hi everyone,,,

I have a dillema. my brother who has house broken a small chiwawa size dog is telling me to feed my dog only once a day for better controlling her poop schedule. However, this vet i went to told me to feed her twice a day since she is a big dog and that she can get gastro blah blah blah.

To whom shoudl i listen to? She is like 98 percent potti trained. She poops occasionally in the hallway of the apartment which she only does if she hasn't been outside long enough to have gone potti.

I feed her all natural stuff, mostly raw bones and some meat and fat around it. Also occasionally I will mix in some commercial dog food for the vitamin sources.

Thanks

My girl is 45 lbs and if I don't feed her twice a day she sure lets me know it. She's on the barf diet and is hungry all the time. She normally craps within 30 minutes of eating. Dogs don't have too long a digestive rtact, so they've got to make room for new arrivals.

Whether you feed her once or twice per day shouldn't affect the poop schedule... whether or not you feed her on time affects her poop schedule.

I also feed raw/natural and it is just as easy within my daily schedule to feed her in the morning and in the evening when I get home from work.

I know that some say feeding once a day is fine, but I can't imagine doing it.

My guys get fed twice a day and I expect they always will.

I feed her all natural stuff, mostly raw bones and some meat and fat around it. Also occasionally I will mix in some commercial dog food for the vitamin sources.

Just wanted to ask, taegello... I've responded to quite a few of your posts. Have you read any books on raw feeding? Are you following any sort of guidelines? Mixing kibble in with raw food is probably not your best option for including vitamin sources... dogs digest raw food and kibble VERY differently and I would be concerned about stomach upset. Do you provide any vegetables or fruit? I would suggest if you are going to include any kibble in the diet you should do so at a separate meal, and if it's only for the vitamin content, I think you'd do better to include a vitamin supplement, though if you have read books on raw feeding you should be able to provide all necessary nutrients with the food you're feeding.

We fed three times a day as puppies, and twice a day as adults. Just think, would YOU want to only eat once a day just so you stay on a poop schedule?

well, i was thinking more in lines of dogs aren't human, and we have different stomach, don't we?

don't they go in the wild for days without eating anything?

Some really hardcore BARF feeders that really try to feed their dogs like wolves will only feed 3-4 times a week!

So say your dog gets 2 lbs a day normally they'll advocate that you feed say 4 meals of 7 lbs each a week. Now you couldn't just start doing that you'd have to slowly work up the meal sizes and slowly cut down how often you feed.

I couldn't imagine feeding that way! Those hungry eyes would drive me crazy! In many of the raw feeding books I've read they suggest a 1 day fast a week. I can't even bring myself to do that. I feed twice a day and try to fast him for a day every once and awhile. I doubt that will change unless I see some really reliable solid proof that feeding less often is a healthier method.

Also, Keep in mind that raw food is digested much much faster than kibble which can sit in the stomach for 12-14 hours. So please don't feed both together in one meal.

Dogs (esp ones with deep chests) that are fed once a day are more at risk to develop the GDV/Bloat (twisting of the stomach, can be fatal if the dog isn't brought in soon enough...) most of the dogs that were brought in with this condition were fed once a day. Just another thing to ponder

As Dawg55 pointed out torsion is an issue and a large meal once a day could be one of the big factors with this dreaded condition. In the wild these animals are so well conditioned muscle wise, I would imagine it never happens.
We have always fed our dogs twice a day and always will. I do know that many field people feed only once a day and it would be an evening meal in this way the dogs are able to work all day :rolleyes:
Many on the natural diet also fast their dogs once a day, we have never done that LOL I know our guys would open the fridge door and get their own.