I just find scheduled feeding an easier way to regulate and monitor the amount of food a dog is actually eating. As well as provide for another method of impulse control and a chance to work training we're doing.

Our breeder free feeds and suggested we should as well. Glad to see some other views. I will definitely monitor their weight.

Also remember that by having a good feeding schedule you will also have a good pooping schedule which is always a plus.

Free feeding a puppy = enjoy random poop times.

Koda wrote:

That would be a modified free feed. True free-feeding means there is food in the bowl at all times. The fact that you are measuring anything means that it's not truly free-feeding

Thats what we do for ours. I put 2 cups in the morning in one bowl. Both our younger husky and shih tzu eat out of that bowl. In the afternoon if it is empty, I will put 2 more cups in but thats it. Usually there is at least 1/2 to 1 cup left over the following morning. I have always done that with our pets and never had an overweight dog. of course a long walk at least once a day helps alot with keeping a dog trim.

We feed both our dogs twice a day. In the morning before work and during our dinner. If Danzig, doesn't eat his food in the morning, I pick up the bowl and put on the table and add however much more he needs at night. The reason I do this is because Wyatt (our GSP) will eat and eat until he explodes. Since Danzig is crated and Wyatt is not, Wyatt will go eat Danzig's leftovers when we leave the house. Danzig is pretty good at self regulating though.

I don't free feed, Karli is on a pretty strict schedule when it comes to her food. I did switch her food recently (her breeder had her on purina and I switched to Blue Buffalo grain-free) and she loves that so much better. She wouldn't eat the purina in one sitting, but she does with the BB.

My friend who has two dobermans used to free feed when she was in Hawaii. She had to stop because her female was about ten pounds overweight. The issue she's having now is that while her girl is at a good weight, her boy is stick thin and he gets 7 cups of food a day (and eats it all too.) But he's still so thin. So on top of what he gets in kibble she also gives him her leftovers.

cinnamonbits wrote:

her boy is stick thin and he gets 7 cups of food a day (and eats it all too.) But he's still so thin. So on top of what he gets in kibble she also gives him her leftovers.

Dogs who are overfed poop so much that they tend not to gain any weight. If she's feeding 7 cups, she's probably feeding some crappy filler food that isn't going to help anyways, and if she is feeding a good food at 7 cups he has to be pooping like a mad man. On a good GF kibble, my 53lb male only would get 2 cups... and a dobie wouldn't really be more than 20-30lbs bigger than him, so a good quality food at 3-4 cups would be more than enough

I'd say I do a "modified" free feeding. That being said, I only do it in the rare case that Sage wants to eat her once in a blue moon half a cup of food in the morning. Otherwise, even though there's two cups of food in the bowl, she'll just walk over and eat a cup and a half of it come night time. Same time. Every night.

I do know however that not every dog is like this. There's a GSD in the house that will eat ANYTHING in his bowl. I'd imagine free feeding for him would lead to one rolly-polly dog.

Quote :

Dogs who are overfed poop so much that they tend not to gain any weight. If she's feeding 7 cups, she's probably feeding some crappy filler food that isn't going to help anyways, and if she is feeding a good food at 7 cups he has to be pooping like a mad man. On a good GF kibble, my 53lb male only would get 2 cups... and a dobie wouldn't really be more than 20-30lbs bigger than him, so a good quality food at 3-4 cups would be more than enough

I was wandering about that...and she did say she switched to a cheaper food because of the dog she was house sitting. She's going back to what she was feeding before and hoping he picks up weight, I'll mention the overfeeding to her, thanks!

when i just had yuki, i could free feed. cause she will seriously only eat when shes hungry. and shed eat like a few bites here and there throughout a day. and on top of that she got so much exercise and has always been so fit.

but then i got zizzy, and scheduled feeding is a must with her or else shed eat til she popped hahahah.

so now i feed them accordingly to mine and my bfs work schedules. and it works out best.

I have to do a scheduled feeding with Nikko. He'll eat, and eat, and eat, and eat. He would never stop. No matter how big of a meal, no matter how much he's eaten all day, he's always looking for more. It's kind of annoying actually haha.

The breeder I got Yukon from told me to free feed him because they will get food aggressive, but I never fed Nikko that way, I always had him on a schedule and he was fine with that. I would feed him 2 cups a day split into 3 meals until he was about 6 months old...

When I got Yukon I put him on the 3x per day schedule, and every time he would act like he was starving and would spill his food all over trying to eat it. If you messed with him while he is eating he would dig his head further in the bowl like it was his last meal. If Nikko tried messing with him he would get very aggressive.

He is getting SLIGHTLY better with his feedings, but still gulps down his food in a matter of 30 seconds. I had to put him on a 4x per day feeding because he was getting sick at night. I am in the process of weaning him down to 2x per day now like Nikko is.

