We gave a 15 month old neutered ‘red-nosed’ Staffie bitch. She is a delight in all ways.
But I’ve been feeding her twice a day, morning and evening, and most of the time she turns her nose up at at least one of the meals. She DOES get ‘human’ morsels of course during the day, bits of toast, some spare chicken etc.
Question: should I just serve ONE meal per day?
(addendum). Any dog I’ve owned in the past would happily scoff down as many bowls of food as provided. This lassie is not quite so food-motivated.
If she’s turning up her nose at food, then it’s more food than she needs. At 15 months, her growth may be slowing. You might try two smaller meals or just one meal a day.
Does she favor one mealtime over the other? I used to feed our dog only in the morning, and I think that started when he was between one and two.
Yeah, it is a question which the answers to are all going to be unique to each dog and owner pair.
My folks have a kelpie who is a little older, not food motivated but resource protective? Her food bowl gets filled in the morning, filled in the evening. The morning portion might take her half a day to eat but the evening bowl she eats right away. She will always say yes to brussel sprouts please and thank you and mind yer fingers. (I know right? What dog loves brussel sprouts? Ma n Pa Vader’s dog that’s who)
It depends upon the dog and his/her time of life and activity level. Lower the amount of food in the one she turns her nose up at. Also pay attention to your own eating vis a vis her eating. I had a GSD growing up who would leave food in her bowl if someone else was hungry. We used to joke that she always dieted with Mom. But looking back with the eyes of an adult, it was really a very touching thing.
I feed our dogs twice daily, 8 & 8, thirteen meals a week (I randomly skip a meal each week). Each dog gets enough food to maintain their weight, and that varies a bit with activities and treats during the day.
At mealtimes I prepare their dishes, set them down, and give them five minutes of uninterrupted time. Then I take away their empty bowls. There’s never been anything left, but if there was I’d be concerned.
We beleive we have one of these, too! (She was rehomed to us so we are unsure of her origins).
Anyway, at first she turned her nose up at the food we gave here, same food as our prior dog - she’d skip meals and then would not eat at all, causing worry (first time we had a picky eater dog!). It also gave her loose stools. We changed up her food and found what she likes, and now she happily eats 2x per day (at ~7am and ~7pm), and her, uh, production is regular. We’ve always fed our dogs on that schedule, as we understood two smallish meals was better for them than one big meal, and that a dog should easily eat all that’s given to them in one go. Consistency is key: same amount at the same times daily, and no leaving food for them to casually munch-on all day. When she skips a meal or eats it slowly, that’s when we know she’s not feeling well.
TL/DR: You might try changing the food to learn what they like.
Not per my experience. My past several dogs (goldens) would scarf down the food as soon as it hit the bowl. This one - 4 yr old 45# doodle - will sometimes let his food sit in his bowl all day, and then eat it after we’ve gone to bed.
We generally feed him 2x/day (IF he has eaten his 1st meal before - say - 5-6 pm.)
We feed our 80 lb. dog (I guess that’s probably bigger than medium) once a day, in the evening. I’ll give him some treats/biscuits throughout the day, usually, though.
We have three mid-size and one large dog. Despite having a “tricky bowl” to slow him down, the large dog inhales his food quickly then pukes it back up, if allowed. So we’ve resorted to giving him two small meals at feeding times, approximately ten minutes apart. And if you do it for him, you have to do it for the others…believe me, those guys can count! So we’re feeding them four times a day, two in the morning and two at night. If anyone wants to skip a meal, that’s cool, we pick up their dish and don’t worry about it unless it becomes a trend.
A healthy dog that ignores a feeding is almost certainly getting too much food.
Our beast (a 50-pound field spaniel) gets a morning and late afternoon meal (signaling his eagerness to be fed with odd yowls when he hears the distant scraping of a fork dislodging food from a can or the sound of dry grumblies being scooped out of the bag), with no treats in between.
When he eats it again, does that cont as a second meal?
Our 3d golden was like that. What a pain, trying to slow her down.
