Feeding dogs on Friday

[Angela Clarke]

Hi again,

Remembering back to my childhood when we had all sorts of dogs, my father never fed any of them on a Friday. He would say they should have one day a week with no food and he stuck to Friday with each dog. Has anyone else heard of this ? or know WHY ?

[Ann Millington]

Yes.

One fast day a week was common in some circles, mainly working dogs - and probaly is.  In the natural world food is not always readily or regularly available and going without food for one day has no detrimental effect.

 

I think, shoot me down if you like, that owners today feed their dogs like human children - better than the majority of children, I venture to say.  Dog diets are scrutinised for their nutritious content and measured carefully.  It is not unknown for dogs to be fed three times a day, with treats in between - like humans!

No wonder owners battle to get some weight OFF their dogs! some health problems are exacerbated by over-feeding.

Do I hear the outcry, "My dogs are picky eaters, it is difficult to get them to eat anything. I have to hand feed them." etc.

 

Could I venture to say, 'dogs will eat if they are hungry'.  A day without food certainly sharpens the appetite.

 

My dogs were fed once a day, in the late afternoon, after 7 hours of mooching about - mostly dozing.  After being fed there were 3 hours of quiet TV watching then a quick last toilet trip before being shut in their kennels for the night.  Up at 6am for a couple of hours hard running exercise and road work.  They had a couple of dry biscuits when back on the lead to go home and a couple of the same biscuits before bed - but that was it.

They were fed together but with a lot of space between them - the food was all eaten within ten minutes - although I had to stand over any slower eaters to protect their share!  The dishes were collected up - incidentally by IRWS Pebble, who inspected each one for cleanliness and actually piled them up one inside the other for me!! ;o])))  Food was never left down - if you didn't eat up straight away, you had to wait til the next day....

 

Before you ask, I never had a dog that bloated, nor had any puppies that bloated either (their owners were expected to keep in touch with me and did)

 

The diet was raw tripe and wholemeal biscuit with the occasional tasty gravy and 'people' leftovers for a treat.

 

I leave you to pick the bones out of that!  ;o]))))))))))))))

[Rosie Dudley]

Back in the 1960/70's there was a vet called Buster Lloyd-Jones, he had definite views and advice on feeding, he started the company 'Deans' which is still going today. from their website here is an fact sheet for fasting http://denes.co.uk/advice/fact-sheets/fasting there are lots of other fact sheets covering many topics that are worthwhile reading and their complementary medicine is very good.

Buster Lloyd-Jones wrote several really good books which sell cheaply on ebay and are well worth buying. I adopted his feeding regime back then and still stick with it, he advocated that you feed a natural diet, meat & veg and biscuit being the basic ingreadients, but that you should never mix the two, you should feed the meat and veg part of the meal then the biscuit two or three hours later. I think he believed that the difference in the digestive rate between the two eliments when mixed, compromised the digestive system. There were no complete diets back then and the current Deans information dose not mention Busters advice, perhaps because they have moved with the times and now produce complete products. I can say in all the time I have fed this way my dogs have not had digestive problems, including Bloat, but that may be just luck and is not a scientific conclusion.

[Torie Lancaster]

Just a thought.....when was biscuit ever part of 'a natural diet'?

[eva ciechonska]

Buster Lloyd-Jones was a staunch disciple of Juliette de Baircli Levy who, though a qualified vet in conventional medicine, gave it all up in favour of a nomadic existence with her afghans.  She advocated a natural diet and made her own herbal remedies and supplements.  She maintained dogs should not eat meat before midday and that meat and cereal should never be mixed together.  She fed homemade wholemeal biscuit in the morning and meat in the afternoon.  Her dogs were fasted once a week.

Denes adopted many of her herbal remedies, at one time, comprising most of their range.  Sadly the majority were discontinued as the fashion for feeding changed.

Juliette de Baircli Levy published many books on natural rearing which I believe are still available today.

[Teresa]

The way I see it, it's a fact that our dogs come from wolves, but there are A LOT of years of human influence in dogs that wolves don't have, and therefore, the whole phisiology of our dogs is adjusted to living with humans, including their digestive tracts. They are able to have a better absortion of nutrients if fed smaller amounts trough the day and I personally feed 2 meals a day with good results. (and this is not considering other aspects like bloat, for example)

A friend of mine now has a wolfdog and I got a chance to spend a weekend watching this animal's habits. Even though it's a hybrid with only 20% of wolf in it, it sure is a lot diferent from our 100% dogs, even in feeding habits. There were very clear diferences in her behaviour when compared to the rest of the dogs, even when they were playing all together as a pack. For me, this was just a confirmation of how far apart dogs and wolves are nowadays, and therefore I don't think there is even a point comparing our modern dogs with wolfes anymore - they have drifted apart, and our dogs are sensitive in ways wolves are not, and I believe should be fed accordingly. 

They are as similar as we humans are to chimps - we don't deny we are related, but we are very diferent, and I don't see any of us living like a chimp because it's more like how our ancestors did!  :-)

[Torie Lancaster]

Very sensible comment Teresa......we simply cannot compare the two.

[Lesley Goldsbrough]

Nell starts to dribble for her evening meal an hour before it is due. I wouldn't fancy donning a snorkel once a week!!