Free Feeding -vs- Meal Times

[Tricia, Shiloh, Fenway & Tessie]

I'm curious who free feeds (just leaves the food down for their doggies all the time) versus who has set meal times....(where the food gets picked up after the designated meal)

How did you decide what works for you?

Does your vet have an opinion on the subject?

If you have multiple doods.....do they eat from the same bowl or each have their own?

[Missi]

Good question! I have somewhat combined both methods with Lizzie. When I got her she was very underweight and then got parvo and was underweight even more! Plus she is a pretty picky eater (she's getting better now). So here's what I do: Two meals now. 1/3 can wet food alone in a bowl at breakfast and Dinner which I pick up if she doesn't eat, but she always eats it now. And then 1 cup of dry kibble (with no additions) in a bowl that I leave down for her. I won't re-fill it until the next meal time though if she finishes it, and she always gets a cup with each meal. Just like Jackadoodle she goes through phases where she's starving for a few days and eats everything in sight and other days where she's picky and only eats the soft food. She's up to amost a normal weight now and looks great, so I think it's working. Her poop shchedule is regular too, haven't had a problem with it. 2 times every morning, every day. :-) Hope this helps!

[Holly St Pierre]

Wow-Gunner is totally different than most of these doggies. He loves to eat & scrafs it down the 2 times a day he is fed. It is set times & boy does he know when it is. He doesn't leave a drop & it shows in his weight. He is very healthy, but we are on the go alot, so he burns it off. If not, he probaby would be overweight.

[Tamara & Giada]

I have two dogs..................one eats as soon as I put the bowl down, and the other free feeds. I give her 2 cups in the am and she eats it throughout the day and in the evening I put 2 more cups down some of that is usually left.

My vet suggested Giada free feeds because she was so thin. It just seems right for her. My older smaller dog Summer has eaten Giada's food before, but because it was so much it made her so sick, she hasn't done it since.

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

Free. I tried putting down food and they wouldnt eat it. So I tried again and again - until the food just sat there - which became free feeding. I fill the bowls and they go eat when they want. My senior eats puppy food too now because I couldnt keep him out of it - and I couldnt keep Abby out of the senior food..

[Karen & Lucy]

The very fist vet visit I took Lucy to at 10 weeks old I asked the question on how much and how often to feed her. His answer was to just fill the bowl up and let her eat it when ever she wants. She has been free fed ever since and it works great for me. Of course she ate much more often when she was younger, but now that she is 3 I fill the bowl up in the morning and she usually doesn't touch it until dinner or later and then she will eat is all, cleans the bowl up. She doesn't get very many treats either or fed table scraps. We will give her a nibble of something we are eatiing at times, but that is it. She is a healthy 65#, plus or minus, depending on the season. Would not be able to do it any other way.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

I have always fed my dogs at set times. My doodles eat at set times. I have never had a picky eater. I really don't understand the idea behind free feeding. But it seems to work for a lot of you. Set times mean my dogs have to earn their food, even if it is only to sit and wait. Sometimes their whole meal ( especially when they are puppies and there is a lot of training happening) is used to train them. Like Adina I have never had dogs that argued over their food and all have known they can't "poach" from the slower eater. But when they are all done, boy oh boy, do those empty dishes taste good!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The way you do it is what was recommended to me by dog behaviorists, Maryann. I wish I had known about it sooner.

[Adina P]

Once when Rosco was a pup...older pup, but under 7 months I think. He KNEW he was not allowed to eat from another dog's bowl...well there WAS another dog's bowl full of food and he wanted it. So he put himself into a down in front of it...and waited. Then he barked at it...waited...barked.. I was envisioning his hope that maybe, just maybe, the kibble would respond and march into his mouth one by one. It was so cute, how he did all he could (that would normally earn a treat) to get the kibble to come to him.

[Leslie and Halas]

LOL

[Mommy2Max]

Free Feed

Max has always been a picky eater. I tried putting the food down for 20 minutes and then picking it up but, he was not interested. Then, I would worry about him getting enough food. That went on for the first three months of his life. He was at the point of only eating 1/2 cup of food a day. I would hear about all these other people who had dogs eating them out of house and home. I really started to worry that something was wrong with Max. Oddly enough, he would run to the food bowl and sit patiently (I made him work for the food) but, as soon as the food went down he would lay down with this look on his face that said "Nooooo! I don't want to eat."

I tried at least 15 different no grain, 5 and 6 star foods but, he was not interested. One day, I decided I was done with it all. I gave him his Royal Canin (only one he would eat) and put 1/2 his daily serving down and walked away. Wouldn't you know, he ate it. I gave him his other half in the evening and walked away. He ate that too. Some days he eats it all right away and other times he portions it out on his own. I'll admit that I started this at about 4 months old and that is the time where he started using the Poochie Bells. I didn't have the worry of him going potty in the house. However, his potty habits have not changed with free feeding.

My vet felt that free feeding was fine - if that is what works. He told me that some dogs are food oriented and others just don't care. Max definately doesn't care about food in general. He would often spit out training treats. I have gone through TONS of different treats with him and one day he would enjoy it and the next spit it out. I've come to realize that if he isn't hungry, he just doesn't eat (I'm jealous really- LOL). The only treat he adores is chicken jerkey. I make him work for that every day. I make him work for everything else since he no longer works for the food. Honestly, if he really is not hungry, he'll leave the chicken jerkey as well but, that is not too often. It's his grand prize.

My opinion is that if you have a food oriented dog, I would do the 20 minute feedings having the dog work for his/her food and perhaps even using a smart toy to feed them.

However, if that isn't working and you have a dog, like mine, who just is not interested well - they're not going to work for something they don't care about so, I say free feed without worry. I think it's best to portion out the free feeding, if you can, because the you can keep track of how much they are eating but, again, ultimately, it's whatever works for you and your "babies."