I just did reading on free feeding...

So, I've just read this about free feeding negatives...


1) Free feeding delays potty training because it is harder for owners to determine when the puppy eats and therefore needs to go outside.

2) A lot of dogs eat out of boredom and some will literally eat themselves into obesity and oblivion. Obesity leads to many diseases and kills dogs.

3) Dogs can be less likely to be food motivated for training.

4) One dog can over eat while other dogs are not getting enough.

5) Can add to the factors of bloat

6) Owners may not be home after the dog eats and bloats

7) Owners may not notice a sick dog that hasn’t eaten that day or even for a few days if the dog free feeds.

8: Leaving food out all the time is not very sanitary


I personally disagree with most of this and I'll explain why...

#1 I'm going to rebuke because if you have a young puppy, he should be supervised when eating because of choking hazards etc. He should be supervised whenever he's not safely crated, ideally.

Free feeding for puppies is not just leaving the dog around food, it's leaving food in the bowl at all times. It doesn't constitute leaving the dog in rooms where you're not going to be at all... with food. If you do that, enjoy having food knocked over, bowls chewed to bits, holes bitten into walls, urine/feces all over... etc.

As puppies don't have free run of the house when in housebreaking mode, I don't really find that relevant. Free feeding young puppies is done differently than free feeding housebroken or adult dogs.

#2 Though it's a somewhat solid statement, I've never known dogs that eat like pigs. Dogs are not stupid for the most part and I don't think most family pets would eat WAY more than they should.

Overly greedy dogs, or breeds prone to weight gain (Beagle, Pug, Yellow Lab) probably should not be free fed unless they aren't voracious eaters.

IMO, fat dogs are usually dogs that are fed too much garbage (carb filled dog food, home cooked diets containing foods such as rice, excessive table scraps etc.) and never walked or exercised properly, rather than free fed a good food and given proper exercise.

#3 I'm going to strongly stand against because free fed dogs like my dog don't fill their bellies when they decide to head to the bowl for a nibble, it goes against being able to free feed... I also use low sodium, low fat sandwich meat or soft, meaty dog treats, or something else WAY tastier than kibble for treats, so it should not affect food motivation at all.. didn't for my dog

#4 While this can happen, it doesn't happen with me. Jade knows to never eat from Nigredo's bowl when I'm around. It's off limits and he eats his food, and she gets her meals... it's the way it works. She's fed in her crate downstairs and he's not allowed near her crate or bowls ever, and she's to leave his bowl alone. They are not left to roam house when I'm not here... they are secured separately so she doesn't get to "steal" anything either.

It's called training and basic measures. Teach a dog not to come into the kitchen, bedroom, etc., Teach a dog not to snatch from tables, plates etc... and you can teach a dog not to eat from another animals bowl or plate... same concept

#5 Nope! silly too! Bloat usually happens when the dog scarfs down a large meal, or eats a large meal then drinks tons of water afterwards. Tell me how free feeding would add to bloat more than any other form of feeding... nonsensical to me We've already established that dogs that scarf down food are not to be free fed because of high chances of weight gain

Here are common causes of bloat in dogs:

Rapid eating or drinking (can easily be done at mealtimes)
Eating only one large meal a day
A dry-food-only diet
Heavy exercise after a meal
Anxious or easily stressed personality
Abnormal gastric motility
Hormone secretion
Male gender
Being underweight
Advanced age
Deep-chested breeds

How does free feeding increase any of this??

6# While we all know the dangers of bloat, if you're free feeding a dog that CAN be free fed, the dog should NOT bloat any more than a dog that gets regular meals. We've already established that ultra greedy dogs cannot and should not be free fed. Dog is not ultra greedy, dog has no higher chance of bloating than any other way of feeding

#7 Firstly.. since WHEN was a lack of appetite the only symptom a sick dog had? I've never experienced this. Secondly... even if the dog is free fed, you should be able to notice about how often you're filling the bowls etc and easily tell when the dog isn't eating right. Common sense can easily be used to refute this one

#8 Clearly, free fed dogs are mostly kibble eaters since raw food and canned food cannot be left out for long before it expires. That being said, the "unsanitary" factor goes way, way down. No more "unsanitary" then leaving fruit in the dining room fruit bowl for a few days or leaving the bag of kibble under the kitchen sink.

