Do you think there is a best or better time to feed your dogs? How important is consistency in a dog's meal time?
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Do you think there is a best or better time to feed your dogs? How important is consistency in a dog's meal time?
I think its better to feed at random times. If you have specific times to feed, dogs will start bugging you as the time draws near because they know food is on the way. Also many dogs will have what is known as hunger pukes if they are expecting a meal at a specific time and its late getting there. What happens is that dogs, thinking that food is eminent, will start to secret very acidic stomach juices expecting the food to arrive. If it doesn't arrive they have all these acids floating around in their stomachs and they need to get rid of it. Therefore they puke it up. This seems to happen more with newly switched raw fed dogs.
I had never thought about it like that before Bill. I have always fed my animals at approximately the same time as far as it fits in with my routine, but it doesn't seem to have caused any problems.
In a few cases it is important to feed at the same time, my mum uses an alarm to make sure her dog is fed to time morning and evening because it is important that his medication is spaced 12 hours apart.
I've done the same with no problems but I know people who have had problems when they didn't feed by the normal time.Quote:
Originally Posted by kernow
I've always heard its best to feed dogs at the same time. Of course, I don't really like giving them a set amount per feeding, we've always just done free-feeding I think its called. What we do is fill their dish in the morning & let them eat when they are hungry. It works well for us.
I've never done it 'on the dot' but I have done it about the same time. It does get changed up though. I like to feed them early during the hot days and then early evening during fall/winter.
Having read Bills advice I think i am going to get a little more haphazard about feeding times, what he said makes a lot of sense.
I agree, it has made me think of it differently and I am going to be a bit more random about feeding times in future.Quote:
Originally Posted by Justontime
I like knowing that a prescribed feeding time isn't all that important. I do recall past dogs driving us out of our minds because they had a bit more rigid routine, but then again, as I think on, we've always been a little loose on the subject.