# Adult dogs that eat kibble.... One or two meals a day?



## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Just curious to know what people's thoughts are... I know some people switch their dogs over to 1 meal after puppyhood and some switch to 1 meal when their dog is a senior. Which do you do and why?
For raw I was feeding 1 meal a day and when I transitioned back to kibble I did that too. Now I sometimes feed one, sometimes 2. It doesn't seem to make a difference to Soro (he is almost 9). I think he prefers 2 so he can enjoy inhaling food twice in one day  
But generally, are there advantages one way or the other? Keeping in mind that all dogs/needs/metabolisms are different of course.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

My two (4yrs & 13mos) get three meals/day plus training treats. The older one vomits bile if she goes too long between meals, so our options were feed more often or give Tagamet. The younger one gets fed on the same schedule as a convenience.


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

Jack only gets fed once a day, ever, because if he gets a half ration at one meal he fails to eat the other one at all. The other dogs get a tiny meal in the morning because they're crated again for a bit between my husband leaving for work and 9 a.m (sometimes longer, but always at least that). Literally, just a handful of food to get them happy to go back into their crates and a real meal in the evening during the period we're eating dinner ourselves. Kylie doesn't eat meals at all. Molly gets maybe one 'meal' every 2-3 days. (for those two, it's down to the amount of food they consume with training right now) 

I'd do a more even 50/50 split but frankly I like the extra time it takes them to eat most of their meal in the evening, since that is when we're trying to do 2 billion things at once and they don't 'settle' as well/it's harder for them to settle then since we're up and moving around instead of just gone. 

I have no justifications or rationalizations or even reasons that involve what the dogs do best with. It doesn't seem to make much difference to them regardless. They all act starved all the time no matter what, except Jack who never acts more than vaguely hungry.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Mine get fed in the mornings. Hank shovels it down asap but the paps pick on it while I'm at work. Generally at lunch I come home and they haven't eaten much. Hank gets a little more at lunch- maybe a chew or stuffed kong. Not really a 'meal'. Then when I get home the paps have usually finally eaten. Hank usually gets an in training snack/meal and the paps will get a little something.

I kind of vary a lot past the one meal a day. The morning meal is very constant but the rest is kind of up to that day. Hank eats more on high activity days too.

I don't even feed the same thing daily- right now I have 3 kibble bags we're working on, some dehydrated (Sojos and THK), frozen raw, canned, and real raw. Plus I just mass ordered like $200 of chews- ears, feet, antlers, hooves, bully sticks, tripe, gullet, aortas, tracheas, bones, tendons, cartilage, etc.  I kind of wing things LOL.

I have a dog food problem. I could probably open up my own pet food store.


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

Luna gets 2 meals/day, I'd never heard of only doing 1 until reading on this forum. 

I dunno, to me 24 hours is a long time to go between eating, so unless something came up that made one meal necessary (like the examples above) I'll always do 2.


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## DGerry (Sep 12, 2014)

I feed Chester twice a day. I don't know how he would do with only once a day...he knows when it's mealtime for the most part, so I don't know if feeding him one big meal would hold him over the whole time or not. He also has a bit of a sensitive tummy so I feel better about feeding him two smaller meals. He also likes to eat, and I don't think he knows the difference between a small meal and a big one as far as how much "fun" it is for him to eat it


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

ireth0 said:


> I dunno, to me 24 hours is a long time to go between eating, so unless something came up that made one meal necessary (like the examples above) I'll always do 2.



Honestly, my dogs never go 24 hours without eating - even Jack - and I doubt they ever will. It doesn't matter if I meal feed them once a day or four times a day, between chews, treats for training/behavioral stuff, and mooching off us, I'd say even JACK gets 25% of his calories in a day via something other than food in a bowl.


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## Remaru (Mar 16, 2014)

Freyja and Magic eat two meals a day. They eat one slightly larger meal and one slightly smaller, that's just always how we have done it (because they eat two and a half cups a day one meal is 1.5 cups the other is 1 cup). Blue actually eats 3 times a day because she eats very little and if she only eats twice she will throw up during the day so her meals are broken up through out the day for her tiny tummy.


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

I've always fed two meals.


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## dagwall (Mar 17, 2011)

I've always fed twice a day and at this point there is NO WAY Jubel would allow that to change haha. Realistically he COULD eat once a day and be fine. One of my foster's had to eat three times a day or she'd get hunger pukes. I'd feed her half her daily ration in the morning, 1/4 when I got home from work, and the last 1/4 a little before bed time. Other than that all the dogs who come through my house get fed twice a day simply because that is what Jubel gets.


