Sierra is up to her old stuff again. Taking a mouthul and going to play, lay down, etc. I am at my wits end! She is DEFINITELY not eating enough - want her to be healthy. By the time 15 mins rolls around - I am removing the food and she has only eaten 2 mouthfuls or so. Then she goes back to the spot looking for her bowl - it's crazy. I throw more Wellness in the garbage than she is eating - it's ridiculous for the $38 I pay for a 30lb bag!

She was doing great for a few weeks - eating it all within 15 mins - still going to lay down, play, etc - but eating 75-100% of it in that amt of time. I am not over-feeding her. I only put out about 2 1/2 cups a day - 1/2 a.m. and 1/2 pm (not the suggested amt of 3-4 c a day!!). I know for sure she likes the food.

At this point, think I have no recourse but to just leave her food out all day. She is going to be 8 months next week and I am sure once I start it - there will be no turning back to the 15 min routine.

I am clearly out of patience and ideas!!

Signed,
Extremely ticked off in New Jersey!:bang:

We think Java was free-fed at the foster home, so she tried that trick for the first couple of days. We were planning to switch to mostly-natural diet anyway, so it was fine with us that she not eat a lot of the Puppy Chow. We'd give her 15 and then toss the rest... it took her about 3 days to figure it out.

I guess you have to do what you think is best, but it just seems like they're more excited about eating when it only happens a couple of times a day. Maybe she'll get past this. If you think about it, dogs in the wild wouldn't get two meals a day, every day. Maybe just keep with the 15 minutes... or just give her less.

Good luck!

Give her less? She is almost 8 months and weighs 34lbs. Bag says feed 3-4 c a day and we only give 2 1/2 - still not eating all of it in 15 mins.

I feed Wellness Super5Mix (switched from puppy formula when the adult teeth were in) -- my 9 month old puppy weighs 65 pounds, eats just a smidgen more than 2 cups a day and if anything is a bit plump. After reading your post I got the bag out to take a look, which is probably the first time in 25 years I have looked at an official feeding chart! I look at the dog, not the bag... Actually, in this case they were close to being on target, as the bag suggests 2 1/2 cups for my puppy's weight.

If you can't see her ribs, she is probably eating plenty. It is unlikely that she would starve herself, but it does seem likely that your anger and frustration over the situation could do some harm to both of you.

Of course, free feeding is not the end of the world. I free fed my first Labrador. Her favorite time to eat seemed to be 3 a.m. Years later when I was remodelling the kitchen I found little piles of ancient kibble under the cabinets, where some long dead mice had dragged it... EEK. No more free feeding here.

When we adopted our dog and brought him home he would not eat and I was very worried about it. I put half of his food in the bowl in the morning and if that was gone by the evening feeding I would put the other half in. We did this for at least the first two months and then we added NUPRO to it. He now eats two meals a day in about 5 minutes and he is sitting there waiting for the food.

Is the kibble small? If not is she objecting to the size of it. We finally switched to Eagle Pack Natural and the kibble is a little bit smaller than some of the others we tried and he seemed more willing to eat it but he is 5.

Good Luck. I know how frustrated you are. All you want them to do is be healthy and you know you are not healthy if they are not eating!!

Like 3dog, I don't even look at the label. I would guess I am supposed to feed Coop at least 3 if not 4 cups a day, but he looks splendid on the two he gets if not a bit plump.....

Re your dog's weight, is she skinny? or just small? There is a big difference, a dog will only be as big as she is genetically programmed to be, like us! All the food in the world can't change your basic genetic makeup.

IMO, freefeeding is only going to exacerbate your problem.

She is small, not skinny. She has filled out over the past 2 months, but I would describe her as lean.

Then you are blessed ..... a thin lab will be a healthier lab when she gets older....less stress on the joints.

Here is what I would do if I were you (keep in mind my horse of a dawg is 80 lbs).....

I would give 3/4 cup in the AM for 15 minutes and then pick up....then 3/4 cup in the PM.....do this for a couple days and if she is acting ravenous, then up the ante to a cup. I think she is just too used to having it whenever she wants.

My friend has a male lab, same age as Cooper, and he is 55 lbs. Lean and not so tall. Your girl may never be the standard size, and thats ok (unless of course your were planning on showing her, but thats a whole different issue).

She doesn't have it whenever she wants - we have been picking it up after 15 minutes for months. She gets 1 c in a.m. and 1 in pm with a sprinkle of olive oil on top. She may take a mouthful from both and that's it. Next day she may eat it all, etc. It is just very frustrating. Some friends suggest I just put out 2 cups and leave it out all day for her. Once I do that I am SURE there is no going back to the 15 minute thing.

