Feeding, How often do you?

B

Bird Buster

Active member
So I have two labs I normally feed both morning and evening and was thinking of cutting them back to just once a day instead. What do you like to do with yours and is once a day enough on a larger dog? I heard some folks prefer once a day so was curious. BB
 
I feed once a day on regular days and twice or more a day on days I hunt. I feed in the evenings (I have two english pointers) and it seems to work just fine for keeping on weight. If it get very cold as it does here in Kansas I will feed twice a day to make sure to keep the belly's warm. On days I hunt I will feed before the hunt with a mix of wet and dry food, then again at noon with the same mix and then finally at night with both wet and dry. I mix the wet and dry for hunts because after some hunts the dogs appear to be too tired to eat and the wet is like at treat to get some dry food down them.
 
Ordinary day like today: half a ration in the a.m., half in the p.m., plus a piece or two of rawhide midday.

While hunting: all he wants the evening/night before a day afield. Nothing in the a.m. or during the day. All he wants after a day afield. No rawhide.
 
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when hunting, i only feed at the end of the day, never in the morning, with lots of water during the day.
 
Ditto, once early eve for me year round. I just feed measured portions to each individual to maintain optimum weight desired, which changes a bit during trials or hard training and hunting. I do switch from high performance to adult regular as well during lax times. But do not change times or how often I feed. Now you may run into a dog that this may not work for and have to figure it out for them, but I have never had one.
 
Personally, I like splitting the meals up to twice a day during the off season.

On hunting days I feed at the end of the day.
 
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once a day all year long but during hunting season i give them half the amount extra especially since i feed at night it helps to keep them warm and during the summer i change times to later in the evening when its hot becouse they won't eat when they are hot
 
Twice a day, I adjust amount of food accourding to needs and planned activity. The benifits of feeding twice a day in my opinion better address the dogs needs.
 
Once a day all year long also. I feed in the late afternoon or early evening. I switched from twice a day about a year ago and very glad I did. If the dog it going to hunt in the morning it's much better for them to be in the field on an empty stomach. They will run stronger and cooler than they will with food in their stomach. It also seems it's easier to get the dogs to eat all their food when I'm on the road, feeding once a day.
 
Puppies are a whole nother topic. They need to be fed 2-3 times a day. I have done it several ways with adult dogs for over 30 years and I have not ever found a certain benefit for feeding more then once with quality food. With food that runs through a dog and is not digested properly, that may have an effect as well. You simply need to do what is right for your dog with the food u use by experiment. I have seen plenty of negative affects of feeding in the AM when running and exercise, training etc. I agree with what Zeb said as well. A small portion can be OK as long as there is at least plenty of time for digestion before exercise. If not it will result in loose stool at the least.
 
I feed my dogs once a day at about 8:00 PM. I think this helps them during the season as they are already used to the schedule.

Puppies I feed twice a day until they are maybe 10 months or so.

I never run my dogs with food in their stomachs.
 
OKIEGunner said:
Twice a day, I adjust amount of food accourding to needs and planned activity. The benifits of feeding twice a day in my opinion better address the dogs needs.
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It may be (my opinion) that dividing the total fed into two smaller meals may offer a more complete assimilation or digestion rather than one large meal, however I agree that when training or hunting the dog should not be running on a full stomach and at the very most a small amount of food 2-3 hours before exercise.

In the end it all comes down to what works best for your individual dog.
 
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birdshooter said:
It may be (my opinion) that dividing the total fed into two smaller meals may offer a more complete assimilation or digestion rather than one large meal.

In the end it all comes down to what works best for your individual dog.
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I think all too often we feed based on what we know or think as humans. Our dogs are different. Look at animals in the wild. They will stuff themselves on a fresh kill and maybe not eat again for a couple days. I know that feeding once a day works great for my dogs, but it's like you said:
In the end it all comes down to what works best for your individual dog.
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I feed once a day in the evening with my adults (2 years and up) year around. This regular never changing schedule makes it easier to get them to eat during times of stress (I.E. Hunt tests, hunting trips). The added benifit of a set schedule is you notice any changes in appetite right away. My little pup is chowing down 3 times a day, this will change to twice a day when his growing starts to slow.

By the way Dutch is amazing! He ran some 20-30 yard land marks with delivery to hand. Then to show off I tried a Land-water-land mark and he nailed it. At 12 1/2 weeks he is awesome.
 
once a day in the evening-

years ago we'd hunt 4 days every Thanksgiving- second evening the dogs woudn't eat- if we fed them in the morning everything seemed to just go right thru them and they'd be making quite a few stops that first hour or so- no benefit

only thing that worked was Pro Plan Performance- few hours after the dogs were unloaded and allowed to chill out- they'd only go so long before they'd gobble what was in front of them- I'd weigh them before the season and the second day after the close- that PPP really proved something to me-

that's not to say I won't feed them something in the morning high in fat such as bacon if they hadn't eaten the night before and we expect to go hard

my nephews did something I wasn't sure was good or bad- they'd make sure to carry a couple turkey sandwiches in their game pouch- seems they figured out that if they had those sandwiches one of the 3 bird dogs would hang arround them- what could I say- they were down to shoot over my dogs- and they sure learned to be freinds with my Britt's- one would even go out during the night and sneak his favorite to sleep with

I think when you are really hunting hard more than a day you should look at real high fat and protien- meat would be the best to suppliment especially if they aren't eating in the evening

There was a fella I hunted with quite a bit- maybe his dog food was suspect- but the second day that pretty good pointer seemed to eat a couple quail- we weren't real sure- quail would drop- dog would go over there- normally good retriever just wouldn't seem to find those first couple birds
 
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