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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?

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Oh do you not have a back garden? With Ollie we put his food in his bowl on to his stand and then he eats outside and then stays out in the garden all day.
oh yes we have a garden but i wouldn't leave him out there all day, not in uk weather and i wouldnt trust him left to his own devices. Does Ollie stay out in the garden because you are not there then?
Here in our area outside of Chicago I would never trust leaving a dog outside all day. First the weather, either too hot or too cold. Secondly, people steal dogs! Horrible stories of being used for dog fight bait or reselling them for profit. Either way Cash would freak out being away from me for very long outside. He will play out there for 10 minutes but then needs to be with someone. It would be nice to have a dog who could safely be outside alone but not in the suburbs.
We can't leave Dash outside all day - much as he would love it - because our property is not fenced. He's got plenty of acreage to roam around (including a lovely creek and woods) and he knows his property boundaries. But his wanderlust (i.e., an evil squirrel) would encourage him to drift over to the neighbor's...and then to their neighbor's...and then to their neighbors...and the next thing I'd know is he'd be in Pennsylvania annoying some nice tourists. I don't worry about him being stolen as we are too rural for that but I do worry about him wandering off and being pesky. Happily, EVERYONE in the area knows Dash and would be quick to tell me if they'd seen the big red dope wandering where he shouldn't (and I am speaking from experience).
Research says that feeding from a stand gives you a greater chance of Bloat, it is wiser these days to feed with the bowl on the ground, it has been found to be more natural, and less likely to cause bloat.
I fed my cockers once a day for a long time, and ended up with weight problems, one being to thin and the other too fat!
We started to feed twice a day and it was easier to control either problems.
When I got Pitanga and my other bigger dogs, I decided I wouldn't even risk feeding once a day. All my dogs eat twice a day. The guard dog and the cocker are good eaters so I have no problem feeding them and plus they live in our "farm" outside with lots of freedom do do their business, soo poos are not an issue for them. When they are on the farm, Pitanga and Romã have the same life style, except they sleep with me. Otherwise they are outside running around and playing with the other animals all day long. I sometimes have trouble with Pitanga eating her meals and have to hand feed or to use canned food to trick her into eating her meals, Romã is the most reasonable eating dog I have ever had: she eats untill she is full, and she is full with the correct amount of food a dog her size and age should eat.

When they are with me during the weeks (wich is 90% of the year) I get up, go to college (they go with me :D) walk them there and leave their food inside their kennel during my first class. At about 12 am all the food is gone. Then they have short walks and play times between my classes or will be assisting to a class sometimes and by the end of the day we do our big walk.
I arrive at home between 7 pm, and 9 pm at wich they get as much food as they want until the next morning, and normally none will eat more than what they are supposed to, but being so thin, if any asks for more they get a bit more, at most half of a portion.
Can I come and live at your house please..Their dinner sounds wonderful, meat and three veg. I would love to find something that my boy will just eat by himself, am very interested in this diet. Do tell more??? PLEASE!!!
Now why would you think that I would disagree, only chicken wings I don't like...but necks are mainly cartilage the bone doesn't seem to splinter as do the wing bones, what is ''Complete bix'' is that the same as the Royal Canin that I give, And Fin looks at me as if to say ''what you have got the be joking'' I do feed raw lamb mince never tried Gizzards, Bit will give some of it a go, As you say if it ain't broke don't fix it, but Fin's feeding is definitely ''broke'' have been trying all kinds of things but I will give anything a go, and it sounds good to me, only problem is where the h**l do you get the chicken necks from. and are they fresh or dried??
Thanks for the tips, you are never too old to learn, too old I may be but still willing to learn, from some that is....
We also feed a lot of raw foods and bones, the funniest thing was that when we ordered ribs, I thought they'd look like the ones humans eat (we're vegetarian) but no...they came attached to the sternum- they LOVED it! We also feed veg (put through the processor as it's easier to digest) and rice- in fact they love the veg/rice/tripe days a lot!
They also love sardines,tuna,cheese, lard(! when Freddie was thin). When Izzie was off her food after a pyo/spay she found 'junk food' quite tasty-the most expensive little tins of food made for mini dogs (£1 for a tiny tin) typical!
Interesting topic, by the way, quite like he 'lifestyle' chats.....
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Hi Susan,
Yes I quite agree with you with liking lifestyle chats...one learns a lot on how to best look after our dogs! I, like you, only use complete food (and usually only the type made of meat and rice or fish and rice) as a back-up. My dogs love their raw tripe, although at this time of year the smell can be rather off-putting....so then I feed more meat. I have always fed twice a day, at lunchtime and in the evening! So Louise if I were you I would feed a light breakfast before you go off to College because I don't think it would be fair on a young dog to wait all day on an empty stomach....but I suppose you will have to try and see what works best for him and you!

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