feeding

[marcia hill]

when do you start feeding once a day? alley is six months old and weighs 48lbs. I usually leave food out all the time. and how much do you give them once a day? I feed her dry food. thanks marcia and alley

[Lori (Wilson and Woody's Mum)]

Hi Marcia - Wilson is two and he is still fed twice a day. I don't free feed, but rather give him his meals at 8:00 AM and 5:30 - 6:00 PM. I am sure feeding once a day is perfectly fine and lots of people do it. But for me, it just makes sense to give him two meals. Plus if he doesn't eat one meal, he will throw up from having an empty tummy.

I have always used a calorie counting type diet. I found calorie requirements online and follow that pretty closely. My vet always comments on how perfect his weight is. Here are the two sources I use: http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm
http://www.goldendoodles.com/care/food_calculator.htm.

You can find the k/cal per cup on the kibble you feed on the bag. Hope that helps!

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

If your doodle does well free feeding I would just continue it.

It wouldn't work in our house with 2 doodles who really love food so we feed them 2x a day (~6-8 am and then 4:30-5:30 pm).

[Stella]

I read that doodles, and poodles, should be fed more than once a day due to the risk of bloat. They are supposed to be more at risk than some other breeds due to their very deep chest. Our 14 month old standard labradoodle is still fed twice a day (and always will be, it works well with our schedule), he gets two cups of Royal Canin Maxi Dog per meal and does really well on it. He gets fed at 7.00am and 7.00pm. If we free fed he would be the size of a house - he definitely has the labrador appetite!! We also have a twelve week old medium labradoodle that is still on three meals a day, I can't wait until we can get him down to two.

[LeAnn, Lucy & Rusty!!]

I am NOT an expert... and I do not always follow the advice of the experts.. but... I don't leave food out all day because my obedience trainer and my agility trainer told me "controlling' the food is integral in building a healthy relationship with your dog. If you have an assertive or dominant dog this may be something you might want to explore. Now, whether you prescribe to this belief or not is up to you... (uhmmm do doodles even come in a dominant type???LOL.. the two I have are both big sweet lovable easily trainable babies!)

[Stella]

Our first doodle (a male) was a "wanna be" dominant dog and we had to work really hard to establish ourselves at the top of the hierarchy. I'm pretty sure that controlling his food played a big part in it.

[Chris & Boys]

My GR is 14 years old and I still feed him twice a day. Hell, I 'd never be able to eat once a day, why should I expect him to?????

[Sue & Willy Babe]

I feed willson 3x's a day he is always hungry 5:30am 12noon and 5:45
he is 55 pounds and 9 months old i follow the directions on the dog food bag He does gets some treats in his kong after his morning walk He also is active we have puppy time and walks