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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Pet Feeding Schedules
Do you feed your pets at certain times of the day? Or do you leave food out all the time? I have always left it out all the time. Maggie gets 1.5 cups per day so that's what goes in her bowl in the morning and she eats it at her leisure. Some days she doesn't even eat all of it. I've always done the same with the devil-cat.
We are most likely adopting another dog in the next couple of weeks and I don't think that will work with 2 dogs, so I'm thinking that I will have to move to morning and night feeding schedule. What do you do?
Re: Pet Feeding Schedules
We feed Lola once a day -- she's 48 lbs and gets 3 full cups. She doesn't usually eat when we're home, so we put her bowl out before we leave for the day. She doesn't always eat it right away, but when she decides to eat, she chows it down. We also give her little snacks when we get home or before she goes out again, if it's a sleep-outside kind of night.
I worried that once a day wouldn't be enough, but she's maintained her weight and the vet says she's in excellent shape, not overweight like so many dogs today. So, I guess it's working for us.... though we only have one dog to worry about.
I am a firm believer in pets adjusting to OUR lives and schedules, not the other way around. I don't want my pets waking me up in the morning for food, or (like my mother's dog) barking when it gets to be 5:30 and she knows it's time to be fed.
While it doesn't work for all dogs, I've got mine on an ad lib schedule. She has a big feeder that I fill about every 3 weeks and she eats as she pleases. I also do this with our cat.
We just got a new puppy in January so there have been some changes made and we are slowly progressing so that she can be an ad lib eater also. We need to feed her twice/day to get her on a schedule for potty training. This will control when she has to go outside and make the training easier for everyone, with less accidents. We take the food away from her after she's had enough time with it. So for now, the older dog is also getting fed twice a day like the puppy as we can't leave her food out all the time since the puppy will get it.
Our puppy has had no accidents for about 3 weeks so we will start leaving her food our for her for longer and longer periods, then when she switches to adult food she should be ready to just eat out of the self feeder that the other dog has!
It takes a lot of patience and persistance to train a puppy to be on YOUR schedule but I think it TOTALLY worth it in the end. Again, I realize this may not work for all dogs as some are BIG chow hounds and we did have to gage whether the new puppy was going to pig out on her food or not before we could consider doing ad lib, but she does very well. She usually doesn't eat all that we give her so I don't think I'll have to worry.
With Bosley I always would have food in the bowl and he would snack all day. Then we got George and he is a food monster. George gets a half a cup in the morning and then a cup at dinner time usually about 5 or 6 pm. We use to have to force Bosley to eat at dinner time because we would have to put his bowl on the counter because George would steal it all. But after a few weeks of training George he knows that is Bosley's bowl. They eat at opposite ends of the kitchen so that there is no confrontations. George has gotten a lot better, he knows the times when he is going to eat and will expect to be fed at those times
Bosley still snacks whenever. George will try to sneak some of Bosley's food but we always try to catch him in the act and redirect him....so far it works and we don't have to hide Bosley's food anymore 
We feed Wolfgang twice a day. Once in the morning, and once in the evening. We used to leave his food out all day, but being in HI with lots of bugs, it would just invite them to take over his food.
He's gotten used to the schedule and does just fine. We don't really have a set amount that we feed him though. He's on the lean side so we give him as much as he wants to eat. I think we may start trying a different brand of food soon since the vet wants him to gain at least 1 more pound.
We also want to get another pup and I think the twice a day feeding would work nicely.
We feed set amounts at set times each day, sometimes they'll leave food in their bowl though. But we cannot "free feed" since all of our animals would gorge themselves into oblivion! All of them are on Nutro Weight Control formulas.
Bella the cat gets 1/4 c. of kibble around 5-6 a.m. and then another 1/4 c. around 10-11 p.m. She has a bowl up on her kitty tree, far away from puggy nibbles! Boy when a kibble or two drops down onto the floor it's like pennies from heaven for the pugs!
The pugs get 1/2 c. each of kibble around 8-9 a.m. (in their own bowls although they tend to wander back and forth between the two and trade off) and again at 5-6 p.m. They also each get a chicken tender (basically dehydrated chicken breast jerkey) each morning and a few "cookies" (Milk Bone biscuits) throughout the day.
They have two waterers that are available to them all day/night and we refill them as needed (at least three times a week). The cat and dogs share the waterers.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
in general i think it's better to feed your pets at set times instead of letting them graze. it's also makes it easier for you to pick up on changes in feeding behavior when they are sick. (also makes it easier to feed them when they are sick b/c you can't sit w/them all day)
we feed our cats and the dog twice a day. i wait at least 30 min after waking to feed the cats b/c the last thing i want is for them to wake me up in the morning in order to get fed.
for larger dogs it's always recommend to feed them twice a day instead of once a day b/c it reduces the risk of bloat.
how exciting that you are adopting
what kind of dog...do you have pics? 
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
I used to fill the bowl up with food - no set amount - and leave it there for Mia to graze. However, I watched my friend's dog for six months when she was deployed and her dog has to be on a schedule. This dog - Dee Dee - eats everything in sight and cannot pace herself. Mia paces herself and eats when she wants but never over indulges (I realize she's a dog but you know what I mean). So when Dee Dee was living with me, Mia went on a twice a day schedule with a certain amount at that time. At first Mia wasn't a fan but she adjusted pretty quickly - especially when she learned she was going to go hungry if she didn't eat.
Now Dee Dee is back with her mom but Mia is still on a twice a day schedule. I don't stress about her eating her food right away though cause if it sits out for a little longer than normal, I don't have to worry about Dee Dee coming up to eat it.
my one beloved albeit very spoiled and demanding cat eats twice a day at pretty set times-he will not eat dry cat food only wet so he gets a small can of either wellness or his new favorite weruva in the morning and one can at night. my hubby frequently lets him have an afternoon snack of whatever he happens to be eating-not my favorite but what can i do. my furball has always maintained his weight not an overweight cat. however he is an absolute monster in the morning if we decide to sleep in instead of feeding him
Exactly the same for me. Miller is used to his feeding times and will remind me if I missed his meal time by following me around endlessly and putting his head on my lap with puppy dog eyes.
We have vaguely set times, but nothing is in stone. Both dogs and cats are usually fed before Ben leaves for work, but it varies from about 7.30-8.30am, and in the evenings it's anywhere between 7.30-8.30pm, just depending on our schedule.
Before we got a second dog, Korben used to free feed - he'd just browse on his bowl of kibble all day long. I think that was partly due to not having competition for the food, but also because he simply wasn't as active and therefore not as hungry - these days the dogs play all.day.long so he tends to be a lot hungrier, and they both gobble up their food pretty quickly!
The cats used to free feed, but now that they're outside all day, they mostly just eat a bowl each of kibble in the morning and then browse on a bowl after they come inside for the evening (they generally eat more in the evenings, so I'll give them their crunchies at around the same time that we eat dinner, and then another small bowl when I go to bed so they have something to nibble on overnight, as they tend to be active then).
And of course they always have bowls of water available.
I agree w/Jaime about pets having set food schedules. It helps to know if they're sick or whatnot. When we only had Kai, we used to free feed her when she didn't finish her breakfast. Then Sulu came and there was competition for food. We feed them twice a day (about 30 min after we wake up in the morning, and about 30 min after we come home at night). We feed them Wellness Core which is a grain free high protein kibble, and they only need 2 cups a day between the both of them. They gobble it up in about 30 seconds as well
How exciting you're adopting! What kind of dog? When we rescued Sulu I was on the fence about getting a second dog, but it ended up being the best decision because he's Kai's little brother now and we just love him!