she gets lamb necks or kangaroo tails during the day... but I'm still learning exactly how much to reduce it by! I'm also yet to learn what time to feed her kangaroo tails/lamb necks so I don't get woken up in the early hours of the morning by her needing to go out and poop. She's fine all night when she just has kibble all day, with a chicken wing. We'll get there some stage, I'm sure.

I'm been wondering about the rations morning/night mainly because over the last two weeks, she has been refusing to eat her breakfast more often than not. She's very hungry in the evening, so I often wonder if I should increase her evening meal and reduce her breakfast, or if that will just create a vicious circle of her not wanting breakfast. I feed twice a day in the hopes of reducing the risk of bloat.

Maybe in the morning you could feed her after her walk, instead of before? I read somewhere that it's better to feed them after exercise, although I could be imagining it

[arby]

it depends on if your dog has a weight issue or not.

Underweight you feed more at night then in the morning meaning they transfer the energy from the food into fat at night etc.

Overweight you'd probably feed more in the morning less in the evening. This way the dog doesnt have that much energy to store at night.

50/50 is a good option for a well balanced dog.

PS. you should not be feeding a dog before exercise. One reason is because it will upset their stomach, can make them vomit etc. Another reason is the dog uses stored energy for the exercise instead of using the energy straight from food. Basically they burn their fat instead of the food. So this helps keep a healthy lean dog.

Edited November 18, 2006 by arby

[kobblyness]

I feed mine 50/50 7am and around 6.30pm. I leave some kibble in their bowls during the day.

[Guest Pandii]

I feed 50/50

except for ishe that gets hers 1/3 x 3 a day becasue she is little

[Malamum]

We generally give ours the majority of their daily food intake at night which is food that need to go in their bowls. In the morning we give them what I would describe as a snack - a bone or something that they can pick up and take outside to eat.

I do mix it up sometimes though. I had a couple of massive lamb necks in the frezzer so they got those for breaky this morning and will only get a very tiny dinner tonight.

[Daisy]

Thanks for all the replies. Most of the dogs I have here are fosters and they usually need a bit of fattening up, so I will probably continue to give more of an evening.

[sas]

We feed 50/50. One at 5:30am and one at 7:30pm which is an hour after the evening walk.

Puppy only gets 120 grams for each meal which seems so tiny considering we're used to Dane sized meals!

Mind you they can have as much mashed veggies as they like.

[kaywoman68]

I feed Orson and Oi 50/50.

We used to feed them at 7:30am and 8 - 8:30pm but recently we've had to feed them at 5:30am in the mornings (still the same at night).

We go to bed around 10pm. It works well for us cos we have dinner then we feed them. They know the routine. We let them out for a toilet trip before bedtime and we've had no probs (we have newspaper in the bathroom incase they do need to go during the night).

[Flaves]

I feed 50/50.

They get feed at about 7am and then about 7pm.

Have had no accidents inside at all and they will hold until we get out of bed if we havea sleep in.

They are brilliant.