Hunting & feeding

[Max2]

with our season about to start and many already under way. How are you folks feeding ? I usually don't feed max anything until after the hunt. About an hour or so. Because we hunt for an hour or two most every morning. We usually get up at about 5 to start our day. Early on we start our hunts at about sunrise but by late oct/nov usually around 8:30. My thoughts are he's getting older (7yrs) There is quite a time lapse between wake up -hunt-breakfast. I don't want the little guy being hungry I worry about him.

[reba]

Some will say don't feed in the morning because they want their dogs ready to hunt without any food in their stomach.

I'll start hunting may dogs in mid-Sept every day until Christmas. If I fed them once a day they would never get enough to eat.

I feed them 1/3 ration at 6:00 AM. They usually are not on the ground hunting until 9:30 AM. First stop will be a potty break. Then back in the truck to the spot we will hunt.

They will be well rested, hydrated and groomed before the evening feeding of kibble, cooked beef liver and raw broccoli stems.

They always show some rib.

All dogs are feed a measured ration. Never had a dog that had an eating problem. Never free fed a dog.

[ckirsch]

I've been feeding once per day, in the evening, over the past fifteen years and never had a dog exhibit any issues. They've never sampled goat cheese, salmon loin, or beef kabobs, never worn sweaters nor visited a salon. On top of that, I just water them, rather than hydrating. Not sure how, but they've managed to persevere.

[RayGubernat]

When I hunted a lot, I fed once a day, at night. I feed a high quality 30/20 feed...always have. When I stopped for lunch, I would give the dogs a few treats or a part of my sandwich and offer water. Made the dogs happy, especially when it was a McDonald's stop. Love that dollar menu.

I do not feed in the morning. I have not yet seen a dog die from bloat and do not ever wish to.

Dogs are designed to hunt with their gut empty. They do just fine that way. And yeah...plain water, all it wants to consume, is the best thing you can give a dog when it is running.

When I was hunting the same dog on multiple days for four or more hours per day, I would supplement with pure beef fat and I would wet the kibble with warm water to soften it, aiding in easy digestion and absorption of the nutrients. The softer, mushier food also was easier and less scratchy on the dog's large intestine, avoiding bloody stools almost entirely which happened frequently, by about the third or fourth day when feeding dry kibble to a hard working dog. Studies indicate that a hard working dog can metabolize and thrive on a diet that is up to 50% fat... which would probably kill most humans.

Studies have indicated that maltodextrin given to dogs in their water, within a half hour of ending their exercise, will help the dog's glycogen(energy) levels to bounce back very quickly almost to pre- exercise levels within a few hours and back to full levels by the next AM. Glycocharge is one such maltodextrin source.


RayG

[Max2]

I guess I'm getting soft in my old age yrs ago I was told it wasn't good for the dog to feed before hunt/exercise. Which makes sense . Our type hunt is never big running but rather a lot of close quarters work . hour or two with breaks. i have always hunted him on an empty stomach but was wondering if because he is a little older if he were to eat a little something a couple hrs before hunt if it may help him with added energy. I think this yr I may try giving him 1 cup of food a couple hrs before we hunt. As stated I was just wondering what most folks are doing. Thank's for the responses.

[CDN_Cocker]

I feed mine at 4pm every day - all year. When we hunt I do not change anything. Make sure you are feeding quality and the right amount of it and don't worry about the rest. Dogs function more efficiently fasted. So if we hunt in the morning he still doesn't eat till 4. Dogs don't metabolize the way we do. Feeding throughout the hunt is pointless.

[deke]

I feed my dog a cup of food before we head out hunting, but it is usually a few hours before he ever gets his paws muddy. And it is more to keep him in the routine of morning meal than anything else, if he gets out of his routine his whole day is thrown off.

[41magsnub]

I'm 1 week into converting the dog to a once a day evening feed. Until last week it was breakfast and dinner, except on high activity days we'd skip breakfast - get an afternoon snack, and then a bigger dinner. I decided it would be better to just have the evening feed each day no matter what is going on. Dog is still giving me sad eyes at her former breakfast time, but she is loving the double sized dinners

She will get part of my lunch and/or a cookie on hunting days.

[smoothbean]

I feed twice a day. Never had any issues. My experience is that dogs do better on multiple smaller meals. Digestion seems better and easier maintain weight. I even had a dog that I fed three times a day. It was a dog that was very hard to keep weight on.

I too water down my feed when running hard but only to put more water in their system when we are hunting hard or competing in warm weather. No offense but I would be concerned if my dog had bloody stool because of the dog food they are eating or amount being fed in a single feeding. I guess individual dogs vary and maybe there was more to it.

I have even seen guys give food minutes before they run in a trial without issues. There again maybe some dogs are more prone to bloat or other issues. I think they only feed one time a day may fall under the "that is the way my dad/granddad did it". Not that those are al bad things but I think maybe we need to be open to other options. I used to only feed once a day because that is the way the old timers around me did it. Not saying it was wrong but just saying it is not the only option.

[cutty72]

Once a day in the evening here, no issues.

My "sensitive" dog has issues with heavy activity before or after eating, and will generally puke it back up.
Feeding in the evening eliminates that during hunting season, and I'm just cautious on when I exercise/train with her in correlation to feeding time.

For awhile I needed to get her some extra food to put on/maintain weight. That was done mornings of nonhunting days. Days in the field I usually fed twice in the evening spaced out a bit to give her time to digest.

[CDN_Cocker]

I have even seen guys give food minutes before they run in a trial without issues. There again maybe some dogs are more prone to bloat or other issues. I think they only feed one time a day may fall under the "that is the way my dad/granddad did it". Not that those are al bad things but I think maybe we need to be open to other options. I used to only feed once a day because that is the way the old timers around me did it. Not saying it was wrong but just saying it is not the only option.

Its actually proven that feeding once per day is more effective for working dogs... not an old wives tale. I'll try to dig up a source...

[CDN_Cocker]

Here ya go: http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/documents/ ... rmance.pdf

[Brazosvalleyvizslas]

Digesting food burns energy so why feed a dog before hunting? Running around with a gut full of food wont make the dog perform better. Run them on empty and feed after the hunt.

[ezzy333]

Here ya go: http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/documents/ ... rmance.pdf

Good link. People need to read this.

[41magsnub]

That was a great read!

[UglyD]

6 PM feeding- 30/20 during the season- 2 nights before the hunt each of the 2 dogs starts getting 1/3 can of mackerel on the food.
At 1/2 time of the hunt each dog gets a home made energy bar.