Is it okay to feed only once a day?

[Louise Perry]

Sorry another question!
Reuben never wants breakfast and only seems to want his dinner in evening. I am off to college in sept and feeding him only evening would be ideal as I won't be able to walk him , wait an hour (to avoid bloat risk) and leave in time for school drop off then college. Also I don't like to leave him just after he has eaten (again because of bloat risk). But I am worried that feeding him one large meal is a bloat risk too!!! So how does everyone else feed? Perhaps 2 meals in the evening?

[danielle rowles]

I personally only feed mine once a day, this is normally the same time everyday, 4pm, although at the min its about 5pm due to it being warmer, this mainly steams from my eldest being a fussy bugga, there is no way I would be able to get her to eat more than once a day, even at nearly 6 years old somtimes she still doesn't want to know, with her I also found that when she did eat in the morning and then we went out in the car she would be sick, this could be an hour later or 5 hours later!!! My other 3 would quite happily eat all day long, they are such piggies, but it works well for me feeding once and they all seem happy with this and happy to tell me exactly what time it is!!!

[Deb Bouttell]

Ours only have a very small breakfast (handful of Arden Grange plus goats milk). Their main meal (a more natural diet of meat, veg, rice etc) they have in the evening. I personally wouldn't feel happy about them having nothing in the morning (especially a young dog) but as always....whatever works for you!

[Henry's Mom]

What is Arden Grange ( I know I could Google it, but toooo lazy) is it similar to Royal Canin, and why goats milk? I am always interested to get the best for Henry. He is a very fussy eater and I think it would be nice to give him something different at breakfast time. I really don't like the idea of only one meal a day although I know Henry would be very happy with that. But I am terrified of Bloat/Twisted stomach, so would rather spread out the feeds. Sorry I don't want to scare anyone but I did have a dreadful experience many years ago with one of my beloved Setters. I must say she was a little Miss Piggy and maybe ate her food too quickly. But it still hurts.....

[Louise Perry]

Reuben does get left with a kong and plastic bottles/treat ball etc with kibble in, so I suspose he is getting a small handful perhaps mid morning. It is very difficult to work out what is best when this bloat issue is hanging over our heads. He is treated on the morning walk too ESP for recall and lead walking. At the moment when home I randomly blow the whistle twice and give him a high value treat like chicken or cheese etc to try and reinforce the whistle recall.

[Louise Perry]

Pamela, sorry to hear about your bad experience and it must make you extra careful of how you feed I am sure. Reuben's kibble (Arden grange) is huge round things in order to make him eat slower and I presume this helps

[Dee Rance]

I will scare everyone Pamela, I am not fussed about upsetting people with regard to feeding....
Once a day feeding is a time bomb waiting to go off...Bloat is a very high risk if you only feed once a day..Please Please DON'T feed once a day. It is one the main reason for bloat..
Give a small meal later on in the day, and NEVER NEVER exercise just before or just after a meal...and feed evening meal just a little bit later, I feed mine at ''about'' 8 am and 8 pm I exercise at about 5 pm when it is hot, so that they are not running around in the main heat of the day. I know that it is difficult when they are fussy about food, My dog hasn't actually eaten a meal by himself for a couple of months now, he gets it put into his mouth, (and he is quite happy about this) this only takes about 5 minuets in the morning and the same in the evening, It is not ideal, but he is happy ''eating'' like this and he is now a really good weight, and what comes out of the other end if fine too, so I will keep doing this until he starts eating voluntarily, These dogs are renowned for being fussy eaters, and left to their own devices they would just stop eating, so they need a little help now and then, I have found bitches to be difficult around their seasons, but never really had much to do with dogs before.
So please feed at least twice a day, if you have never had a dog with bloat, then you probably won't worry too much, but having lost many dogs with this dreadful problem I for one am very pro-active re feeding, exercise, and breeding...

[Louise Perry]

Thanks Sue, I have decided to go with your advice and today, i gave reuben a small bowl of meat and kibble a while after exercise and then a main meal at 6.30pm ish and already feel much better about it. reuben would never just eat a bowl of kibble, so i do put fish, eggs, meat etc mixed in with it to encourage him to eat and it seems to work.
And exactly i agree we can only take precautions that we feasibly can and just hope we are not one of the unlucky ones otherwise we wouldn't go anywhere and worry ourselves silly!

[Louise Perry]

Yes he loves pilchards either in brine or tomato sauce! he also really likes Tuna too but i am not so keen on the fishy dog breath afterwards - eeekkk
I did find out yesterday that he doesn't like bananas as there was a little pile of them placed around an empty bowl. Silly me there I was thinking dogs ate everything!

[danielle rowles]

I also feed Arden Grange, mine all have the lamb and rice although in the past when Elise has had a litter I've put her onto the prestige, though I always add warm water to their dinner and leave it a few mins before feeding, the reason for this is that the kibble doubles in size when left in water and I dont want this happening in my dogs stomachs!!

[Astrid Landsaat]

Hi Louise,

because of the bloat risk I always fed 3 times a day. Because of her MO and epilepsy I am feeding 4 times a day. At 10.00 hours, at 12.00 hours, at 16.00 hours and the last meal at 22.00 hours. That is a schedule I have to keep because of her meds. I am feeding her Acana Lamb & Apple formula, this is free of chemical preservatives. If she didn't had MO I would consider a raw food diet. (You really don't want to know what's in dog food). Even then I would feed her 3 times a day. About food I am still learning!

[Ilona & Gina]

Once I went to a naturopath who told me that dogs shouldn't eat more than once a day, and fast once a week in addition. I do not follow her recommendation and feed twice a day.

Reuben seems to be fine with one meal. Otherwise he would be hungry in the morning. However, two meals in the evening seem a lot, as the digestive system needs some time to work throught the first lot.

What you do with waiting with the walks seems to be the recommended thing. We read a lot about setters and food and do exactly the same.

Anyway, there are a lot of conflicting theories, and I am still confused. The naturopath recommended tables for the dogs (little footsteps really). And then I read on this forum that tables actually promote bloating. Now what's right??

[Dee Rance]

This is not so, just because he isn't hungry doesn't mean that it is the rite way to go, if you feed once a day, you are loading the stomach with too much food, giving the food in two meals means that you get the correct amount of food into the dog, WITHOUT over loading his/her stomach.