New here, question about feeding.

[Sunnroc]

How's it going everyone, I'm new here so I'd like to say Hi. Anyhow, I was wondering about a more effective way of feeding my dog(s). Right now I pretty much keep a constant supply of dry food in my dogs bowl, which I've heard isn't quite really recommended. I was wondering how many times I should feed my dogs a day and how much of a quantity. Any suggestions would be appreciated, Thnx.

[kazuo]

Welcome !

If you could post your dog's age and weight, I think we could give you a more precise answer.

For adults, I think twice a day is a good schedule. Be sure to feed a high quality food. There are many posts in this section that people have put their 2 cents in about what foods they like, and feel are high quality.

Hope that helps.

[Sunnroc]

My dog is closing in 11 months now @ about 'round 55 lbs. I am guilty, I have not been feeding my dog the quality food that everyone in this forum talks about. As a matter of fact, Most of the dog food that everyone here speaks I've never heard of until this forum. I have been feeding my dog pedigree and purina. When he gets sick of one I usually feed the other. But right now, he doesn't seem to be liking either one. I am going to be getting my dog some Wellness Super5mix. Out of curiousity though, what is prefered, dry food or wet food? Thnx.

[damienApbt]

my boy is the same weight. if you look on the back of the bag of food its written the amount of food per day. for me its between 2--2 1/2 cups. so i give him a bit more than a cup it the morning and then at night the same amount.

yeah, i was guilty of the same thing. feeding crappy food and all. i just switched to wellness. and so far so good. you have to ween them off of their original food though. just mix a bit of the new food in at the bigining then eventually add more then so on...

i think dry food is the way to go. it can get a bit expensive the other way. some people buy wet food just to add a good diet in with the dry food, or for a special treat dinner then and again.

[jmann4]

Out of curiousity though, what is prefered, dry food or wet food? Thnx.

I've always been told it helps clean their teeth when they eat dry. As for wet, some dogs just prefer wet food.

[TB]

Hello! I actually only feed dogs once a day, unless they are puppies or very small dogs. But I mainly do this because I'm caring for a large group of dogs.

The whole thing about dry food cleaning the teeth is a bill of goods the petfood companies have sold us, but it's not true. :naughty: 80% of dogs eating commercial foods have periodontal disease by two years old. Dogfood companies are actually working on developing kibbles that will do some scraping of the teeth, but the current types are way too small and dogs don't do much chewing, tending to gulp their food. If you want your dog to have clean teeth and breath, feed him/her some bones every week.

Canned food is perfectly acceptable to feed, and I'm not sure why it seems to have gotten a bad rap. In my opinion, canned foods, while more expensive generally, tend to have less preservatives and possibly a lower amount of grains. Dry foods all have at least 50% grain content, so they are the proper consistency to make it through the extruding machines. Don't know about baked foods like Wellness, though

Sunroc, you're lucky that in the Bay Area, you should be able to find any of the foods mentioned

[jmann4]

Since I don't feed my dogs dry or wet food I was just going on what I've been told etc... I don't believe the crap commercial dog foods put out, nor do I believe a lot of these "all natural" dog foods have the best interest of the dog in mind. They are cashing in on a trend just like any business would.

I used to feed Innova dry and wet to my dogs. Honey didn't like the dry and Angel would eat the wet but not all of it. So I fed one dry the other wet.

[Sunnroc]

Ok, so for example I would feed my dog the amount of food according to weight, so for instance let's say 2 1/2 cups per day, that would also be per feeding. 2 1/2 cups in the morning and 2 1/2 cups @ night, correct. This is what always confused me about the feeding instructions on the back of the dog food. So I would just guess and estimate how much food he needs. And yeah, I do have all that food(s) mentioned here disposable to me. As for weening them off their old food unto the new, I've been quite irresponsible and just switching it. I know, not a good thing for the dog.

[mydogroxy]

let's say 2 1/2 cups per day, that would also be per feeding. 2 1/2 cups in the morning and 2 1/2 cups @ night, correct.

no, the 2 1/2 cups is per day. you would split that amount into two feedings, as someone else mentioned above. so your dog would get a little more than a cup of kibble at each meal.

[TB]

Jmann, I completely agree. The dogfood companies have their bottom line in mind, not the well being of dogs! And the all natural foods are still highly processed, cooked foods, so the value of them is suspect in my mind as well. And I certainly didn't mean to jump on you, it just drives me nuts when I hear people saying that you have to feed the dry food for the teeth! My allopathic vet even says this nonsense Yet, along with spays/neuters, dental cleanings are the major part of their surgery!

Sunroc, I don't pay the least heed to what the serving recommendations are. The amount of food varies a lot with the activity level, age, size and metabolism of the individual dog. I feed to maintain their body condition. The feeding recommendations are just a place to start. Just my own opinion, for what it's worth.

[jmann4]

I didn't think you were jumping on me. My vet told me the same thing years ago when I asked about the difference.

Finding how much food your dog will eat is an experimental process really. People need to learn that dogs don't eat that much in reality, matter of fact their bodies are designed to go a day or two without food at all.

I suggest people play around with different amounts until they find what level of food maintains their dogs ideal weight. Which takes some time.

[Sunnroc]

Thnx alot fellas, all this information really helps alot. I'll just experiment a little. From my dogs activity, I could tell he has a fast metabolism. So I'll just fiddle w/it a bit. Oh, and another thing... Do you guys have a set eating/drinking schedule for you dogs, like hourly times throughout the day?

[moto1320]

For Innova at least, the dry food has about 3X the level of protein and fat as the wet so if you have a high activity level dog you could drop alot of $ on wet food getting the same calories. I used to mix a little wet with my dry to keep Daisy interested but have been able to move to just wet.

[barbponys]

I'm not a fan of canned food at all. I don't like that so many of them supplement the crap out of them. The dry food they supplement the crap out of too, if you mix them you might as well by a bottle of vitamins every day and pour it down your dogs throat. There are all meat canned formulas, Wysong as an example, that are just that........meat. No additives, no grain, no crap. I still don't feed it though.

Pat

[mydogroxy]

Do you guys have a set eating/drinking schedule for you dogs, like hourly times throughout the day?

i think most of us have a regular schedule for feeding. in my case, roxy has breakfast (her veggies/offal/sometmes grains) at around 8am and her dinner (rmbs) anywhere from 6pm-7pm. sometimes she eats her dinner later because she will not eat if i'm not home and i work late 2 days a week. she has water available all the time.