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## pawsaddict (Apr 17, 2013)

I feed two meals with some treats scattered in throughout the day. Nova bile vomits if she goes too long without food. Marley just plain loves meal times and would not be impressed if she only got one meal per day.


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefit to feeding only one meal? (Aside from the obvious only having to feed the dog once a day)


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## Jen2010 (Feb 12, 2013)

My dogs get two meals per day. That's what works for our schedule and I think Pepper would still give me the "I'm so hungry" stare even if she got all her food in one meal


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## Dog Person (Sep 14, 2012)

Two meals a day and they are about 12 hours apart (just the way it works out)


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## BostonDan (Dec 29, 2014)

We feed one meal a day and our dog grazes on it all day.


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## notgaga (Oct 25, 2014)

Two, around the times I eat breakfast and dinner. But she 99% of the time doesn't eat out of her bowl. I use her food for training or toss it in a food dispenser. She likes to gobble and regurgitate if left to her own ways and I'd also rather not have her staring at me or whining at the door to go out while I eat.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

ireth0 said:


> Just out of curiosity, is there any benefit to feeding only one meal? (Aside from the obvious only having to feed the dog once a day)


Also what I'm trying to figure out. Though I still don't feed on a strict routine, quantity or number of meals or anything else... Makes for a dog that doesn't anticipate meals (mentally or physiologically) and I like that flexibility.


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## lil_fuzzy (Aug 16, 2010)

I feed raw once per day, and that's for *me* because I don't want to have to feed my dogs twice per day. I don't know of any benefits with it. Although intermittent fasting has been shown to have health benefits in mice and humans, so I guess intermittent fasting in dogs could also be good for them? I don't know.

Smaller meals is supposed to reduce the risk of bloat I believe? So that's a benefit of feeding more than once. I know some breeds have to eat 3 times per day for health reasons.

Also it breaks up their day more and they get to enjoy food more than once, but that mostly applies to dogs who don't get much fun outside of meal times I would think.


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## 5 s corral (Dec 31, 2007)

Mine are fed 2 meals a day


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

Twice a day. I have two empty-stomach bile pukers.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

hunger/bile puking is something I've never heard of until joining this forum... Or maybe in real life everyone around me feeds their dogs 2 meal+treats a day so they'd never know if their dog would do this? 
But is this genetic, or actually common for a lot of dogs....? And would it happen like clockwork if they haven't eaten after X hours or is it dependent on other factors like exercise, water intake, how large the last meal was, etc?


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## KodiBarracuda (Jul 4, 2011)

Maisy pukes after 16 hours without food if for whatever reason she misses dinner. So we do two meals a day, one at 8am or 9am, the other at 5pm


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## ChelseaOliver (Nov 5, 2014)

My 11 yr old pit mix, who I recently transitioned to kibble from raw after being raw fed for quite awhile, is offered kibble 2x a day but generally only chooses to eat once. So I think if I were to stop offering in the morning she wouldn't care. The pup will eat as much and as many times a day as possible but she's fed kibble 2x a day.


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## ChelseaOliver (Nov 5, 2014)

Canyx said:


> hunger/bile puking is something I've never heard of until joining this forum... Or maybe in real life everyone around me feeds their dogs 2 meal+treats a day so they'd never know if their dog would do this?
> But is this genetic, or actually common for a lot of dogs....? And would it happen like clockwork if they haven't eaten after X hours or is it dependent on other factors like exercise, water intake, how large the last meal was, etc?


My pup will hunger puke if she goes a bit too long, or if she got a lot of exercise or something and her dinner wasn't quite enough. I've known a lot of dogs to do this. My adult dog, if she goes a couple of days without eating she'll usually wake up in the middle of the night and puke bile a bunch of times in a row.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Canyx said:


> hunger/bile puking is something I've never heard of until joining this forum... Or maybe in real life everyone around me feeds their dogs 2 meal+treats a day so they'd never know if their dog would do this?
> But is this genetic, or actually common for a lot of dogs....? And would it happen like clockwork if they haven't eaten after X hours or is it dependent on other factors like exercise, water intake, how large the last meal was, etc?


I had never heard of it until Katie started puking almost every morning around 3am. We asked the vet and she said, "Yeah, hunger pukes. Try giving her some yogurt before bed." Yogurt stopped the puking, but caused other GI problems.  

