Some feeding advice please, before I ring the vets.......

[GoodGollyMissMolly]

I have two dogs, both of whom get fed 3 small meals a day.( I have never liked the thought of feeding one big meal.)
Anyway, one of my dogs is feeding fine, but the other one, will seem to only eat her last meal. They get one at aprox 08.30 am then one again at at 12.30pm and then one again at aprox 17.30-18.00.

I offer her the one at 08.30 and offer her a fresh one again at 12.30, but she wont eat either, I have taken to leaving it down untill the next feed time at aprox 17.30, at which point I will give her fresh, she will leave it about an hour then eat it.
I'm worried that she isn't getting enough to eat, she has been doing this now for the last week or so. She has a v v fast metabolism and tends to loose weight quite rapidly.
On the other hand my other dog is on a diet, bless her she has always been big and DH and I didn't help with the amount of food we gave her. She has lost 3 kilos and is nearly at her appropriate weight accoring to the vet. So v v happy re that.

I know i sound v precious, but they are like my babies although I am due my LO in just over 4 weeks.

Any ideas, before I bug my vet

Imo you're feeding them too regularly.

Dogs are not people, they're not designed to be eating all the time.

I would feed them twice a day only, at breakfast and dinner time, with no scraps in between, especially for the overweight one.

The dog that isn't eating might not be eating because she's not hungry. So I would try feeding her in the morning and at night, but if she's only eating once a day then i would give her one big meal once a day. It won't hurt her honestly.

I know they're you're babies but they're not babies they're dogs and not designed to be treated like humans.

also, if they don't eat the food then I would remove it as it will go horrible anyway and if the one dog isn't eating it the other one most likely will and this will cause her to be even more overweight.

Thanks for replying Wannabe, do you really think that one meal a day would be ok for her, I might try 2 a day and see how she goes. What do you think one in the morning as normal then one about 17.00 ish?

It was the 'fat clinic' as I call it that told us to feed the overwieght one 3 times a day but just very small meals and it does seemed to have worked. BTW she doesn't eat the left down food, she is very obedient and knows which bowl is hers. I have just put food down for them and watched her eat hers and walk past the other bowl.

I know they are dogs and not babies, but still they feel like my babies to me

They dont get any scraps as that has had to be stopped for her diet. They occasionaly will have a raw carrot to much on as they both love them, but once maybe twice a week if that.

my dog had one meal a day until she got older and was unable to digest a huge meal properly. I would try her on two meals to start and if she's still not eating her breakfast I would cut that out and try just one meal.

The not leaving food down is also important because of bacteria as much as anything else so I would still remove it if she's not eaten it.

Will deffo not leave the food down now. Thank you so much for your advice, saved me having to go to the vets

I would suggest you start looking to try different diets for her. Sometimes a change of taste is all that is required to get a new found enthusiasm. You may find that if you are using a wet food if you warm if a short while in the microwave it will be better accepted too. If you are only offering biscuits at present try offering a little moist food mixed with it. Biscuit foods alone are better for dental care, but if you have a dog struggling to keep their weight up then it is worth using some moist foods if they are better accepted.

Unless she is a particularly large deep chested breed of dog only offer it to her once a day as that is fine for most dogs. (Deep chested like GSD's, setters, great danes etc) Some dogs simply dont like to eat all of the time, but others like to pig out. Staffies are often a breed like that who just eat infrequently but other individuals do it too from time to time.

Also consider changing the feeding bowl - some dogs are just plain fussy. It may not make any difference of course but always worth a try.

I would suggest that if this behaviour has recently become worse and your dog used to feed better that you should get your vet to check the dog over. There are problems that can cause issues with eating - eg tooth pain that should be ruled out or treated if needed.

I have had a dog for the last 12 years - she's a lovely lab x - she has only ever had one meal a day - a good meal consisting of home cooked veg/rice/chicken/fish etc - and occasionally some tinned dog food. I would never give her more than one meal a day - if I did she would be huge! She is now becoming arthritic so its even more important that she has a good diet to help with her joints and not become overweight.

IMO dogs do not need three meals a day unless they are required to do so for medical reasons or are puppies - I have a puppy too and she is still on 3 meals a day but once she reaches adulthood she'll also be going on to one meal a day.

There is a growing problem with overweight dogs - you only have to watch programmes such as Dog Borstal to see this is the case. You need to keep your dogs as lean as possible otherwise they will be suffering with arthritis before they go into old age.

