Feeding Schedule

[Tara]

I was just wondering when you all switched to 2 meals a day.  Seymour will be 16 weeks tomorrow.  Lately I noticed he isn't eating his lunch until 2-3pm and eating his dinner closer to 8pm.  I am wondering if we should alter his meal schedule to 2 meals/day instead of 3.  But I worry it is too soon.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

A normal healthy puppy will not starve himself. Give him 10 minutes to eat and then pick up the bowl. During that 10 minutes, sit down nearby to keep him company, and keep distractions to a minimum. No kids playing nearby, nobody running in and out of the room or loud voices calling back and forth, nothing that seems more interesting to him than eating. After 10 minutes, pick up the bowl and do not offer food again until the next scheduled mealtime. He will soon learn that food is not available any time he feels like having a mouthful and that he needs to eat when he has the opportunity. It shouldn't take more than a day or two. It really makes life with a dog much easier, as there are going to be times in his life that you will need him to eat as soon as you feed him, and it also prevents issues if there are ever multiple dogs in the house. 

[Julie, Eloise & Beasley]

Karen's advice is spot on (of course!).  He'll quickly learn to eat at scheduled mealtimes and it's so much easier when you do need him to eat at the time you feed him.  For us, it's things like when we're traveling, or days when one goes to the groomer (I don't like them having an empty stomach all day, but it happened with Eloise more than once.) 

When Eloise was the only dog, she often chose to eat her breakfast in the early afternoon or even not until dinnertime.  I just let her do it because it didn't seem to be an issue, except when it was an issue lol.  Then, enter chow hound Beasley, and we learned immediately no dog food could sit unattended or Beasley would inhale it.  So, at age 2, Eloise had to figure out food in her bowl = EAT NOW, and I had to "guard" Eloise while she ate, otherwise fearless Beasley just shoved Eloise out of the way when her own food was gone (and Eloise let her).  Now both eat when food goes into bowls, and Eloise learned she couldn't dawdle lol.  Good luck!