I think it would be very difficult to allow them to free feed, especially if your potty training. What goes in comes out, and if they are eating a irregular times it will be impossible to determine when they have to go poo. Having a schedule means knowing when the food you put in him is going to come out!

I don't free feed. If I only had one dog, than sure, but with two or more, nope. With two, I would never be able to tell who was eating what. God forbid someone not get what they need or get too much.

Are these small breeders that everyone is talking about, with only 2 - 4 dogs? I don't know any breeders with less that 6 dogs and none of them would ever free feed. in fact, I know a lot who are very against it.

No straight free feeding in my house. Carolina loves food way too much .

We do a modified free feeding when neccessary. We feed her 1 cup of BBW- Grain Free (duck) 2x a day, once in the morning around 7 and once in the evening between 5-5:30. If she doesn't eat her breakfast before both my husband and I leave for work, we put it in her kennel with her, but she doesn't really eat in her kennel. If she didn't eat all of her breakfast, I put just put her dinner in with her unfinished breakfast. She'll chow it down at dinner.

@Kristina - what does the throwing up bile mean in regards to how many times they are fed??

during the switch she starts to throw up bile during the day you may need to feed more in the mornings or it may not be time to switch to 2x daily.

I could never do free feeding either. Lucus is a bottomless pit and I enjoy knowing when he needs to poop.

eluke81 wrote:

@Kristina - what does the throwing up bile mean in regards to how many times they are fed??

during the switch she starts to throw up bile during the day you may need to feed more in the mornings or it may not be time to switch to 2x daily.

Dogs can throw up bile if the time period between meals is too much for their stomachs. Some dogs just can't handle not eating as long as others.


Both mine love eating and could never free feed, though can't quite do that with raw anyways.

Panzer came from a place where she was free-fed. She was skinny when I got her, so obviously she wasn't having too much trouble knowing when to stop. For a while, I had to free feed her in the isolation kennel because she just didn't understand to eat at the scheduled times (9am and 6pm). Now, she's a scheduled eater, which is what I prefer.

Lucy can free feed, too. She much prefers having constant access to her food, and can make her rations last.

Those exceptions stated, we feed on a schedule. Breakfast is fed at 9am, and the bowls go up at 10am. Dinner is fed at 6pm, the bowls go up at 7pm. We don't seperate the dogs for feeding, so we spend the hour monitoring the dogs, and making sure nobody strays and eats more from another dogs bowl. If a dog doesn't finish, or eat before the hour is up, we record that, and take the food away until next feeding. There are a few reasons we prefer the steadfast schedule.

1. It keeps the dogs eliminations on a schedule. I.e. I know my dogs need out at 6am to potty and 8am for a pre-meal walk. I know they need out at 11am for after breakfast potty, and to be walked at 4pm for a potty before dinner. Then, they need out around 7pm to potty, and 11pm for a potty and play, and then its bed.

2. It makes it easy to keep eating records for my vet, in case of a medical issue. I know who ate, how much, and when every single day. With 6 dogs, keeping good records at home is important

3. Makes it easy to address weight issues. If a dog gets heavy, it becomes easy to monitor and recalculate their caloric intake better. Also, I know when the last time my dogs ate was, so that I'm not trying to excercise them on full stomachs, and risking knotting their stomachs, just to keep their figures.

4. Mixie is a Lab. So if there is dog food left anywhere in her effective strike zone, she will sniff it out and eat it before you can register what you're hearing. If we didn't feed on schedule, Mixie would just eat everyones food always.

Elara would eat herself to death if we free fed! lol. I think Siku would do fine with free feeding, but she'd probably weigh a bit more. Scheduled feeding for us. Plus it helps with training. You can use their food as training rewards when they are hungry. For example, I'm teaching my two agility and they get their breakfast out on the A-frame with their back feet on the A-frame and their front on the grass. After a while, they'll think the "spot" position is the most wonderful position to be in which is great for getting them to hit their contacts on the contact equipment (A-frames, dog walk, and seesaw).

Tiff&Kya wrote:

We did this method as well when we fed kibble. I would put 2 cups in each bowl, and that was all they got. The next day, if food was gone, I would refill, if not, they had to eat what was in the bowl.

i do this method also with Zoe (my half Husky half ?) i put in 4 cups of food and that's all she gets until it's gone. sometimes it takes her 2 days to eat it all and some days it's taken her 3 days. once the bowl is empty she will get some more, she used to eat all four cups in one day but once she hit around 2 years old she slowed down eating.

with maya (my husky pup) she is on a scheduled feeding but once she gets older i will feed her the same way as i feed Zoe