She doesn't do it all the time and I've not noticed a pattern. Giving her three meals during the day, but not necessarily any later at night, seems to help. She does have a generally sensitive GI tract (no dairy, no eggs, no Zukes, not too many treats); I'm not sure the two things are related.


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## pawsaddict (Apr 17, 2013)

Canyx said:


> hunger/bile puking is something I've never heard of until joining this forum... Or maybe in real life everyone around me feeds their dogs 2 meal+treats a day so they'd never know if their dog would do this?
> But is this genetic, or actually common for a lot of dogs....? And would it happen like clockwork if they haven't eaten after X hours or is it dependent on other factors like exercise, water intake, how large the last meal was, etc?


I expect Nova to puke bile if she doesn't eat every 12 hours. When she had to fast for her EPI test (15-hour fast), she bile vomited...no surprise there. But sometimes she will bile vomit even if we are within the usual 12-hour window, so I assume there are other factors at play as well (exercise, etc.)


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

Josefina gets fed once a day, sometimes she bile pukes, but the darn thing is picky anyway and just wont eat in the morning, so we give her a biscuit instead. Lincoln, since he is growing, will get 2 meals a day until his growth plates close ... maybe even permanently if it seems like he needs it.


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## parus (Apr 10, 2014)

In the winter, one. They're much less active and thus eating a lot less. In the summer, two, because the daily amount of food is big enough to split into two decently sized meals.


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## LuvMyAngels (May 24, 2009)

Buster is fed twice a day. With him its to reduce meal size (at one point he was eating over 6 cups per day) and also because he's a bile barfer. Bus bile barfs when we become too routine in his meal times. Multiple days with 6am & 8pm feeds (exact time doesnt matter, just it being at the same time for more than a couple days), if I change either one slightly I have a mess to clean up. If I vary meals...6-9am & 730-10 pm...just randomly feeding between those hours we dont have an issue.


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Two; just to avoid the hunger pukes (I don't know if he gets them, but why bother finding out) and also totally unbearable what with the wanting food.

I could see doing once a day if I didn't have such a chow-hound though, like for dogs who like to nibble throughout the day, or especially for very small dogs that might be prone to hypoglycemia... but Snowball will eat as much food as is in front of him, so he'd eat it all in one sitting.



Canyx said:


> hunger/bile puking is something I've never heard of until joining this forum... Or maybe in real life everyone around me feeds their dogs 2 meal+treats a day so they'd never know if their dog would do this?
> But is this genetic, or actually common for a lot of dogs....? And would it happen like clockwork if they haven't eaten after X hours or is it dependent on other factors like exercise, water intake, how large the last meal was, etc?


Anecdotally, I think hunger pukes happen a lot more in cats. Murdoch definitely gets the hunger pukes and will puke if he doesn't get food within 10 hours of the previous meal, which means he gets 3 meals per day. Our cat growing up would occasionally get the hunger pukes also.


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## NicoleIsStoked (Aug 31, 2012)

breakfast and dinner.


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

Twice a day for all of our dogs.


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## voodookitten (Nov 25, 2012)

No real routine here. I try for twice a day and usually get it. My dogs have iron stomachs and no matter how many times I fed them per day they would inhale it like its their last. We feed kibble as main and then raw extra. My work routine (restaurant owner) is scattered so I'm not able to really routine them. If I'm on a cooking spree they get extras. I don't feed once a day as I feel bad for them 24 hours with no food. They don't seem to care lol. 

In saying that, every second day I take one of them with me..on a rotating schedule...needless to say....that dog gets so much leftover food its amazing.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

With my little dogs I have always self fed. They have food down all the time. However, with having Kris, I have gradually switched over to just feeding the little dogs at night after Kris is in her crate or she would eat everything. Kris and Susie, both get fed twice a day but Kris also gets lots of treats in between with all the training I am doing.


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

cookieface said:


> My two (4yrs & 13mos) get three meals/day plus training treats. The older one vomits bile if she goes too long between meals, so our options were feed more often or give Tagamet. The younger one gets fed on the same schedule as a convenience.


In the same boat with Jax. If he goes too long between meals, he has a chance of vomiting bile. It was more of a problem when he was under a year but since 2x meals per day works out great for us, no point in changing it now. His meal times do vary though. Some days his breakfast will be as early as 4-4:30am if I'm on my day shifts and his dinner can be as late as 7:30pm on certain nights. 

