How many times a day do you feed?

[terrym]

My dog is self fed. Always have done this with all my dogs and have never had one overweight at all. In fact at my recent visit to the vet he declared him in perfect shape and told me to continue on my system. Was at hunt test last weekend and there was a dog food rep there with a booth and after watching my dog ( we scored a perfect 100%) he walked over and asked me what I fed. I told what and how much and then he told me" well I wouldn't change a thing" and he knew I didn't feed his brand. So, many seem to insist on feeding twice a day but my dog seems to have no issue with regulating himself at all and has energy to burn and is in perfect healthy. What advantage would I get by regulating when he eats? He tends to eat most of his food late in the evenings .

[ACooper]

Very recent thread on this viewtopic.php?f=88&t=35382&p=334590&hil ... ng#p334590

[ultracarry]

Mist not have been an AKC hunt test... They aren't scored on percentages... Wondering who does?

[terrym]

Mist not have been an AKC hunt test... They aren't scored on percentages... Wondering who does?

CKC. The ones up North

[ultracarry]

Good to know.

[RoostersMom]

The advantage, IMO, is that you catch a sickness a lot quicker if you are monitoring your feeding. I know immediately if the dogs are sick (like if the pointer doesn't eat) or if the dog is on the verge of death (if the beagle doesn't eat - ha ha). That's the benefit for me - knowing right away that the dog isn't feeling well.

Also, I have multiple dogs, so free feeding wouldn't work well in our home. My Vizsla would resemble a Mack truck and the skinny pointer wouldn't get any food at all!

[reba]

I feed three dogs once a day in the evening; every bowel is measured.

HOWEVER I need to feed my 3 year old GSP 1/3 ration in the morning and then 3/4 ration in the evening; otherwise he would be skin and bones. He just can not consume what he needs in one feeding. He is a big running hunting dog. We do not trial.

I weight my dogs every few weeks. No fat dogs here! All have wasp waists for sure.

[rinker]

I have used self feeders off and on over the years and some dogs do great with them and some don't. I have noticed that often when a dog is first put on a self feeder he will gain weight right away but over time he will regulate what he eats and maintain a normal weight.

[Onk]

Twice a day, just split his daily ration that he would get if I fed at one time. Not sure, but he seems to have less waste to clean that way. Don't know why, I guess his body uses more of the food up with the smaller portions. Then again I could just be crazy!

[jarbo03]

I feed twice a day, has worked well for me. My last britt could self regulate with no problems, when I brought my lab home that had to change, he would eat until he puked, then eat again. My current griff would eat everything in sight, he acts like he is starving 24 hours a day, works up a good drool waiting for dry dog food.