free feeding / grazing

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Hello all! 

So to fill everyone in on our situation, Yeti is just not food motivated. He likes his food for a couple of days (when he gets a flavor change) and then it's back to his usual antics. He hardly eats breakfast and doesn't usually finish his dinner either (though he does eat more at night than he does in the morning). According to our wellness simple LID bag he can have anywhere from 1 1/2 - 2 1/3 cups a day. We give him one cup around 7am and one cup around 5-6pm. I thought perhaps he would do better on a lunch and dinner schedule but we didn't really see much of a difference. We give him 10 minutes to eat and if he doesn't finish then it gets taken away *usually.* Last week sometime his breakfast accidentally got left out and around 1pm we heard him snacking on it in the next room, then again around 3 he finished it off. We have him dinner at his usual time and of course he didn't eat much but we left it out to see if he would snack on it later that night. He did. He ended up finishing it off before his 10 pm bedtime. This was the first time he finished his full 2 cups in one day since we switched flavors last about a month ago. 

I was wondering what YOU think the pros and cons might be of free feeding. Some of you have already listed them in the other discussion I started and I thank you so much for that, but if you have any other pros or cons please let me know.

By the way in case anyone was wondering, Yeti is just over a year old and he weighs 30-33 pounds. Our breeder estimated them to be in between 35-45 pounds so he is considered a medium f1bb goldendoodle.

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Sorry for the delayed response, we are having internet issues. I SO appreciate everyone's input. We tried free feeding for a couple of days, but we decided to go back to scheduled feedings. We are getting another dog later this year, so I would rTher keep him on scheduled feedings for now. I never even thought about health reasons. Thank you all so much!

[Mary ann & Lincoln]

OMG, he looks just like my Lincoln!   Even his color and his cut. Is he by chance from Yankee Doodles & Poodles???  

Lincoln had a period where he was VERY picky in his eating and we would leave his food out to graze. I did not want to switch food, but we added stella & chewey meal mixers and crumble a few on top of his food.  Then he started eating , so now we just feed twice a day.  He will come over to me and start to chew to let me know it is time to eat ( even if it is early) 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Your Lincoln is adorable!! Yeti is not from Yankees doodles & poodles. We have switched his food a lot he just doesn't like to eat lol. He is such a stinker! Hoping that our next little guy will inspire him to eat more!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Haley, having another almost always inspires the pickier one to eat - not always, but usually.  It hasn't inspired Ned, but any others I have had were concerned about getting their fair share! :-}