Do you feed your doodle once a day or twice a day?

[Sara Schultz]

I am curious what most of you do with regards to feeding once or twice a day. 

 

We have typically fed Lucy, now 17 months, twice a day. She is not a big eater - like someone else here said in another discussion, she is treat motivated, but not that excited about kibble. So it tends to work better to feed her twice a day, and I usually leave her food out since she often only eats a quarter to a half of the serving at a time.

 

Lately, she has been waking up in the middle of the night needing to go outside to poop. Last night, I walked her at 10 p.m., and she pooped. Then she woke up shortly after midnight and again maybe around 4, and went out and pooped both times. WTD? Now that was a little unusual, but lately she has been waking me up once per night maybe twice a week. This is after months of sleeping through with no problems or accidents of any kind.

 

I'm wondering if perhaps feeding her once a day (morning) might eliminate this problem, no pun intended. :)

 

Or does anyone have other thoughts/possible solutions?

 

Thanks!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Are the poops normal consistency?

[Sara Schultz]

It varies - sometimes they are, but other times, they are too loose. Lately, I've been so tired that I don't go out with her - I just send her out in the cold alone and tell her "potty, potty" and stand there until she comes back to the door, so I don't even know. :(

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Mine are fed twice.  What are you feeding her?  Have you changed her diet in anyway?

[Sara Schultz]

It gets worse if we try a new food, which I have done a few times in her life as I have learned about better foods, and then tried to find one that she would eat. She's a little picky. 

 

But she's been on the current food for a couple of months, so it's not like it was a change yesterday. The current food is Nature's Domain (sold at Costco, made by same company as Taste of the Wild).

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

I would suggest posting what you are feeding in the food group and get their advice on the food and see what the food experts have to say.

[Judi, David & Maddie Irishdoodle]

Maddie (11 1/2 months) is feed twice a day. Usually 6:30 or 7am and then again at 4:30 or 5pm.  Has Lucy had a diet change? Maybe she needs a bit more exercise after she has her dinner. 

[Frances Pendrous (Horan)]

Don't know if this will help but we feed our doodles with raw meat and veggies in the evenings and then they have their kibble down all day so they can snack on it. My vet does not agree with a total kibble diet (even the very expensive good stuff) as he reckons it is hard on their kidneys to eat dehydrated food constantly. Anyway, we buy that large meat and veggie that looks like a wrapped sausage and they both devour it. We never get woken up for potty visits and they poop every morning like clock word.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Tara eats twice a day. She eats homecooked for her meals and then she has Origen kibble for training and grooming treats.  She usually poops first thing in the morning and often she will go again mid afternoon. She always makes it through the night just fine. In fact she is usually in no hurry to go out in the morning when she wakes up.

If Lucy has had no previous problems and you have not changed her food recently then perhaps something else is disturbing her poop cycle.  Could she have eaten something outside or on a walk? That sort of thing? Any change in her treats or other between meal foods?

 

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

Mine eat once a day, at 3PM, Orijen kibble. One is 3 years the other 9 months.  They poop at night before bedtime each day.

[Melissa]

Buddy eats twice a day.  8am and 5pm.  He poops when he wakes up in the morning...sometimes again late afternoon.  If not then then I try to get him to poop before bedtime.  Last night he pooped once in the morning.  I took him out before we all went to bed and he would not poop, then at 1am he barked.  Of course he had to poop.  He always makes  it through the night as long as he goes at least twice a day or unless he is sick and has loose stools then all bets are off.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

We feed Daisy 2 times a day, once after her morning jog 7AM (she is usually famished) 1-1/3 cups Orijen and then the same in the evening around 6PM. She poops before her run and then around 8PM, rarely different unless there is training and treats involved.
Frankly I would feel bad just feeding her once a day. I would hate to think that she was hungry and that is what I might think. When our Zach got older he stopped eating his evening meal and we did stop giving it to him after a couple of weeks, he never even went in the kitchen to check it out.
Since you are not sure of the consistency maybe she is just a little off with and upset tummy or something. (I would not go out with her in the middle of the night either). I would check that poop out though to make sure.

[Sharon & Monty]

I let Monty have his food all day.  He is not motivated to eat.  Some days I've even seen him leave it nearly all day.  Its like humans I think.  We become (hopefully so) to be regular.  Regular meals, regular times equals regular times to eliminate.  I say just them them eat when they want.  Monty is home alone during the day. He rarely eats anything during the day.I think that he knows he cant get out so self controls himself for eating and drinking.  But mostly he is on schedule, poop in the morning, poop in the evening.