Allow me to add this... "free feed" doesn't always mean "as much as a dog wants". For my dog, that's how it works.. but many owners free feed only a certain amount. Say they have 4 cups of food allotted to a dog per day. They will fill the bowl up to those 4 cups, but then the dog doesn't get anymore.

In conclusion.. while I understand that free feeding is a very bad thing to do to some dogs, most of what I read saying it's bad is purely irrelevant and silly to me. My dog does well on it...

ADDED: I know lots of the statements say "can" and "may" etc. but to me that just further reinforces that it's not applicable for all dogs or the majority of situations.

I have never been a fan of free feeding and can not see the point of leaving food around to become stale .

A meal for a dog should be something to look forward to with eager anticipation and this also helps to get the digestive process working (think salivation) .
I would hate to have my food in front of me all the time.

The food doesn't become stale that quickly. You don't fill a giant bowl and leave it for two days. I put food in the bowl each day, sometimes multiple times.

It's not even more convenient that mealtime feeding, so the lazy part doesn't even make sense. Why should a meal be something to look forward to? There is no solid evidence that free feeding interrupts digestion in any way.

Moreover, the food isn't right in front of the dog. His bowl is kept in my room and he knows where it is and is free to go there and get it whenever he likes.

Most people don't like it.. but the reasons behind their dislikes are mostly ambiguous to me. Oh, well! To each his own, thanks for commenting.

My dogs are hand fed, so when they do something I want to reinforce they get some of their daily allowance. They work and train for their food, sometimes they have to find it where ever I've hidden it.
The idea is that they are more mentally active and they seem to get a buzz out of working for it
I really don't think I'd ever recommend free feeding.

Bella gets her frozen raw chicken wing when we get back from our morning walk. On the rare occasions she doesn't eat it all up it is lobbed over the verandah to the marauding cats.

She is in the habit of getting a small dry treat whenever she has been left alone and I return or when we get back in from further short walks. It's just habit - we come in - she waits for her treat.

I used to put down a little dry meal for her later in the day - sometimes she ate most of it sometimes she played with it but I didn't leave it down - hell it's so dusty here you wouldn't leave your own food on the floor for ten mins!

Now that I want to slim her down a bit I don't give the little dry meal. Instead I put half a dozen dried bits into an empty plastic water bottle and she chases it all over the verandah and picks it up and throws it to get at the food. She loves this 'game' and it takes her longer to eat it. If she barks for more I put another 4 or 5 bits in. She's usually had enough by then - but interestingly it is less than I would have put down in a bowl.

Irrespective of how she is fed or what she eats her toilet routine is the same. You can set your clock by Bella - she poos on her morning walk, but not until we are about half a mile from the flat. Almost same place every day unless we walk somewhere different but it's always after the same distance walked. If I was to bring her home before that distance had been covered she would not poo until next time we went out. Funny things dogs aren't they? But it makes it very EASY having one like Bella who only 'goes' once a day and always at the same time. You know she isn't going to suddenly squat in front of a shop or house or while you are talking to someone!

I have never wanted to free feed a dog.

I think it all depends on the dog.

From the day I had her at 6 weeks old Chloe has always been a "snacker" and very rarely eats all her food at one go. Her food goes down around 6pm and from then onwards she'll "snack" taking a few mouthfuls at a time throughout the evening until her bowl is empty.

She's 4 years old now, very healthy, active, certainly not overweight, nor does she overeat and she's never been interested in treats either.

I long ago came to the conclusion that she can't cope with a large (for her) quantity of food all at one go.

Tonks and Remus get two set meals, but when Tonks was a puppy she was free fed mainly because she didn't always want to fininsh her food in one go so I left it there. Any left over was always removed at the end of the day and fresh given in the morning.

Lenny and Tonks were free fed by their choice not by planning, it's just the way they ate! Neither of them ever ate a full bowl of food and like to return to it for a nibble a bit later on. They were completely different types of dogs, one a fox hound cross and the other a GSDXCOLLIE x whippet lurcher. Neither had any food aggression issues and were kibble fed so I don't think hygiene was an issue, like you say Myra it's not dissimilar to leaving fruit in a bowl on the side....although we anno longer do it because Remus would steal it! Lol!

Thanks everyone for the comments. I personally would not recommend free feeding to most people either, but it works for my dog and some of the reasons I see against it are just silly!

I leave a handful of dry food out for the dogs when I go to work - sometimes it is eaten, other days not. I feed twice daily and at "meal times" I mix dry food with raw or add gravy/mince to it for the dogs' main meals.