One meal a day?

[Lou38]

Hi All,

Just after advice!

Fudge is just over 6 months and is fed with Canagan Small Breed kibble and Canagan tinned food.

For a long time now Fudge doesn't seem to want to eat in the daytime. I put down 55g of kibble for her in the morning and it usually gets left there until around 4pm when she might occasionally have a nibble. I have tried mixing wet food in but she doesn't really take an interest.

She always eats a full meal in the evening at 7:30pm - a quarter of a tin of canagan and about 55g of kibble mixed together.

Everything I read says not to free feed and to take up the food if she doesn't want it within 10mins. But I'd be coming and going all day if I did this. If I can rely on her to eat one full meal am I ok to just leave the 55g down from the morning for her to have when she wants throughout the day? She doesn't graze - if she eats it she eats the whole lot in one go - she just likes to decide when she is hungry by herself I guess!

Occasionally she'll eat it in the morning, half the time she will wait until around 4pm to eat it, and the other half the time she won't eat it at all. So more often than not - she is a one meal a day kind of dog!!

Is this the right amount to be feeding (she looks nice and healthy) or should I be trying to push more? She doesn't have many treats in the day - sometimes if we are training, othertimes nothing!

xx

[Lou78]

Weird you should post this! I was going to post the exact same thing! (must be a "Lou" thing!).

Ollie is nearly 4 and always had two meals a day 7am and 6pm. After some upheaval to his routine when my husband was off work he was not eating the early meal at all and i was wasting more food than he was eating. We put it down to him being bored with his food (it was Wainwrights Grain Free). So we kept trying to tempt him with other things on top (carrot, salmon, tuna etc). Then he stopped eating that too! So we switched his food to Trophy Grain Free (we have to keep him on Grain Free as he has bad reactions to other foods).

We did 20 mins and then take it away too but I felt bad then if he went looking for it! So then just left it out but invariably would only get eaten (if at all) much later in the afternoon.

Since our normal routine has resumed, he is now having one meal a day which he tends to have around 3.30pm-4.00pm which to me seems an odd time but it seems to be when he is hungriest. He has a couple of treats in the day and a bedtime treat and that is all.

He now has the recommended Trophy amount of kibble with various toppers that we are trying to get him to eat. Currently Sainsbury's "Encore" is his favourite. He doesnt seem to be suffering any ill effects of just having one meal a day so i am tempted to try it a bit longer rather than waste food.

Ollie is obviously a fully grown (and big!) dog so i dont know if it is an age thing and puppies need more???? He is very athletic and can run and run but must be getting enough energy to sustain this.

It is a puzzle as he used to be very interested in food (and still is in OUR food!) but has gone off it in the last few months.

Will be interesting to read others' views on this.

[Robin black mini]

Many years ago I had terriers and we always fed once a day..no issues.
Just be sure the dog gets his calorific requirement daily...

I think splitting the meal became important when people linked the giving of large meals to bloat in large breeds..
Free feeding became popular especially with toy breeders since their tiny dogs were more disposed to hypoglycemia..
I feed my mini twice daily because we also have a larger breed in the home who must be fed twice a day( bloat risk).

[Lou38]

Thanks to both of you for your replies! Glad I'm not the only one with a non hungry mini Lou!

I'll continue as I have been doing then - leave dry kibble out for her to pick and choose when she eats it during day and then give her the big meal in the evening.

Funny little ones aren't they? Love her so much! She gets a lot of comments - mostly positive but I have had a couple of negative ones. One woman I walked past in London the other day turned to her husband and said 'what a stupid looking dog' and another little boy turned to his mother in the pet shop and said 'mum, why is that dog ugly'. I mean HOW? There is nothing ugly about her - she's amazing (either that or I'm biassed!). They are quirky looking but I like that!

xx

[Lou78]

Of course since I posted this he has totally made me out to be a liar and eaten two meals Thursday and yesterday! Not eaten as much today but it is warm I suppose.

Re negative comments... How can anyone say such things??? The worst we have had is "that's a funny dog" and that was from a child but I was still miffed!

[At Home With Monty]

Monty has just turned 6 months old and we've followed plenty of feeding advice, three meals, to two meals, avoid this and that etc but actually his own habit/preference seems to offer the clearest way to go. Like you he doesn't tend to eat in the morning, especially when it's an early start for work, sometimes he will after a weekend lie in. He seems to be going off lunchtime eating now as well - he used to wait until after his lunchtime trip to the park. So his main feed is in the evening around 6:30pm, he will even tell us if we're late and he wants to eat.

He still gets plenty of training/walking treats which might have an impact, but he's lean and energetic so we're not worried. In terms of food, we tried Canagan but I think this was too rich for him, we were advised to feed tinned Chappie which settled his stomach, and now top this with a bit of Canagan or similar. In fact I'll throw him some as a training treat. We'll stuff Kongs with 'puppy' foods which seems to work well.

In terms of treats and 'distraction' foods we used to give salmon bites or sprats but he's gone off these at the moment. He likes a bit of duck, a raw chicken bone, tinned tuna, and his new favourite a goat's ear - all in moderation. He's fickle though and frequently changes his mind. At least he has a varied direct I suppose.

[Fab Freddie 17]

Hi there, my 10 month mini will only eat if I handfeed him...he used to want 3 meals a day but now prefers mostly one and occasionally two. But won't eat from any bowl....I've bought several.

[Jackster001]

Our pup-now almost 9 months old, started going off his breakfast but we switched from Skinners to Akela which is grain free-he now loves his breakfast and dinner, he usually runs down the stairs in the morning for his breakfast now!