# When to feed?



## mutley66 (Oct 25, 2014)

Hi our V (Ruby) is 10 months and has been on 3 meals per day. She has been a typical 'selective' eater at times and has never completed all 3 meals in a day. However, her weight is fine and the vet has consitantly said she is ok. I guess she naturally knows how much food she needs and stops when she hits that amount each day.
I'm looking to reduce her meals to 2 per day and have read many differant opinions on how these 2 meals should be split - some saying one third in the morning and two thirds in the evening, and others saying the opposite, but no real explanation why?
I'd appreciate any advice on what split amounts you have used or maybe you have kept to 3 meals per day regardless of the age? 
Each meal will be dry food (70%) with a small amount (30%) of raw tripe added.


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Mine have always worked well with the larger meal in the evenings.
I would have to guess its because they were hungrier at that time, from playing all day. I also don't run dogs on a full stomach, so the smaller morning meals fit better for me. As my dogs got older, I went with only one meal a day in the evening. They do still get a treat after our morning runs.


----------



## Spy Car (Sep 3, 2014)

A complicating factor is feeding both raw (tripe) and kibble.

The "conventional wisdom" among raw feeders is not to mix raw and kibble in the same meals (if one feeds kibble at all) as they are said to be digested at different rates. Raw passes quickly which keeps contact with pathogens in the food short, where kibble slows down the process. To what extent this is actually scientifically validated I do not know. But you might think about doing a separate raw meal and a separate kibble meal, as opposed to two mixed meals.

Best wishes,

Bill


----------



## mutley66 (Oct 25, 2014)

Hi,
How do you split the two meals ? Is one third & two thirds?


----------



## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

Yeah I'd probably do the 30% tripe in the morning, and the 70% kibble in the evening. I understand that kibble takes longer to digest so makes sense to sleep while digesting.


----------



## fullmanfamily (Oct 17, 2014)

I'm so glad I found this thread! It does seem like it's a V thing to be picky about eating. Our puppy, Ruby is around 4.5 months. She is finally eating all of her food, but it's spotty in the am and she eats more at lunch at dinner. We're up to 2/3 cup at breakfast and closer to a cup at dinner and lunch. We do add in some pumpkin as well which she likes. If she's super picky, we'll add in some cheese stick pieces.

I wasn't sure when was a good time to switch over to the two a meal schedule. Since she's so picky in the morning, I was nervous that she'd miss out an an entire meal. The 1/3 of the serving in the morning and 2/3 of the daily serving at night would probably work great for her!

She does sleep well at night after eating more at dinner. Once she hits a year old, my guess is that she'll eat more at breakfast too b/c my husband will take her running before she eats. We're waiting until she's a year before taking her on any real runs. Right now she just goes for walks and does some off leash running in the woods and beaches near our house. 

Great advice! Sounds like she would switch off her puppy food around a year too!


----------