I don't care what she weighs - at all. I just want to know she is healthy and in good shape. It's hard to know if something is wrong with her because she eats so out of whack.

Just looking for a little consistency with her eating habits.

We have Tanner on a schedule of eating twice a day. If he didn't eat it, I would pick it up. (LOL! Not eat it....that would be odd for Tanner...he usually inhales it in 30seconds or less.) You need to do what you feel is best for your dog. If you need some reassurance, our vet (who owns a lab) believes in free-feeding. His theory is dogs in the wild eat what and when they need to in order to survive, and as long as an animal doesn't have a weight problem, free feeding is the "natural" thing to do. Sierra seems healthy, so I wouldn't worry about it. Do what you feel is best.
Just my :2cents: Best of luck. Keep us posted!

I think I have a different view of "Free Feeding"...

Free Feeding or Open Bowl is the equivalent of a Human All you can eat buffet. What some pet owners do is fill the bowl up and make sure that it is always full.

Now Hitch,

If you are set on feeding the amount you feed per day then I think it is fine to leave it out. If you are only feeding 2-3 cups per day, then if you have to leave it out all day, that is fine.

Have you feeding your food with warm water? Just add some to the bowl and let it sit for a couple of minutes. It makes a sorta of gravy that sometimes can entice the appetite.

If you are feeding on a schedule due to having to be absent in the morning and evening, then my this time in your dogs life it is time to get tough. Put the bowl down for as long as you can until you have to leave, and if the dog doesn't eat, well then it doesn't eat. Soon it will get the clue to eat when it is available.

Don't give up, there is a way to overcome this hurdle!

Hitch - I don't have any helpful advice for you, but I have been following your theads with interest. I have a 19 month old female, VERY picky eater. I want to thank you for the olive oil suggestion in one of your posts - my dog has been eating much better since I've been sprinkling that on her food.

I started feeding her Chicken Soup back in May - she ate that pretty well until November then seemed to lose interest, and putting her food down for only 15 minutes at a time didn't work.
The oil's been working now for about 5 weeks.

I seem to recall that the oil only helped your dog for a short time- sorry to hear that, as it is frustrating when you dog doesn't eat - but at least your info helped someone else. Thanks again.

If she does eat her food from the Kong, why don't you buy a couple more Kongs, stuff them with the food and offer them during the day?
I don't know how much food a Kong can hold, may be I am talking nonsense... sorry

Just to illustrate the difference in individual dogs' rates of metabolism, I have a 6 year old who weighs exactly the same as my puppy and is on the same Wellness food. She eats over 3 cups a day, while the puppy gets just over 2. That would seem to defy all logic, but the 6 year old is lean, while the 9 month old is slightly plump. If I insisted on going by the numbers I have no doubt I would have a porker pup and an emaciated middle-ager.

How is Sierra's coat? That's the first place any lack of nutrition would show up although seasonal and/or hormonal shedding can muddy the waters.

Most Labradors are "easy keepers" which should translate into $$$ saved in the food department, but unfortunately all too often results in overweight, unhealthy dogs. As Kitkat pointed out, if Sierra keeps herself naturally lean, count your blessings.

Thanks everyone for the advice/support. Guys, we have tried it all. HEre are answers to all your questions/suggestions:

We did the warm water thing - she didn't touch it. We tried a different bowl - nothing. We moved her bowl from a little cubby where our fridge is to the middle of the action (that helped a little, so it stays there).

As far as her coat goes - now that we are off SD and on Wellness - it's beautiful. She's soft now and has a sheen. Very little shedding. Had a lot more shedding when on SD. She used to eat SD dry with 1 tbsp of SD can. She ate better at first, then would eat around the dry. Now that we changed to Wellness, we tried wellness dry, adding some wellness can, then dry with shredded NB food roll on top, olive oil, etc.

I've had a few more ideas. The reason I am hesitating about the free feeding is because I have read quite a bit that says food whenever they want it means they are in charge, food when we give it means we are in charge. Don't want to screw up any training - she is pretty good. Also, I am out of the house from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Therefore, she would only have access to the open bowl before and after those hours which are basically her feeding times of 6:00 am and 5:30 pm. Does it make sense to even go down that road ??

I have considered letting her eat whatever she will eat in the 15 mins and putting the leftover in her kong. She will eat all of that - tried it one day as an experiment. So I know she loves her food. Then considered continuing with the 2 feedings for 15 mins and giving the rest throughout the day as a treat. WE don't give a lot of treats daily, especially because she is a such a hop with meals.

When we try something new - she inhales it for 2 days and then, loses interest again.

So....after all that - opinions - go with free feed or do the 15 mins at her scheduled meal times and put left over in Kong for treat??? At least then I know she is getting her food in daily.