We also have a split on his food (supplements) that makes it easier to break up his meals.
meal 1: sardine topper, glucosamine and probiotics
meal 2: salmon oil added in


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## d_ray (Nov 5, 2013)

Twice a day: 8 am ish and 6 pm ish.

Jazz will get the hunger pukes and then won't eat if she doesn't get fed often enough. I wonder if it has to do with her having such a high metabolism. Even on 2 meals a day, she sometimes gets the bile barfs. Then she won't eat and I have to give her something extra enticing to stimulate her appetite.

Jewel has never had a bile barf.


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## zoelynn13 (Oct 6, 2013)

Twice a day with extra kibbles/treats here and there for rewards. Also have an empty-stomach bile puker.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Bringing this back because I am curious... Those who have hunger pukers, what does the puke look like? (pictures welcome, in my opinion, though they may gross people out)

I took Soro on a hot 10 mile hike the other day and as we were standing in the shade he puked up some foamy yellow stuff. He is a vacuum so he may have eaten something disagreeable, but if so I missed it. I forgot to feed him before going on the hike. Could be he hunger puked for the first time...?

ETA: We also have ungodly amounts of baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, and detergent on the ground to try and get rid of old urine smells. I am sure he is not eating the piles of stuff. But before we sectioned off the noncarpet area for him he was mingling around and sometimes on top of those piles. I know peroxide induces vomiting, not sure what baking soda and the other stuff would do. But could be he accidentally ingested a little bit off the carpet or through licking himself.


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## Remaru (Mar 16, 2014)

It is usually just a foamy yellow stuff, sometimes a little mucusy but that is usually Blue and more when she is having an allergy induced coughing/reverse sneezing fit. Now sometimes the dogs binge on water and puke that up....because they are really clever that way.....sigh....


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

Foamy-ish yellow for boone.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Yep, yellow, viscous, a little foamy.


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## CobbersMom (Jul 30, 2013)

Cobber gets one meal -- dinner of kibble, bone broth, pumpkin -- in the evening, but he also has a food ball/puzzle that he can hit up for plain kibble all day, and considering how much I hear him hitting it up, I'm guessing he actually eats 2 meals a day total


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## MarieLovesChis (Mar 21, 2014)

I give Onyx three meals a day, breakfast lunch and dinner. Yellow bile used to be a problem for her but that was a very long time ago. I mainly switched her from two meals to three because she would absolutely act like she was starving in the middle of the day. She is not a beggar as she knows I don't allow it, but she got to the point where she was trying to snatch food off of my plate! Very unlike her. So now we do three meals a day as her meals are SO tiny. I feel it's much better for her to eat more frequently.

Puzzle toys are loved here too. But I could never leave one full all day. She would empty it in 5minutes lol! Very food motivated dog. Five days out of the week her lunch is usually fed from a puzzle toy. She LOVES it.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

Lincoln has decided that playing outside is more fun than eating breakfast ... so he doesnt eat in the morning here ... so instead of one cup at night and half a cup in the morning, I give him a cup and a half at night with a handful of kibble (used as treats for morning training) in the morning to stave off hunger pains and pukes.


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## BostonBullMama (Apr 20, 2013)

Canyx said:


> Just curious to know what people's thoughts are... I know some people switch their dogs over to 1 meal after puppyhood and some switch to 1 meal when their dog is a senior. Which do you do and why?
> For raw I was feeding 1 meal a day and when I transitioned back to kibble I did that too. Now I sometimes feed one, sometimes 2. It doesn't seem to make a difference to Soro (he is almost 9). I think he prefers 2 so he can enjoy inhaling food twice in one day
> But generally, are there advantages one way or the other? Keeping in mind that all dogs/needs/metabolisms are different of course.


I feed twice a day. 1/2 cup in the morning, 1/2 cup in the evening. 

The 4 cats are "free fed" but only get 3/4 cup/day and once it's gone, it's gone. It usually lasts until bedtime, and then I have 4 sets of eyes looking at me anxiously awaiting the moment I make eye contact so they can tell me their dish is empty. I make them wait until morning. lol


When Toby has had the hunger-pukes, it's been yellow/foamy bile. Doesn't happen often though.


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## sandgrubber (May 21, 2014)

I do twice, mostly because I enjoy feeding the dogs. Once would be just as good, I think. I've heard that more, smaller meals is preferable if you have reason to worry about bloat.


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