How many times a day to feed

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Rosey (12 mos). & Bandit (8mos) currently eat 2 times per day, 6 am, 6pm.  My husband thinks we should start feeding them 1 per day just in the evening.  I would like to continue to feed them twice, especially when they are so young and active.  Bandit is still on puppy but Rose has been on adult for a while. Any suggestions/recommendations?

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Okay, I got it 2 meals a day!! Usually they eat at 6 and then sleep with me until 8. DH is getting ready for work, so he can continue to do 6 am feedings:) I assume DH is doodle husband, not something else??? Bandit might go into serious depression if he doesn't get his 2 squared a day! Thanks for all the feedback!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It could be "doodle husband"! But the universal meaning is "Dear husband", lol! "DD" is dear daughter, DS is dear son, etc.
Sometimes, though, I think it could also stand for "darned husband"!

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

oh but that might mean my husband was a doodle, which would be weird:) I agree it could have multiple meetings depending on the day, although for me DD and DS would be doodle daughter and doodle son!

[Marilyn Norberg]

Irish sometimes will eat in the AM and sometimes not - it mostly depends upon what I put in her bowl. She has got to be the fussiest dog. She will not touch kibble all by itself. I now have her on Merrick canned dog food - she just loves this stuff. The "Wingading" flavor actually has 1 - 2 whole chicken wings in each can along with veggies. The guy at the feed store says that this brand of food reminds him of the stuff he was served in the army - if not better. So Irish usually gets one can of Merrick brand food and then at dinner time we give her Canidae kibble but it has to be disguised and mixed in with table scraps - so "yes" we feed our Irish twice a day. Anyone else feed their doodle Merrick? If so, is it considered "good stuff" to be feeding our dogs?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Marilyn, Merrick has had numerous recalls in recent months, the last one just a few days ago. This is a shame, because on paper, the products look excellent, and many of us have used them, but we just cannot recommend any of their products any more because there appears to be no quality control, and none of us wants to take the risk of exposing not only our dogs, but our children, to salmonella.

[Marilyn Norberg]

Are you kidding me - recalls? I finally have found something that Irish really enjoys and now I hear this. I am running out of ideas. Irish is so dam fussy. I have tried TOTW (both kibble and canned), Candidae (both canned and kibble) - my husband says "just give her kibble and if she doesn't eat it - too bad - if she gets hungry enough kibble will start to look pretty good to her". I can't be like that though - and here I thought Merrick was the answer. Now what? I have about 10 cans of Merrick left - if you were me would you throw it out? I'm going to call the feed store where I purchase the Merrick from and ask them what they have heard about the recall - help!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Marilyn, I'm sure the cans you have are safe; I would just not purchase Merrick in the future.
We have all current recall info here in the Food Group, in our Current Recall Information discussion. This last Merrick recall was for treats. The point is, if they keep having recalls for salmonella contamination in their facilities, that not a company whose products we can recommend.
You can click "follow" on the recall discussion to get notices of new posts there.

[Richard Crowe]

Holly is two and a half years old... Her ideal daily consumption is one and a half patties of Nature's Variety Raw Beef. This diet keeps her weight just perfect and her stool great. However, feeding her one and a half patties at one time is too much for her digestive system. We have altered her feeding to one pattty in the morning about 8:30 and a half patty in the evening around 5:30.

We have been doing this for almost a year now and she is doing great. However, we are going to experiment substituting the equivalent weight of the London Broil, sweet potato, carrot mixture (done in a slow cooker and then a food processor) for the evening meal and see how it works. This will reduce the cost of the Nature's Variety food, which is pretty expensive, by 1/3 and will also provide additional vitamins and minerals.

We would like not to be so dependent on Natures Variety because we can only carry a limited amount in the freezer of our motorhome and it isn't always available in every geographic location. We can always cook the meat-carrot-sweet potato meal in our RV and the ingredients are available anywhere.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

I use to feed the boys only once a day. Then we got Harlow as a puppy and needed to be fed more than once a day. To keep the boys happy I started feeding them twice a day but smaller portions. As a result our fat boy, 48 lb 16" Beagle is now down to 42 lbs. So we will continue to feed twice a day.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

See- smaller, more frequent meals work for doggy weight loss, too!!!!!!

[Tammy & Gracie]

Gracie eats twice a day. She has a small Orijen kibble snack (1/4c) in the morning topped with some fruit and a litle yogurt or cottage cheese. Her dinner is all homecooked.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Twice a day here for all the reasons mentioned. One; Murphy LIVES to EAT! Anything, Anytime, Anyone else's food if it's left behind (dog food, not our food). Two:The thought of him only eating once a day would seem cruel to me, for our dog anyway. He now acts like he's been starved all his life at every feeding, I could not imagine what he'd be like if he had to wait all day. Three: at the speed in which he eats, I would be very concerned about bloat. Four: when he eats too much too fast at one setting, he will barf it back up, and then proceed to try to eat it again! Gross I know.

Murphy does get homecooked food with about 1/2 a days ration of Wellness mixed morning and night, and sometimes eats better than I do. I have even thought about serving his freshly made stews for our dinner, except there is something about saying I'm making dog food and then putting it in a bowl for my husband I just can't wrap my head around.