Thanks everyone.

How much exercise does your dog get? Lucy can be fussy with her food too. I feed her wellness ,if she's not interested in eating alot I find that its times when she doesn't get her walk of the day or I don't play ball with her outside . She's 20 mths. old and I have Rocky who is 4 mths old and he inhales his food . I do leave it out for an hr. and then I'll pick it up if there's any left. I've had dogs all my life and setting a 15 min. limit seems to be little too controlling. good luck , lucygirl.

Let me try saying this a different way!

If Sierra has a shiny coat, bright eyes and plenty of spunk, she is getting enough nutrition! Evidently she just doesn't need to eat as much as you think she does. Are you feeding her the puppy formula? Wellness is a very rich food, the puppy formula is like rocket fuel. Perhaps if you switched her to adult she would eat more (because there are fewer calories per cup and she wouldn't feel full as quickly) and this would make YOU feel better.

In a sense (and this ties in to what Duckbagger said) you really are free feeding her now -- i.e. letting her decide how much she wants to eat each day. Consider yourself blessed to have a puppy who quits when she's had enough! When I "free fed" my first Labrador I made sure there was always food in her bowl, so she never finished it. Some days she ate more, some days she ate less. Like your girl, she knew "when to say when" and was never overweight, which I believe helped her live to the ripe old age of 17.

Of course there is nothing like a little competition to inspire a feeding frenzy. In my multidog household I could never go back to that method -- my current dogs come from a long line of pig dogs, so ration I must...

She goes out for walks about 1 1/2 hr a day plus any running she does in yard when she goes out to relieve herself.

Yes, she is getting Wellness Puppy. Vet said he strongly suggests we keep her on puppy food until 1 yr because she is small.

I'll have to give this some more thought and then make a decision.

Thanks for all your advice.

Hitch, I am not a vet , just an old dog person, so take this with a grain of salt...

ALL of the Wellness formulas have been AAFCO feed tested and meet the requirements of "all life stages" -- that includes growth -- except the puppy formula, which is for growth and reproduction only. The Distributor in my area does not recommend the puppy formula for labs after 6-7 months, although the reasoning is this -- it's too rich and promotes obesity. Don't think that's your problem! But I do think you might consider that if my 65 pound 9 month old can thrive on 2 cups of adult, your Sierra might do fine on less puppy food. No need to try to force her into becoming an overeater -- because in reality, that's what our chowhounds are. They always want more, hence they scarf down whatever you put in front of them. While my dogs would do their best to convince you they would prefer to live a short fat life, I love them and want to keep them around.

I think, no matter what you choose, in a few years you will be able to laugh about this. Sierra will be fine. You will be fine.

In My opinion, I would just put the 2 cups in a bowl and let her eat it when she feels like it, I mean you could do the Kong thing, But I personally would save that for a treat. I say do whats easiest for you and what YOU feel Sierra needs, I wouldn't worry about the fact that she gets to eat when she wants to and not being in control of that, You control so many other things. Plus if you put it down in the morning , left it out till you left , then put it out again when you get home , and take it up a hour before bed, You'd still be controlling it.

I feel for ya! Molly's been acting the same way lately. We switched from SD to Kirkland L&R about 6 weeks ago, and for the first 3 weeks she inhaled her food the second we put it down. Then all of a sudden she started getting picky, but only in the morning -- in the evening, she eats every morsel in less than 5 minutes, but in the morning she sniffs it, then comes and sits by me and looks at me like she expects something else. I think this is because the first few mornings when she acted picky I drizzled a little olive oil on top of her food and she loved it, so I think she is waiting around to see if she looks pathetic enough, maybe I'll give in and put the olive oil on. So for the past couple of weeks, I've been leaving the bowl down for 20 minutes and then picking up anything uneaten. Since it's just dry food, she gets her leftovers plus enough to equal 2 cups in the evening, and always eats it without her drama-queen enactment. My husband said that maybe she just doesn't like to eat first thing in the morning, so I've been taking her for a walk before breakfast, but she's still acting picky. But she's not skinny, so I'm not too worried about it. I know human toddlers go through phases where it seems like they're not eating anything, and pediatricians always tell the parents not to worry -- they'll eat if they're hungry.

canter-
is the Kirklands brand - from Diamond feed? I thought I read that Diamond sells their feed to costco and costco calls it kirklands.. is that right?
HItch - how is your girl doing now.. what did you decide to do ?

I'm riding it out a little more - past 2 days ate 1 1/2-2 c for each day. That's good for her. There is no certain amt I want her to eat - just get freaked when she does the moutful routine and no more.

I'm playing it by ear for now. Think next time she only takes a mouthful, I will leave it out 30 mins and see if that helps. Then take it from there.

