Do You Free Feed Your Dogs?

[diznee25]

I plan on schedule feeding my puppy now, and as an adult. One advantage of schedule feeding is waste elimination is predictable.
Which helps when house training a puppy. It needs a routine.

Also free feeding can lead to obesity. (I free feed my cats and one is over weight. Not sure if it effects his health but I need to take him to the vet.)

So do you schedule feed or free feed your dog? What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Michelle

 

[mommytotwo]

Before, we used to feed our dogs and cat during the late afternoon and that was fine, but my dad started to feed them also during the morning, and that made them gain weight, and expect to be fed twice a day.

 

[lulu71]

We feed our dogs twice a day on schedule. I will say that before we got the second dog, it was harder to get the one dog to eat all his food in one feeding. We would put the food down and give the dog fifteen minutes to eat, then pick up the bowl. They get the drift after a couple of times of this. Good luck to you in your puppy rearing!

 

[Bojangles]

Originally posted by diznee25


So do you schedule feed or free feed your dog? What are your thoughts on this?

Free feed. We adopted a bassett/beagle mix at 6 months old. We have had her 5 years. We also have 4 cats. She eats bites of her food here and there like the cats do. She comes back later for more if she wants. I fill the food dish when it gets empty. Both dog and cats only eat dry food.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Originally posted by Bojangles
Free feed. We adopted a bassett/beagle mix at 6 months old. We have had her 5 years. We also have 4 cats. She eats bites of her food here and there like the cats do. She comes back later for more if she wants. I fill the food dish when it gets empty. Both dog and cats only eat dry food.

Ditto, I have 3 cats and 24 dogs ( I breed champion Chows and Akitas) and we always free feed.

 

[nativetxn]

What does "free feed" mean?

 

[tiggersmom2]

Originally posted by nativetxn
What does "free feed" mean?

Fill up huge dog bowls with food for the day, let the dogs eat when hungry

 

[nativetxn]

Thanks for the explanation. My dog is almost 15 years old and insulin dependent diabetic. I feed her in the morning and at night. I suppose that means that I don't "free feed". I have her on Atkins, she gets sliced turkey or chicken.

The food the vet prescribed is corn based and terrible for her blood sugar. She requires a small amount of insulin because she eats meat instead of dry dog food.

 

[Pugdog007]

Free feed? A pug? That's hysterical. A pug will eat as much as you feed them... they don't know when they're full. Mine eat as fast as they can at their 2 scheduled feedings each day and finish in about 2 mins. Then they spend the next 30 mins circling around to lick everyone else's bowl.

You cannot free feed a pug... you would really end up with a roly poly (not that mine aren't roly polys anyway.)

 

[LScot]

I free feed everyone--2 dogs, 1 cat and 1 rat.

No weight problems. Mine are smart. They eat when their hungry and stop when their full.

 

[Bojangles]

Originally posted by nativetxn
she gets sliced turkey or chicken.

My dog wants to live at your house. She only gets dry food. But then she thinks she's a cat. They all sleep together on the back of the couch.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I used to "free feed" my 2 collies before we got Jasmine. Bloat runs in Jasmine's family so I now schedule feed them at night and in the AM.

 

[2BigKIdz]

My dogs get one bowl of food each day around 6pm. This is based on the vets recommendation. I do leave the bowl down if they do not eat it all at one time so they are able to eat all of the food. They are still a little overweight for what the vet would like. I think they have slimmed down some since the weather has been nice and we have been walking more. My cats bowl stays full and they eat as often as they want and 2 of the 3 are pretty chubby.

Rolie, we have a (rough) collie too, Jackson ("Jack" most of the time). Jack is huge for a collie, in the fall he weighed 114 lbs. and he's not fat, just big. They are such beautiful, wonderful dogs. Not too many where we live, actually in our community he his the only one I know of and there are over 2,000 houses in our subdivision. Most people call him a "Lassie" dog, they don't even know what a collie is. Are yours rough collies?

 

[NC Belle]

We free fed our dog. but with a medium sized bowl. She usually only eats twice a day for a total of 2 to 3 cups of food. Our dog likes to eat just after we eat breakfast or lunch and dinner. She is just right in her weight.

 

[lightningcoach]

Our mixed breed dog , 11yrs old, free feeds. He is far from being overweight and eats only when hungry. When he's around other dogs and there is food out then the pack mentality kicks in and he will chow. I think this happens alot when you have more than one animal.

 

[preshi]

We feed our pups half their food in the morning and half at night

Kitty gets free fed and i have noticed some weight gain.

 

[minmate]

Our dog is about 9 and for the past 4-5 years we put her food out around 8:30 p.m. - 7 a.m. -- this is because if we left it out during the day... the kids make a huge mess of it. It's worked out fine so far in regards to weight and elimination.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

We feed our Miniature Schnauzer dry food once a day around dinnertime. She likes to eat some in the evening and then finish the rest in the morning. If she ever still has some in her bowl, we reduce her next serving by that amount.

 

[Nutsy]

Originally posted by Bojangles
Free feed. We adopted a bassett/beagle mix at 6 months old. We have had her 5 years. We also have 4 cats. She eats bites of her food here and there like the cats do. She comes back later for more if she wants. I fill the food dish when it gets empty. Both dog and cats only eat dry food.

We do the same with our dog. We fill his dish when it is empty. He has a nibble at lunchtime & then a bigger feed late in the evening.

He's never eaten a big feel all in one go.

 

[N.Bailey]

We free feed our lab and our cat. Neither one is over weight. Our lab is really snooty though, and will NOT eat a drop of her dry dog food till she finds out if she's getting something better. I have 2 kids who LOVE to feed their dog!