Our first golden, I realized he had gone deaf when he stopped running to the kitchen as soon as the food hit his bowl.
Our current little poodle-cat is so weird compared. He’ll just let his food sit in his bowl for hours. And he sucks at what. we believe is one of a hound’s main functions - cleaning up food that spills.
My daughter had a weird pit mix which would only eat if someone else was in the kitchen eating with him.
I don’t know if 1 or 2x a day matters, so long as the dog isn’t putting on weight.
We have 1 XL dog, 1 L and one M. They all eat twice a day - 5am & 3:30pm. They get a small treat after they go outside for the last time at night before bedtime.
For each meal the Great Dane gets 2-1/4C, German Shepherd gets 1-3/4C, and the Boxer gets 1-1/4C of dry food (Diamond Naturals). They also each get a small forkful of canned food mixed in and I add a little warm water to their food. Their bowls are empty within 5 minutes. Then they all rotate around to each other’s bowls to make sure nothing was left behind (there never is!). They are all at a healthy weight. The boxer was a bit overweight for a while. We noticed if the pantry door was left open, he’d nose his way in and eat dog food out of the bins. This was sometimes happening numerous times every day. I rearranged the dog food bins so now he can’t reach them. He dropped a few pounds within a month!
Sometimes he scarfs it all up. Sometimes he hardly eats any of it. Sometimes he eats bits of it through the day.
Situation complicated by the fact that he’s an indoor/outdoor farm dog and I have no way of telling whether he’s eaten some of his own or someone else’s hunting. (Yes, he gets worm meds.) But he ate that way even when he was a pup first here and when he was in a cone after neutering, and wasn’t let off leash.
I feed mine twice a day; but the timing is somewhat erratic on purpose. For various reasons I can’t keep a precise schedule myself. If you feed a dog (or cat) at 7PM every day and one day you don’t get home till 8, that creature will be very upset. If you feed them sometime between 6 and 8 each day and one day you don’t get home till 10, they’ll only be mildly concerned.
Kelpies are wicked smart and our precocious good girl just eats how she eats. My folks tried different foods and even consulted with a vet to rule out medical issues. She gets the same portion size at each feeding and like I said, she would scarf all the brussel sprouts she can get if allowed.
Two border collies, each around 25-30 lbs. Moderately active, but not working dogs. We give them about 3/4 cup of kibble in the morning, and 3/4 at supper time. We don’t mix it with water because hard kibble is better for their teeth, but they always have fresh water.
With a new dog, we always do this: Give the dog their food, and if it isn’t finished in 15 minutes we take it away. Wr don’t let them graze all day. Also, the dogs never get food without having to sit and wait. Dogs can develop food aggression and the best way to prevent this is to make sure they understand who is in charge twice a day during feeding time.
You don’t have to take away the food for very long before the dogs learn that they need to eat all their food at eating time. This makes it much easier to manage the dogs if we are traveling or in a hurry. It’s also easier to house train them if you can conteol when the food goes in.
We do the same with bathroom time. At first we take them out, tell them to go, and if they don’t go,within a minute we take them inside again and get crated so they don’t go in the house. Take them out again in half an hour and try again. Eventually they learn to go right away when going outside, which again makes them much easier to manage when traveling or if you have to leave and can’t wait for them to dick around outside for an hour before relieving themselves.
Also, when the dog has firm expectations for the rules around this stuff, they are happy dogs. Ambiguity makes them anxious.
I feed my 4 dogs (medium and large) twice a day, at 7:30 and 3:00. Their food (Costco lamb & rice) is weighed on a kitchen scale and adjusted for ideal weight. If a dog doesn’t finish a meal, that would be cause for concern, and they’d get the leftover food and no more offered at the next meal. Every other day (or so) they get one small spoonful of canned food or cottage cheese mixed in with their dinner, because their love is for sale and I want it.
If you do, have care. What I read was that a few (depending on the size of the dog) was ok and even a good treat but too many could be bad for them. And yes it can make them … aromatic as @Gatopescado indicated.
We give My Best Girl 3 sprouts a couple times a week.