Thanks beautifulgirls, I will look at changing her food maybe. She can be fussy sometimes. At the moment I feed her with a mixture of dry and wet dog food as recommended by the vet. I dont think she has a problem with her teath, but both of them are due their vaccinations next week so I will get the vet to check her out (as he always does anyway)

Thanks for your reply minesalargeone, I dont actually feed the dogs 3 big meals a day, they have 3 very small meals (As recommended by our vet). So it's like they still get 1 meal split into 3 smaller ones.
I must admit I still dont like the thought of feeding once a day, but if that is what it takes and if it is better for her I will do that.
Only one of my dogs is overweight, but she has lost a lot of that excess weight through following the diet that the vet has recommended (3 small meals a day no treats or scraps) She is nearly at her appropriate weight now so it seems to be working. My other dog however has always been thin, when we got her I could get my hands round her tummy with room to spare (She was a rescue dog). It took us a while to get her to a weight that the vet was happy with, but looses it so quickly.

Thank you both again for your replys.

yea I guessed you were giving her three meals a day but three small meals and not three big ones! However if you feed your dog just once in 24hrs they seem to look forward to their meals that bit more and are so hungry they just eat the lot! What I have learnt is not to feed them right before a walk because it can cause bloating etc. My labx is 18kg and she has her meal just around midday and that lasts her until the following day. I may give her a chew at bedtime but that's about it. I give her loads of water with her dinner and give her a variety of food in her meal - she gets fed whatever I've kept over for her whilst cooking for the family so it may be a boiled egg, some fresh fish, chicken, lots of veg, rice, pasta etc etc but I always put in a good couple of spoons of tinned dog food (for the added nutrient and vitamins) and a handful of dried dog food. To be honest if I fed her the recommended amount of food that is quoted on the sides of the tinned dog food she would be having atleast 2-3 tins a day and then I would have a very overweight dog on my hands and it is cheaper and easier for me to feed her myself. I must be doing all right for her to get to 12yrs old and be healthy and happy! Adding variety to a dog's meal is the key with fussy eaters - bit like fussy kids really - they will eat eventually because their hunger will get the better of them!

Our very greedy Border Collie only has one meal a day, and clears it up straight away, he did get a bit overweight at one stage, but threatening the kids with death if they kept giving him biscuits has sorted that out. We actually follow the old timers way of feeding, with a day's fast once a week as he had problems with an unpredictable digestion , that's stopped totally now his stomach gets a rest once a week.
Lisa X

That's some excellent advice Lisa - my dog had a 'funny' tummy the other day - it happened to be the same day that my younger dog didn't appear to do very much in the garden - ie number two's - so we worked out that my elder dog had become that hungry that she ate my other dog's poo - lovely....

Anyway I spoke to the vet who suggested I starved her for a full 24-36 hours - which is what we did and she was fine after that. My vet later added that it is adviseable that all dog owners do this to their dogs atleast once a week - for atleast 24hrs - which gives a dog's gut time to empty itself. I've never heard this advice before unless it is to do with a sick bug/diarrhoea but to do it on a regular weekly basis is a first for me! Great idea in theory but if you've a scavenger for a dog, which we have, she'll eat any old rubbish and then we'll end up with a bigger problem!

I wonder if a days fasting would work with kids? I'd love a day off of cooking once a week!

I know where you're coming from on the scavenging, here's a list of what ben will eat
Baby wipes
toilet paper
sweet wrappers
poo
nappies
balls
anything else vaguely edible
BC's and labs are notorious for it aren't they. Only good thing is that they have a chuck it up mechanism when they've eaten something really disgusting so rarely harm themselves (something to console you when you're clearing up the fallout )
Lisa X

I've also got a 6month old Jack Russell Terrier X who will eat: the takeaway remnants from the night before on the pavement, takeaway boxes, takeaway vomit, fag ends, spat out chewing gum (on the pavement), kids toys nicked out the sandpit in the garden, the leg off the kitchen table, other dog's poo, snotty tissues, wrappers, nappy sacks, cotton wool, her bed (she's eaten 3 so far), my other dogs ears and anything else that dare move, flutter in the wind or simply smell something like food.......ggrrrrrrrr

LOL at the dogs eating such weird things, I've only ever had that problem with my overweight dog and only when she was a puppy.
She is also a Jack Russell X, she would eat anything, her own poo and sick for one, eeeewwwwww, and anything remotely foodish!! She stopped doing it after a particularly nasty bout of gastroenteritis when she was about 15 months old, I caught her eating something out of my parents drain, but she's never done it since Thats why she wont eat anything now unless I specificaly put it down and say to her to come and eat

I've never heard of starving them once a week, I know you should if they have an upset stomach, now I think about it my dog who is being very fussy was sick the other day, so maybe she has had a bit of a stomach upset. She seems fine at the moment, I cooked her some rice and chicken and she has eaten all of it and has been fine since. I've got her on the two meals a day and tbh she seems so much better on that.

Thanks for your advice shen seems so much better now.