Feeding Schedule & Time Change

[Rott'n'lab Mom]

Now that we rolled the clocks back an hour, Bella is getting hungrier for her dinner an hour before the clock says I should feed her.

I was curious how others approached this. Do you make your beasts wait until the clock says its time for dinner even though they think they should have been fed an hour earlier?

Do you feed them earlier and then a bit later each day until they are switched over to new time?

I'm curious to hear how everybody copes with this, of course I imagine this isn't an issue for free feeders.

[marianne]

Might sound a bit cruel.....But we all have to adjust to the time change. DOGS too! WE ARE ALMOST ADJUSTING. In fact the dogs are doing better than us humans.

[spidey]

Goodness, I'm a big softie with my pets and I don't feed on a time schedule like that in the first place, nor will I ever do so! I'm horrified by the idea! My dog eats in the morning, and eats in the evening, no more exact than that, sometimes the times vary by a few HOURS from day to day. I don't want my dog getting all anxious because I want to sleep in and it's an hour past his breakfast time, nor do I want my dog getting hysterical because I don't plan to give him his dinner until after training class. I don't see any reason you need to feed your dogs within an hour of the same time every day, I don't see any reason you'd need to do a gradual switch for a single hour's difference, and there's absolutely no reason your dog can't wait an hour (or two, or three) for a meal. I don't think you do your dog any favours by feeding them on a rigid schedule, and I think what you're seeing now with your dog getting anxious about meals is precisely because you have been feeding on a rigid schedule. Dogs will not starve if they eat an hour or a whole day later than they're used to, no matter what they tell you when they think it's breakfast time. It's not cruel - you've simply created a monster who thinks it can tell time.

[Sharon Marples]

I agree with Amanda, I think it is unfair to have any dog on such a schedule that you are worried by an hour's difference in time. Talk about letting them run your life!

Our dogs get fed when I am ready to feed them. During the week when I work, they get breakfast sometime between 5:30 - 6:30 am and dinner is anywhere between 6:00 - 10:00 pm, depending on who is getting worked, what I am doing in my personal life, etc. Then on the weekends, when I get to sleep in a bit, they may not be fed until 10:00 am. Again, depending on what OUR plans are for the evening, they may eat as early as 4:00 or as late as midnight........

My dogs do NOT tell me when to feed them. I think you need to rethink how your dogs are running your life in that manner. It does them no good to anticipate each day when they will be fed and to get anxious when they are not fed at the same time each day. What a stressful situation for them to be put in.

[Patty1231]

My dogs get fed on my time schedule. 5:30 am and 6:00 pm (weekdays) and around 7:00 am and 6:30 pm (weekends) - give or take 10-15 minutes. Time changes do not effect the schedule.

[Rott'n'lab Mom]

Thanks for the responses. Interesting that some of you don't like schedules as much as we. That's why I love this forum, getting exposed to different approaches to things.

Bella is willing to eat ANY time of the day. If I were to put a bowl of food down for her at any hour of the day she would gobble it up. We've always used a set dinner time (which realistically means give or take 20 minutes) as a way for her to understand she needs to wait for the dinner hour until she receives her evening meal. This structure has seemed more helpful than harmful to us.

Maybe as humans we tend to assume what we would like applies to our dogs too. I like to eat dinner within the same hour every day, otherwise I get very crabby (just ask my husband...) Figured I was doing my dog a kindness by feeding her at fairly regular times.

You guys have given me food for thought

[Angus Boy]

I feed like most of you do, according to my schedule, not the dog's. On weekdays, Angus gets fed at about 7:30am and 6pm or later in the evening, depending on our plans. On the weekend, he gets fed around lunchtime, and then 7pm or later in the evening, again, depending on our plans. He'll eat anything at anytime, and he always thinks he's hungry, so it makes no difference to him.

[Denise L.]

Same here. I feed Cyrus according to my schedule.

During the week breakfast at work is at 8:00 and dinner at home is at 4:30 - 5:00.

On weekends breakfast is when I think of it, dinner too.

Sleeping and playing are way more important to Cyrus than food anyway

[spidey]

Bella is willing to eat ANY time of the day.

Most dogs are . Dogs are what are called "opportunistic feeders", which means most of them will normally eat when there's food available, regardless of when they last ate or how hungry they really are, which is why so many dogs are prone to being, or are, overweight. Don't rely on how hungry your dog seems, some dogs will ALWAYS tell you they're starving to death, even as they lick the last of their dinner off their faces. This is a survival mechanism which works well in the wild, but can tend to lead to roly-polyness in dogs who live with people.

We've always used a set dinner time (which realistically means give or take 20 minutes) as a way for her to understand she needs to wait for the dinner hour until she receives her evening meal

I understand what you're aiming for, but really, she'll understand that she needs to wait for the dinner hour simply by virtue of you not feeding her until then - she can't tell time . I choose to feed my dog when we're eating dinner, because dogs tend to be social eaters and that way we're all having dinner together, but sometimes dinner hour is 6pm, sometimes it's 9pm at our house, it depends on what's going on, and my dog knows that it's dinnertime when it's dinnertime. He knows he'll get fed, he always has and he always will, so he doesn't agitate about it, and I think that part of this is that he's learned to rely on ME to feed him, not some arbitrary idea of when it's "mealtime".

[majicka]

My dogs are on a schedule mainly because I work from home and by 9:30-10am I need a bit of break, and I also take that time to load up the dishwasher, straighten up the kitchen etc while they are eating. I also feed them dinner between 8-9pm depending on how tired I am or what I need to go do. Some nights they get fed later if we go out.

Brando had a little bit of a rough time adjusting to the time change. I gave them breakfast at 8:30am and then dinner at 8pm. By the next morning he was back on track. The other 2 could care less. Brando's very "schedule" oriented whereas my other 2 arent.

[Diva'sOwner]

My schedule is a no schedule, really.

I stay up very late at night (often until 2am or 3am) writing and so I sleep late, until about noon. Haley eats lunch/breakfast after out 1st walk of the day (noonish) and then later that night, she has the second meal (sometimes this is as late as 11pm!). But she doesn't question it because that's all she knows. She does have the luxury of going out to play several times of the day and I don't have to worry about feeding her too close to her sessions because she eats late anyway.

[BostonRott]

My dogs eat whenever there is food in their bowl. We don't keep them on a schedule.

[panda]

Hi, well JoJo is fed 2 small meals one in the morning and again in the evening, and always about 1/2 hour after a good run, or in JoJo's case good walking, since he is getting slower due to arthritis. I try and keep the meals about 12 hours apart. he would eat all day long if allowed!!!!!! and of course there is always that lovely raw marrow bone to dig up in the garden, any time he is out there!!!!

Anne and JoJo

[Burnsway]

Like Amanda and Sharon I really don't have a schedule. I feed when its convenient to me. I will say if we wait WAY too long sometimes an empty bowl whether a feeding bowl of hers or not is laying around it lands my lap.......

But an hour or two one way or the other I don't think she notices too much.

[Ilovemypuppy]

I do keep to a schedule, within an hour...I just feel it's less stressful .