Too busy to respond to many post right now, but wanted to make a response to one point raised here. You are correct that it has become the norm to feed dogs on a schedule and you are also correct in the fact that the reasoning behind it is mostly to regulate bathroom times. However, I am not sure that this is such a great idea. I mean, not against you personally or anything, since this is what has been "accepted" for many years. However, when you think about it, is it really fair to put dogs on a schedule to eat, in order to make things more convenient for humans? In the wild, dogs use to eat whenever they found food. There were no overweight wolves that I know of! lol. A dog's body will naturally tell it when it is hungry and when it is not. When humans start putting a dog on an eating schedule, they totally mess up that internal clock and dogs begin eating when it is put before them...whether they are hungry or not. They loose their ability to regulate their own food needs. Personally, I am a strong proponent of free feeding. MY dogs free feed from the cradle up and none of them are over weight, none have food aggressions ( as there is no reason to fight over what is readily available). Food is always in the bowls and they eat when they are actually hungry....not when I think they should eat. I feel like we have come to a point with domesticated pets, that we are interfering with nature in order to make it more convenient for humans. JMO Marsha
Do not tell God how big your storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is. . ----- Original Message ----- From: Teacher Bunny To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 6:35 PM Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] best treats On Sep 29, 2007, at 1:01 AM, Mandy F. wrote: Ah, if he is actually missing some teeth then it does make some sense to soften it up. Did your vet say if your pup has some dental problem? Nope, she didn't say anything about a dental problem but I could ask about that in our next visit. I didn't think to ask the first and second time (yup, we've just had 2 vet visits so far bec I've just had him for nearly 4 weeks) because I figured that he was still a baby and really had some missing teeth. :o) How long are chihuahuas considered a baby/puppy? This morning though, I tried to feed him his food with very little water. And added some dry ones on top just to see if he'll like it and hack it. Well, so far he did! He managed to eat it all and was ACTUALLY chewing his food now instead of slurping it up. So maybe your advice was right. Maybe I will gradually lessen the water -- water is good though so I don't mind it mixed in his food because he's not much of a water drinker unless after play. As far as how much to feed, my pup has always had food available at all times. I'm not sure how much she eats a day. Sometimes it's like she gets munchies and will eat all her food overnight and sometimes she just eats a few kibbles here and there. I was advised to keep his meals scheduled -- to not leave food available at all times except during meals. Except for rare cases when he doesn't eat at all, then I'd have to keep food there when he gets hungry. But so far, he hasn't NOT eaten at all during meals. At worse, he just doesn't finish all of it so I take it away after an hour or so of ignoring it. I was advised that if he doesn't eat at all, to just take his food away after some time. So he learns to eat on schedule and on demand. I think it's also to keep his pooping predictable and on schedule. Fortunately, I haven't had the need to make that moral decision (haha) to take his food away because he doesn't want to eat. Whew. But that's what I was advised to do.
