As the title says, for practical reasons (managing our walks), I'd like to move from three to two meals a day with my puppy, who will be 7 and a half months old soon.
Up until now, he's been eating before his walks and we've been waiting at least a good half hour before heading out, plus about ten minutes of walking on the lead just to give him a bit more time to digest without any frantic running around.
He has a massive appetite, so I'm not sure he'll cope with going the whole day without anything to eat, especially as we go for 'long' walks morning, noon, and night, so I was wondering:
- should I skip the lunchtime walk (just a quick toilet break and 5 minutes of fresh air instead) and make the morning and evening ones longer instead?
I tried it for the first time today and he seemed starving all afternoon. 🤦 But maybe it's a bit too soon to tell?
- is there a specific age when it's easier to switch from three to two meals?
- is it better to do it gradually, for example by reducing the lunchtime meal over a week so he adapts more easily?
- has anyone tried reducing the number of meals and then ended up going back to three, and if so, for what reasons?
Thanks for any advice! ;)
Translated from French
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Beauceron. Vets still say that there are predispositions due to certain physical builds, like Greyhounds, Dobermanns, Boxers, and Great Danes. The type with a narrow waist but a deep chest.
I’d also add that at the time, before I’d looked into better quality food, her portions were much larger than those of my current dogs. There was definitely too much weight in her stomach. She was 10, so maybe there was also a loss of muscle tone to hold the organs in place.
I once had a dog who suffered from bloat. There had been no exertion, nothing at all to explain why it happened. She had her morning meal, a quick wee in the garden, and an hour later I found her in a terrible state. She had two regular meals a day, and I was always careful to ensure there was no running around or exercise after eating, and no food or water right after a long walk—I’d always wait at least half an hour to an hour. Honestly, I just couldn't understand it.
I still feed my current two dogs twice a day to help reduce the risks. I’ve found a great high-quality dry food where I only need to give them a very small amount. For dogs weighing about 77 lbs (around 5 and a half stone), I give 200g per meal to one and 150g to the other. That way, there’s not much bulk in the stomach. They get fed at 6 am and 6 pm, and their long walks are between 1 pm and 3 pm.
I just hope I’m doing everything I can to avoid any more scares.
Only large dogs of certain breeds are really at risk of bloat, and even then, it’s still quite rare. You need to take into account how the animal approaches their food to ensure that transitions go smoothly.
Three meals a day is too much. It’s a dog, not a cat. But if your dog likes to snack and you’re around, give them three slices of carrot (organic) instead of that third meal. Do your research on nutrition, do some reading, and then we can chat about it again.
A dog that overeats will be an ill dog. Just like humans.
Actually, come to think of it, that makes sense. If a dog gets bloat, it’s probably better if the stomach contents are more of a mush rather than "whole" food (given that dogs don’t really chew much anyway, do they?). So, if there is a stomach torsion but there’s still a tiny bit of a gap through to the small intestine, that mushy food might still be able to pass through, even if it’s at a slower rate – which is better than nothing, I guess?
Like you, I’m not sure – I think it’s probably not enough... for certain active breeds... high-energy dogs... or breeds prone to bloat...
Oxane actually threw up once during a walk at about 5 pm (from her lunch) because she’d been racing after my daughter on her bike; she was like a little chocolate rocket but had to stop dead to be sick...
When it comes to digestion, we’d really need some vet nutritionists to weigh in... to get a proper answer...
I’m also wondering about the half-hour rule. I’m sure I read somewhere a while back that you’re supposed to wait a few hours, but I wasn't 100% sure anymore.
Maybe a few hours (like the 8-12 hours recommended before an anaesthetic, for instance) is the time it takes for full digestion. Perhaps 4 hours is how long it takes for the small intestine to do its job (before the chyme or chyle reaches the colon), and maybe the half-hour is just for the food to turn into chyme—that sort of mush that moves from the stomach into the small intestine. I think I’ve got that bit back to front, sorry! ^^ So, would the dog jumping around be less of an issue during that first stage of digestion?
Mind you, I’m only guessing—I don’t actually know the exact timings (or even rough ones, really), and I might be talking absolute rubbish about the whole digestion process!
Gotta dash, thanks for all the replies everyone <3 I’ll have a think about it all ;)
