When to feed - a.m. or p.m.?

[pomtzu]

In all the years that I have had dogs, I have always fed them their main meal at night before the people eat. I got in this habit when I was working, since there wasn't time to get everything done in the a.m. before I left for work, and I have just kept feeding time the same, even tho I am now retired and have all the time in the world! Now in the a.m., Myndi and Sparky get a small breakfast, then a small lunch, and then their regular size supper.
The problem is, in the warmer weather, Sparky looses his appetite and doesn't really want his big meal. I'm the same way! Even tho he is inside with the a.c. on, the change in temps really seems to bother him. I think starting tomorrow, that I'm going to pull a switcheroo on him, and give him his big meal for breakfast, and at suppertime, just a good sized snack, and see if that change works.
Do any of you have this problem with your pooches, and if so, how have you addressed it? Any suggestions or ideas are more than welcomed!
Thanks........

[Taz_Zoee]

Sorry, I'm no help. Both of my dogs would eat as much as I gave them at any time of the day. LOL You'd think I was starving them.

Is it a problem to leave the food down? I know some people do not agree with that, and that's fine. But my brothers dog never ate all of his food right away. So they'd just leave it and he'd go snack on it throughout the day. Amazingly all the other dogs (their one and my two) learned that they didn't touch Boo's food. That might not be so easy for most people.

But your idea of giving him the big meal in the morning sounds like the perfect solution!

[pomtzu]

Can't leave it down - they don't "do" dry food! They would give me the "you expect me to eat THAT??" look. Not at all spoiled............

[Taz_Zoee]

Can't leave it down - they don't "do" dry food! They would give me the "you expect me to eat THAT??" look. Not at all spoiled............

LOL, ohhh, I see. Hee hee

[Queen of Poop]

What I did for my RB dogs and do now for my cats is take the daily allotment of food, split it in 2 and they get half of it for breakfast and the remainder for supper. So 2 medium sized meals rather than one larger meal. For no other reason than it made me feel better about being at work all day knowing they'd had a good breakfast and wouldn't be hungry all day. I know, I'm such a suck!

[lizbud]

I've always fed my dogs twice a day, Breakfast & Dinner. They both would
eat any time I served it up.

I like the idea of measuring out a day's worth & then dividing it into two meals.
.

[chocolatepuppy]

I feed my dogs equal portions in the am and pm. When it was just RB Lacey and Layla, I was lucky to get them to eat! They would pick and walk away. That all changed the day Jake came into the house. No one's missed a meal since. Don't ask me why.

[dab_20]

I also feed my dogs two equal meals a day. They eat around 7-9 am and 5-6 pm.

Not sure what you would do if he won't eat it all. Does he seem to lose weight when he's not eating it all? If not, I wouldn't worry about it too much!

[K9karen]

Logan can tell time and will let me know when it's 6pm, the widdle rascal! She trained me to give her a "cookie" after she does her outies,(even if she doesn't go, but just checks things out )but one is never enough. They're low calorie, but I've learned to take my morning joe upstairs because if I sit at the table, she'll plead for more cookies.

So at dinner, I cut he food by 1/4 cup. Later, she maybe eats a rawhide on my tummy while watching TV on the floor. I figure that's enough. If I leave her food if I know I'll be late, she won't touch it.

[IRescue452]

Mine get am and pm and sometimes a small handful if hungry any other time. Autumn gets a rather small breakfast because she stays with my mom when I'm at work and my mom feeds too much supper. Little dogs should not just have one meal a day because their blood sugar could fluctuate too much, and large dogs should not have 1 meal a day because of the risk of bloat. 2-3smaller meals are much better than one large.

[pomtzu]

Thanks for your input and ideas everyone. I pulled the switcheroo this morning and it worked - eventually. When I put his dish down for him, he looked at me like I had lost my mind, and just stood there and looked at it and made no attempt to eat it. After a couple of minutes tho, he polished it off. He'll have his mid-day chicken snack and tonight I'll give him what he would normally have gotten in the morning - just a few cookies. I can't just divide his normal intake between the a.m. and p.m. feeding tho, since I already tried that previously and he would only take a bite at best at night. With Myndi, I divide hers equally, and started that last year when she had the GI bleed. I had to increase her intake to help keep her weight up, and it would have been too much all at once to be dumped into her already delicate tummy, but she rarely has a problem with not wanting to eat.
So today my scheme worked. Tomorrow??? - please keep your fingers crossed that I've found the solution.
Thanks!

[Asiel]

Just caught up on your post now. Guess the solution you chose is working. I don't have a problem with mine, she will eat anything and everything at anytime and of course asks for the door on a steady basis so she can have her reward cookie. Sometimes she just looks around and sniffs but she seems to know this is the time for a treat if she goes out. She was gaining too much so I had to cut down her rations, she gets her smaller meal in the morning and a bigger one at night, with treats all day of course. The reason her small meal is in the morning is because she gets her long hike in the a.m. Now I use a tiny piece of treat so that she gets less and her meal portions are reduced , I can finally see a waistline again.