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Tillymint
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Location: East Sussex
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Female 
 
05-05-2009, 06:21 AM

cutting to 2 meals a day

What age did you cut your dogs meals from 3 to 2 a day?
I felt the time is now right for Tilly (6 months) as she is not really interested in her midday meal and will take it or leave it. So for the last 2 days I've cut to 2 meals, giving her a bit extra to compensate for the missed lunch.
However she's not eating the extra.
Also at what age do you change from puppy kibble to adult food? She was 15kgs a few ago when I weighed her and she has 2 handfuls of kibble for breakfast & 1/2 tin of chappie for tea with a bit of kibble on the side.
Once a week she has a bonio & once a week she has a tin of sardines (shared with the cat)
She doesn't have many treats any more - but usually a bit of fruit or a carrot. Also sometimes left overs from dinner.
But every time we eat she's there like a shot looking like she's never been fed!
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Lene
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05-05-2009, 07:09 AM
Ben wasn't very old (4 months?), when he was no longer interested in his midday meal... As soon as that happened, I cut it out... Now he's nearly 11 months old, and just gets his brekky and dinner... I'll keep feeding him 2 meals a day, because he's such a big dog...
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esmegirl
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05-05-2009, 07:11 AM
When I first had Lola she was coming up for 5 months and was on 2 meals a day with the recommended amount of food for her split into 2. Plus she had treats
now she is 7 months, still on 2 meals a day, but again with the amount recommended for her predicted adult weight split into 2.
I'm not considering moving her onto Adult food until she reaches at least 12 months or the food recommendations for her predicted adult weight.

I know with Lola she has a lot of Lab traits in her, and not many Collie, so I am going with food aimed for larger breeds as she is now +20 kgs

I also feed her at the same time as when we have breakfast and tea if that helps any, that way she doesn't "beg" at the table, or get under our feet whilst we are eating as she will eat hers then settle down and wait for us to finish.
She has treats durng the day, but not so many anymore, (I was using treats for training) and she seems to have settled down a lot

perhaps that is what Tilly is doing? She is probably finding her natural balance, and wants to be part of the dinner time table, so probalby putting down her chappie when you have your dinner may be a good idea!

I have probabyl waffled a bit, forgive me...hope you cvan catch the jist!

Beckyxx
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AlannaJohan
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05-05-2009, 07:26 AM
I think six months was pretty much the same point we moved our Malamute puppy onto 2 feeds a day for the exact same reason (only for us it was the morning feed that never took his fancy, and even the middle one was more of an "Oh, if I have to.."). We never leave food down for our dogs - if they don't eat it, it gets taken away after 5 minutes - 1) to prevent fights breaking out between them if another dogs gets interested, but 2) to stop them getting fussy over what they are fed. We have learnt that if they're hungry, than they will eat what's put in front of them it not given any other choice.
With this in mind, I would omit the extra completely. If she's rejecting it because her stomach feels its too much, than that's a good thing, but monitor her weight and if it drops / if you know she was just being fussy than you can try giving it another go when she's realised it's a privelege not a right.

We had him on James Wellbeloved as a puppy, and so did move him onto the Junior (rather than puppy mix) at about 6 months and then graduated him onto an adult mix around 10 months. But then being a large boned breed they do take that bit longer to develop, so you might make the transition sooner depending on what is recommended for your breed.

What you're feeding her sounds fine. We were quite strict with Stan because he was prone to getting a dodgy tummy, but now we roughly alternate between a dentastik and raw carrot once every other day, as well a decent sized raw or half cooked bone every week and *occasionally* leftovers (but as I said, dodgy tummy more than real discipline cut us back on doing that).

But yeah, no matter how much food our two have rejected during the day - our boy once refused to eat for near 2 days when a bitch was in season up the road - the sound of our knives and forks always seems the more tempting option, lol.
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Lene
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05-05-2009, 07:40 AM
I have always ignored my dogs, while eating... If they don't ignore me, they go outside or in their crate... and that rarely happens..
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esmed
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05-05-2009, 07:49 AM
Monty went down to two meals a day from 6 months old. This was in the basis of what the breeder recommended and also because he just wasn't interested in his midday meal.

He's currently on a junior dry food which I know many people disagree on but it works for us and him so he'll stay on if until 12 months. He gets his recommended amount split between morning and evening and gets half a tin of pedigree chum mixed in. He came off puppy pedigree chum at 6 months as well.

In addition he gets treats and if I'm cooking vegetables which is most days I do extra for him.

When I order his next bag of food he'll be going onto the junior for large breeds.
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Tillymint
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05-05-2009, 05:30 PM
Thanks for your replys - Tilly has PAH own brand puppy kibble - I'm thinking of changing it to something better quality, but she seems ok on it so wondering "if it aint broke don't fix it!"
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