# Feeding Once a Day



## Ivy (Mar 16, 2011)

How many of you feed just once a day?
Are there any benefits from doing so or is it just for convenience? 
One thing that gets me is that would it be too much food for one sitting and bloat.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

I've considered it, but I'm not sure I'll go that route. 

The benefit is that you can feed larger cuts of meat, takes them longer to eat usually and it probably provides more dental benefits for them to have to sit and chew a bit longer than if it were two smaller cuts divided into two meals. 

I think there are a lot of once a day feeders with larger dogs. 

The main reason I am not sure it would work well for us is that to me I just don't see how feeding them once a day can give them energy all day. We compete at Dock Dogs in the summer and we spend some long days up on the dock. Usually start by 8 AM and some nights we dont get done until after 7 PM. Would my dog have more energy if I fed them all at once at 9 the night before, or if they had gotten smaller meals more often? I tend to go with the second choice. Going that long in between meals for a dog that works its butt off all day just doesn't seem like a good choice to me. But, thats me and my dogs.


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## MissusMac (Jan 6, 2011)

We feed once a day with no problems, and in fact he doesn't get hunger pukes any more. I think it also makes him more responsive to training, since we do that in the evening before he is fed.


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## Lisa_j (Apr 7, 2011)

We also feed once a day now. I had that concern at first as well but we have had no problems and only one of my guys is tacked. I am not brave enough to gorge feed yet though because of fearing bloat!


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## SilverBeat (Jan 16, 2011)

I feed once a day because it's easier for me. Much easier to eyeball his meals, and feed bigger pieces [he is only 30lbs.] Plus Wallaby doesn't get hunger pukes any more.

Northwoods- we don't compete in anything but I have not noticed any decrease in energy since I switched from two small meals to one big one.


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## Ivy (Mar 16, 2011)

How about the high tendency that large and giant breeds bloat? If I were to feed one large meal, would the risk get higher to bloat?


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## Jgk2383 (Oct 27, 2010)

My dogs train hard and once a day works for me. I still freak out weekly about bloat and panic but I do everything I can to decrease the risk, I make sure they are crated 2 hours after the eat and I switch the time of feeding almost every day. One day it could be early morning the next day late at night and the day after that in the afternoon and anywhere in between. I dont want my dogs to get accustomed to a schedule which I feel can contribute to digestive upset which in turn can contribute to bloat.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i absolutely love feeding my dogs...their enthusiasm, their delight in the food.....a year later and it hasn't gone away...

i feed twice a day...even though they are small...and i do what a friend of mine does....she doesn't gorge and fast...what she does is change the amounts

so if there is a bigger piece she doesn't want to cut down to nothing, then the next day they will get less.....by the end of the week, it all adds up...

and, whilst i don't have the skinniest dogs in the world....they are still tight and not roly polys....: )


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## swolek (Mar 31, 2011)

I used to feed once a day when I did kibble and I continued that even when supplementing with raw. But now that I'm doing homemade raw, I'm sometimes feeding twice a day. The reason is that I prefer to feed RMBs in the evening when I can relax and supervise my gulper dog. But my dog is used to eating when we wake up in the morning (which is at different times) and she FREAKS out if I don't feed her because she thinks I "forgot". So I always have to give her something, even if it's a small fish, haha. But her "main" meal is in the afternoon or evening, whenever I get home.

I wish I hadn't always fed her in the morning because I'd rather do just one evening meal. But it's not a big deal.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

We feed our Danes once a day. There are many benefits that have been mentioned previously.

I don't worry about bloat as much with my Danes because they all have gastropexies done to prevent it (99% effective).


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

I also feed once a day simply because I don't have the time any other time. Once a day, I'm there, 'just in case', and don't have to worry about them hurrying up their eating...which, really isn't a problem because they are usually done within a minute of me closing the door to their crate. Trust me, Sakari lets me know every single time that she is done by scraping the damn crate with her paws. If I gave her a tin cup, she'd probably rail that over the bars just to make a point.

Anyway, I have found, as someone else said, that it makes training a LOT easier. I come home from work, they do the bidness, I take them to run and poo/pee and then train a bit. Because they are hungry, they are more likely to listen at training time. They get fed after both dogs have had their time outside.

Never had any bloating or problems with the once a day thing. Girl gets 8oz a day...just seemed weird to split that up and boy gets a pound a day...so maybe it's not as much food as some people have to feed. But, still, no bloating. And hunger pukes were one time in the 8 months we've been at it, by the boy. That's it.


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## Ivy (Mar 16, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> We feed our Danes once a day. There are many benefits that have been mentioned previously.
> 
> I don't worry about bloat as much with my Danes because they all have gastropexies done to prevent it (99% effective).