Just my preference, I never knew free feeding was supposed to be bad. I've always free-fed once the dogs were housebroken. Scheduled feeding is a must until then, but after that I just fill the dish and let them eat what they need. I've never had a problem with dogs overeating or being fat. I know some people don't like it, but I've been using Eukanuba large breed for like 20 years for all my Danes, and that's what Earnest eats. He looks great, he grew at an even rate, his poop is firm and small and doesn't reek, and his coat is beautiful. I fill his dish in the a. m. around 7:oo. 4 cups. Sometimes he eats in the morning, sometimes not. I just went and looked, and there's still quite a bit left in the dish, and it's almost midnight. We didn't do much today, I was busy with holiday stuff, and he just kind of loafed around the house and played outside on the cable run, so he probably didn't need much. On days we hike, sometimes he'll eat that, plus maybe 2 more cups in the late evening-he'll come and tell me if he needs more. I do pick the food up when we come back from hiking, and make him wait a few hours to eat, but that's a bloat precaution, not a feeding thing. He NEVER eats a whole bowlful at once, even after a hike, he eats some, comes back later and eats some more. He seems to like a few mouthfuls after a nap, or if I've been gone a while he'll eat some when I let him out of the kennel-but he doesn't really have a set schedule. Seems to me that a dog that inhales its food all at once because it has to eat it or lose it is more likely to have digestive problems than one who is not food-focused and can eat whenever he wants. Plus, Earnest rarely tries to steal people food, I think because he can always have some of his own food, so if he's hungry he doesn't have to go looking for something else.
I can see a problem if you gave the dog x amount and it ate it all, then you kept filling the dish so that you were feeding endless amounts, but I've never had any aggressive feeders- seemed like they averaged about the same every day depending on excersize.

Originally posted by silverlabmom
canter-
is the Kirklands brand - from Diamond feed? I thought I read that Diamond sells their feed to costco and costco calls it kirklands.. is that right?
HItch - how is your girl doing now.. what did you decide to do ?

Hi,
Yes they are the same formula. I feed Bailey Diamond Lamb and rice LB puppy food. Its great food!!

Just wanted to give my :2cents: . I free feed my puppy. I put her measured amount of food out at a certain time in the morning, and in the afternoon, I pick it up at the same time everyday. She has learned to eat it all by then. This has been working very well for us. Good luck!

Hitch,
We free fed Hudler for about 1 year until we got Maddy. We had to stop free feeding him for obvious reasons, mainly because Maddy was getting into his bowl.

We never saw a problem with it. It's didn't undermine the fact that we were in charge. We just left his bowl in the elevated stand, put his alloted amount in there in the morning.

The next morning, we'd add more to fill back to the alloted daily amount.

He's been a horribly picky eater his entire life. We've changed food tons of times. We'd supplemented his food with meat, cheese, eggs, cottage cheese and if you want to know the truth of it, we spoil him rotten.

Right now the only way to get him to eat his bowl 2 x a day is this...we smear about a teaspoon of butter into the bottom of his bowl and then dump his kibble on top. We've been doing this with both dogs for 3 months and there hasn't been one missed meal since. And their coats are very shiny to boot.

Hitch,

I figured out your dilema , Let me send Rufus and Terra to you, they are such chow hounds that poor Sierra will have to learn to eat really really fast , no matter what it's in ! .



Poor Rufus eats kinda slow compared to Terra, so when Terras done , she comes starts eating out of Rufus' bowl right along with him.

I think it has to do with how they were raised though, Terra was outside and food was thrown out once a day, so she had her mom and all her siblings, which means she had to eat fast to make sure she got enough, Where as Rufus lived a kinda pampered life and never had to scarf his food down to make sure he got enough, but he likes to eat, I Think he'd eat all day long if I let him.

hitch your pup looks good to me.the only thing i have against free feeding with a lab and bloat.at 8 months you can cut back on the food..is she atiive,i use to worry just like you but all my labs were differnt i would just put the food down and take it away after 15min.shes not going to starve her self,don`t worry about that.another thing i do is put the food in a really small boal and make it hard to get the food out,i use my parrott boal for jake my lab to slow him down some,works better then putting a ball in the dish.i`m useing the word female because that what i do with all dogs,pretty crazy.i use to put peanut in the food for 1 of my labs,oh ya it worked but it also made it very hard because he had got the better of me.there smart.as long at the pup is healthy and the vet has giving him a clean slate,then it might take him all day to get the idea i better eat .even if it 1 cup he will get the idea.that pup is smart hes got u going around and giving him every thing to please him,now look at me a i`m useing him.don`t worry.dana{IMG]