Dog vs Food: Creating The Perfect Feeding Schedule
Can you imagine your life without your dog? When you have a furry friend, all you want is to live a long healthy life. The key to giving your dog the right amount and frequency of food and nutritional supplements to keep it healthy and happy.
“Food time” is probably one of your dog’s favorite parts of the day; however, most dogs don’t have a regular feeding schedule; they just get fed whenever their owner has time to do it. Imagine eating breakfast until noon? You’d be starving!
Like humans, dogs suffer from hunger pains, and not having a regular feeding schedule can harm their digestive system and overall health.
Facts About Feeding Your Pup
They Create Habits
Dogs are very smart creatures. Whether you have a puppy or an adult dog, you can easily teach them household manners, and they’ll learn it in no time. This fact comes in handy when creating an appropriate meal plan and feeding schedule for your pup.
Feeding your dog regularly provides it with security and predictability. Just like at work, you have lunch and break time, “mealtime” becomes one of the highlights of your dog’s day surrounded by other activities. Having a stable feeding routine can also be helpful for your dog to get used to changes, such as a new baby, moving to a new space, or even changing to another food type and brand.
They Adapt To Change
As mentioned before, a good feeding plan helps your dog cope with food type and brand changes. When your dog is used to eating the same kind of food every day, its body and digestive system become conditioned to expect that exact food. If you decide to change brands, your feeding schedule will make the transition a whole lot easier because your dog will have the hunger factor striking and will not even notice that the food is different.
Keep in mind that all dogs are different. Some may have extra bowel movements due to the new food in their system. If this happens, try transitioning to the new food slowly by mixing it with some previous food. Do this and eventually reduce the amount of previous food until its stomach accepts the new food.
A Break In Eating Habits Is A Bad Sign
Dogs create a very strong habit out of their eating schedule, so it’s easy to notice if all the food from a meal has been eaten or not. If some food is left on the plate or not eaten at all, this can be a sign of illness, and you must immediately make an appointment with your vet.
If your dog prefers to graze around and eats in smaller portions throughout the day, it can be easily fixed by introducing an eating schedule to regulate and create a routine.
A Perfect Meal Timing
For puppies, it’s popularly known that the more you feed them, the happier they will be. This is wrong. Feeding a puppy too many times a day can lead to obesity and other health issues. Dogs usually have a genetic set point for their adult size, so you can consult with your vet about the appropriate feeding amount and frequency according to your dog’s genetics for it to have optimized growth.
On the other hand, adult dogs should eat at least 2 meals a day within 12 hours apart. You can also handle a breakfast, lunch, and dinner schedule with adapted portions if that works best for you. If more than 12 hours go by without any food, your dog’s stomach might become hyper acidic and cause nausea.
Find The Perfect Meal
At Fix & Feed, we are more than just a regular animal feed store. Our staff is full of dog lovers just like you and is capable of helping you find the perfect food for your beloved pup.
At all our stores in Texas, you can find a 50-pound sack of Nutrena’s River Run Hi Energy Dog Food! This high-energy formula provides the nutrition and calories your dog needs for both short and intense activities and for working and hunting activities that last all day. It’s formulated with Balanced Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids, plus balanced fiber to support good digestion.