Free feeding

[Linn]

I'm curious .. do those of you who free feed find that your dogs naturally divide their food into a couple of meals, or is it really just a bite here and a bite there throughout the day?

And if you have multiple dogs, how do you ensure that both dogs are getting the nutrition that they need? Or keep your dogs from gobbling down their meals just to be competitive?

I really like the idea of free feeding, but I'm just not sure how it would work now that I have two dogs. When I just had Davy, I suppose he kind of "free-fed" himself. I would give him food twice a day, but he would just graze in the morning, finish his morning meal at lunch time, and then usually eat his whole dinner. Now that Chance is around though, both dogs immediately eat up whatever's in their bowls. I'd love any tips for making it work. Thanks!

[tuffystar]

From my experience it all depends on the dogs. With Tuffy and Bridgette they ate more in the morning and evening with a snack now and then. Then Bridgette with Dukey was the same but there were behavior problems with Dukey so we had to go to feeding only at meal time. Then Bridgette and Buddy did well free feeding and yes they did eat more in the am and the pm with snacks in between. Then it was Buddy and Tia. I tried two times for months at a time to free feed no go. Tia over ate and Buddy got nothing much. We finally gave up and they get meal fed with a little left down durring the day for snacking. Tia has slimmed down and Buddy is looking much better. All my life we free fed our dogs and not one was fat until Tia (little miss piggy). Go figure. I love free feeding if it works. It is easier on me and the dogs do less gulping but alas it is not to be with my little T. I hope this helps.

[anny51]

I've wondered about this too, but with 4 dogs who all lurve their food I can only see tears . My lab is a dustbin on 4 paws and Charlie would be round everyone else's dish before their mouths had time to water

[Doodlesville]

I free feed all my dogs, It reduces chances of Bloat ,which can kill a dog
retrivers and poodles have it happen frequently
I have yet to have a dog bloat from free feeding,
they grave, they eat less ,poop less, and the food digests easier
non of my dogs are overweight
In my opinion the best choice for anyone that loves their dog

[lmtoth2]

I think it would be great if you can free feed...it wouldn't work here. Dexter would eat all of both of their food. Especially with us not being home to supervise all the time, it wouldn't work for us.

[Doodlesville]

Sure it would, it works for anyone
i have gotten dogs and worked them up within 3days to free feeding

[DebBrown]

When we just had Charlie, he would eat his breakfast whenever he felt like it, usually before noon. He generally ate dinner when served. NOW, HOWEVER, with two dogs, Charlie better guard his food and get it down because if he walks away from his bowl, Wayne will gobble it up in seconds.

Poor Wayne always seems to be starving to death. When its dinner time, he starts crying and carrying on.

Deb

[MaxandMe]

in the past I did free feeding with Max but then we brought home peanut and then Beau......so it didn't work out well

I do think free feeding is great but with my going back to work I am keeping to our schedule of 2 meals a day usually 6:30-7am
and again 6pm. they do get a late night snack sometimes as well as a late night run too.

[Jac]

Well, I do free feed...but I am not certain that it is right for every dog...and I think that (as will all choices we make) it is up to the owner whether or not it is best for their dog...some of us feed vitamins, some don't; some of us feed canned, some don't; some of us feed raw, some don't; some of us feed on schedule, some don't...I don't think it is a matter of who loves their dog most, LOL, I think it is a matter of those of us who love our dogs finding out what works for them and doing the best we can.
I think that anyone reading this is probably very concerned about the health and well being of their dogs...so it isn't really fair to say that one way equals love and the other doesn't.
I free feed and it works for us because that is what we have always done. We don't have dogs that rush in to vaccuum it all up, all of our dogs graze and eat only when they are hungry or they want a social snack!
We free feed kibble, meaning that it is always available (we have 15 dogs and about 7 big tins that we feed in...no tin is assigned to any dog)...and the tins are always full of dry kibble. We add canned food (again, into the tins) in the morning and at night and the dogs that are hungry eat, the dogs that don't need it sort of just hang back and wait.
If they act hungry and the canned food is gone, I add more. None of them go hungry...but not all of them eat when we feed canned.
Sometimes I can hear one of my dogs crunching kibble at midnight, when we are all sleeping!
We have never had a problem with fighting over food or food guarding...but free feeding is all they have known.
I have one dog who is overweight...but she doesn't over eat...I am thinking I need to test her thryoid. All of the others leave the food alone unless they need to eat. No weight problems with the others at all.

[Tink]

I free feed and it works well for us. What it does come down to is that there is a very noticeable pecking order when it comes to who eats first; second etc.

Since I keep my dogs divided into pairs most of the time, they have long since established this order and there is little if any difficulty from it. The fact that they've all been with each other for quite some time likely plays a large part in it working as well as it does. Until they've established that order I do keep an eye on them to be sure no one is being totally pushed out. Right now all of my dogs are leaning toward the heavy side of average. Being winter and them all being breeders, I prefer them to have a bit of extra insulation on them.

One nice advantage to the free feeding is that even while nursing my dams maintain their weight nicely. I don't measure their food... I simply make sure there is always food in their bowls regardless how often I have to fill them.

[anny51]

Can I ask how you can keep track of what each dog eats? If a dog is ill, how do you know if it's been eating normally or not? I had enough trouble when the vet asked me if Charlie was drinking enough...I fill the waterbowls when they're empty but don't always know which of the 4 dogs have been drinking.

[blueteal]

I do not free feed as Ryder would eat everything and Denver would starve
I also have cats who think nothing of eating the dogs dinner which would not be healthy........
So to each their own and I love all my animals very dearly...............

[Jac]

Originally Posted by anny51

Can I ask how you can keep track of what each dog eats? If a dog is ill, how do you know if it's been eating normally or not? I had enough trouble when the vet asked me if Charlie was drinking enough...I fill the waterbowls when they're empty but don't always know which of the 4 dogs have been drinking.

Hmmmm, well, I think that in our case, since we also feed canned food morning and night, we have a good idea about who is eating and who isn't .

We put the canned food on top of the kibble and then when we put it down, we watch the dogs eat...all of them do eat...so we just know. There are times when my dogs don't feel well and they will stay away from the food and I keep an eye on them. Sometimes I try to hand feed them to see if they will eat.

Water consumption is a certain thing at our house. They never have had a problem with that! We have to fill that water bowl every time we walk past. Oh, and we fill the bowl by using a sprayer on the hose and every one of the dogs love to drink from that so when we fill the bowl, the dogs come and lap at the spray...so we would know if any of them were not drinking too.

Again, because we have done this for so long, we just know what is going on and we notice anything out of the ordinary. There isn't a hard-fast rule to it, just a lot of common sense and observation.

[deepnite10]

can t do it here either..Toby just dines at his own speed..while the other 2 will
eat continually till they pass out..

[seazr]

Originally Posted by Doodlesville

I free feed all my dogs, It reduces chances of Bloat ,which can kill a dog
retrivers and poodles have it happen frequently
I have yet to have a dog bloat from free feeding,
they grave, they eat less ,poop less, and the food digests easier
non of my dogs are overweight
In my opinion the best choice for anyone that loves their dog

I agree Nancy. I lost one dog to bloat because when he was a pup and beore I had him, food was sometimes on the scarce side and he learned to gulp. I could never break him of the gulping and that is what caused the bloat. I have always free fed Dakota and he is totally not food motivated-which I really like. He eats most of his morning bowl and then occasionally pics during the day and eats a bit more in the evening. He is not overweight at all.