lol i try to feed Tupac rmb for the opposite effect...and it worked

Mine are fed twice a day, if i left food down sadie would eat until it almost killed her (she broke into the food storage bin and did just this)
Besides, i prefer knowing how much/when they last ate...sadie has bloated twice now and its just not a risk i would want to take.

My mum has always free fed her dogs, they are both perfect weight and very relaxed about food. It works for them.

Thats just reminded me actually, my friends nana's dog used to have food down all the time, and the treat cupboard was always open for when she wanted them and they were even in boxes for her to get to herself

Cats are free fed, dogs are set fed.

If i free fed my dog she'd think it was christmas everyday and i'd have an elephant My Cocker was the same.
They were both fed twice a day the food went down it was gone in a flash and the bowls picked up.

If we ever spent the day at my sisters all 8 dogs would be fed and mine would be finished first everytime you'd think they were starved Hers were only fed once a day so it can't be that the more they're fed the slower they are hers sometimes wouldn't even finish theirs.

I free feed all of mine, everyone eats from their own bowls and we are lucky that they do not have any food agression at all.

I was advised not to free feed when Meeka was young as she ate very little, she wasn't picky, it didn't matter what you gave her, she was just, and still is, very disinterested in food so I lifted all of the food after 20 minutes if they hadn't eaten it.

The problem with this was that Willow then started to panic that she couldn't get her food and would gulp it down, it made me feel sick to watch her eat like that and made her physically sick as she wasn't even taking time to breath. And still Meeka didn't eat anymore so I reverted back to the free feeding. It took Willow months before she trusted the fact that we weren't going to starve her but she is now totally food obsessed, no agression but will push the others out of the way for treats etc which she never previously did.

I will now always free feed unless there is a medical problem or if, for some reason, there are food problems between any new dogs I get (the current 3 are fine).

Dutch has set feeding times, as mentioned previously by someone else I worry alot about bloat, so i like to know when he's eating and how much, that way I know when its 'safe' to take him out for a walk, etc.

My aunty free feeds her lab and the poor thing is very very overweight.
I know Dutch would become obese if food was available all the time, he just wouldnt stop eating. I'm quite happy with the way he looks, would rather him be on the slightly thin side than the overweight side. Although i'm regularly told he's too thin by all the experts out there... but thats a whole other story.

Fayeily- Certainly not the case! I think very highly of you and maintaining the weight of your Basset. I see 4 Bassets around by me and their bellies all touch the floor Poor things can barely carry themselves around

One of mine was free fed, untill I tried eating dog food when I was little . So they all set meal times after that incident.

He's only too thin cos these "experts" are used to seeing overweight ones that can barely stand up

Spockky boy - Sadie is set fed for the same reason - Bailey (their nearly 2 year old) will sit and play in the dishes and mixes them up so you have watery meat and meaty water - she's round at mine during the day so always has water down but she gets the chance to drink every hour round at hers because of Bailey

I used to free feed as it was the only way I could get Rupert to maintain weight and he was 20lbs underweight as it was so couldn't afford to lose more. Now he's fed 3 times a day. I've tried feeding twice a day but he drops weight hellishly fast as he doesn't seem able to eat large meals. Doesn't matter what food I feed him, just to maintain weight he's eating more than the recommended amount for a giant breed and he's only 80lbs. According to the vet he's perfectly healthy so now I just feed him and wish I had a metabolism like his