What benefits are those? 
None of my dogs are pexied.


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## Pimzilla (May 1, 2011)

I'm a newbie when it comes to raw feeding since I've just had my puppy for a little over 2 weeks now. But I will just give my opinion about what I think. I got a master's degree in nutrition and even though humans and dogs don't always work the same way I think this is similar for us both. 
Whenever we eat something the blood is redirected to the stomach to take care of the food, process it, pick up the nutrients and so on, which usually leaves us a bit tired after a big meal and not fit for any kind of strenous activity. I'm not going to write something long and boring about how food actually can interact with gene activity because I don't want to bore you and I don't feel I know enough to discuss this too much. But there have been some studies (not on dogs though) indicating that a longer fast (1 day is enough) ending with a bigger meal can help build lean muscle mass and keep an individual healthy and alert throughout the day. 

My personal belief is that this would be closer to how a wild dog would eat, even though I'm sure they wouldn't get a guaranteed evening meal every day. But they still have to be alert and on top when they are hungry to get food. So as soon as my puppy is old enough I will definitely feed her once a day only.


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## JoeynZoey (Apr 25, 2011)

I feed zoey once a day I have been doing so since she turned a year. She is a very hard worker and at the moment we are conditioning for her breed type. I must feed her a larger meal as she is working her body even harder than usual. I also have concerns about bloat especially during conditioning time but I haven't had any problems and make sure to always feed one hour after hard work outs and to make sure she is on her bed for at least an hour after her meal. I also change the timing of feed depending on what time we are finished working out. I purposely change the hours of when she will work out to feed at different times. I also have a fasting day which is her complete rest day where she is only given as much water as she would like without any feed that day.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

We went back to once a day as well about 2 weeks ago, twice a day is okay, but for ease of feeding once is prime for us.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I feed all of my dogs once per day, aside from the puppy. 
I like that I can feed bigger meals for both mental stimulation and dental benefits. 
Less cutting= faster prep time! 
I feel that it makes my somewhat finicky eater (Annie) hungrier at meal time, therefore more willing to eat a full meal rather than pick the bare minimum off to survive throughout the day.
Convenience.


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## SpooOwner (Oct 1, 2010)

My puppy is 10 months old. She gets hunger pukes if she doesn't eat twice/day, so I've been feeding one large meal and one small. Is there an age when an LBP can be fed 1/day without getting pukes? I assume this is on a dog by dog basis, but I would like to know if there are some general guidelines. TIA.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

SpooOwner said:


> My puppy is 10 months old. She gets hunger pukes if she doesn't eat twice/day, so I've been feeding one large meal and one small. Is there an age when an LBP can be fed 1/day without getting pukes? I assume this is on a dog by dog basis, but I would like to know if there are some general guidelines. TIA.


Since each dogs different, there is no exact age. Start feeding those meals gradually closer and closer together until they are the same meal. That's what I did for my girls and it worked great.


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## sassymaxmom (Dec 7, 2008)

Max competes in agility and he just gets fed small amounts multiple times on class days and during trial weekends and once a day normally. I hold back a nice chewy for getting home is all. He was super up for his last trial with the best Sunday runs ever and had been free fed a whole baby goat that week. I am going to repeat that feed for the next trial although I am 90% sure it was the nice cool weather and nearby river to play in as much as the nice lean goat that revved him up.

Very interesting about the muscle building. Max's fat turned to muscle as soon as he was free fed those small very lean baby lamb/goats. He had been fed once a day for about a year at that point and only lost about half the excess weight.


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## Ivy (Mar 16, 2011)

T&T still seem quite hungry when they are finished their meals. Their weight is good, so I don't really want to up their rations. Would feeding them once a day help with them actually getting full? But then wouldn't they be hungry again later on in the day?


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

tyti said:


> T&T still seem quite hungry when they are finished their meals. Their weight is good, so I don't really want to up their rations. Would feeding them once a day help with them actually getting full? But then wouldn't they be hungry again later on in the day?


They will probably be more satisfied with a larger initial meal, I feed a different times in the day still, so sometimes he will get to eat in the am sometimes noon sometimes pm, just depends on your dogs. do they sleep late? mine does so if i feed early i actualy have to carry him out of bed to eat, he usually expects food at noon so if he's waiting by his bowl i'll wait a few hours later to throw him off a bit. They will ALWAYS act hungry as they are master manipulators.


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## AdrianVall (Aug 26, 2010)

We feed our two bigger boys once a day. The puppy is twice a day for now, but once he gets to be around 6 months, he'll switch to once a day. Its soooooooooooooo MUCH more convenient doing once a day.  They get hunger pukes every now and then when we started, but not so much any more. As others have stated.. training is a LOT easier.


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