Two or three feedings per day, what is better

martymonty · 03-30-2009, 08:51 AM

Hi
We have an 11 week old lab and we have been feeding her twice a day since getting her at 7 weeks. Currently she is on IAMS puppy smart food and getting one cup in the morning, and one cup in the afternoon. I just increased this amount in the last week and she is having some runny poops during the day and tummy grumblies at night. I am trying to find out if I would be better to feed her three times a day and just divide the two cups of food over those three times. Would this possibly help with the runny poops. I've also been told to try her on Royal Canin large breed puppy food. It scored very well on the list of dry dog foods but looking for anyone that has had their puppy on this food and how you found it to be. Also, she eats EVERYTHING outdoors and as a result has thrown up a bit a couple times, any suggestions as to how to "train" her to not eat whatever goes by her little face or is this something puppies will eventually outgrow.
THanks so much for any answers.

bnwalker2 · 03-30-2009, 09:23 AM

I feed puppies three times a day until they are about 6 months old, then two times a day for the rest of their life. I've never tried Royal Canin but have heard good things about it. Iams isn't a high quality food, IMO.

As for eating everything that she comes in contact with, that's very normal for puppies. You can start teaching her a "leave it" command inside with treats and toys. Then when you are outside, keep some treats in your pocket and reward her for obeying your "leave it" command.

midnight mojo · 03-30-2009, 06:02 PM

Mojo was on 4 feedings till he was about three months old and then we went to 3. We just recently tried to switch Mojo (7.5 months) to 2 feedings per day instead of 3 and it caused runny stools. I think it was just too much in a single feeding for him to tolerate it well so we're going back to 3 feedings per day. I figure I'll try again in a couple of months and see how he does.

4lilmunchkins · 03-30-2009, 09:10 PM

I think it depends, for my dogs, when they were puppies and I was feeding kibble at the time, I would keep the kibble down at all times and let them eat as much as they wanted and then give them some canned mixed in with the kibble twice a day. I have small dogs though and hypoglycemia was a possible issue so that was my main reason for leaving food down at all times.

I tried Royal Canine when I had my dogs on kibble and it's a decent food, my dogs were really itchy on it due to the amount of corn in it. However, I know many people who feed it, one of which being one of my dogs breeder who shows dogs for a living. If it were me, for the price of Royal Canine I would probably go with something by Wellness or Innova instead if I was feeding a kibble, but, that is just me.

I agree with the other posting about teaching her to "leave it", that should help, and her getting older should help too. My youngest, Javelin, was the worst about eating everything outside or anywhere she was at and as she has gotten older she has gotten much better about it...

JJ14 · 04-05-2009, 10:34 AM

My pup has been on a 2 times a day schedule for a little more than a month. he is just over 4 months old and is doing great!

blackrose · 04-05-2009, 01:08 PM

I keep my pups on a 3x a day feeding schedule until they hit about six months. Then I switch them to adult food and feed 2x a day. Blackie and Rose eat 2x a day, Chloe is given food 1x a day in the morning, and then she picks at it all day long. Having her on a set feeding time was causing her to not eat.

Before Blackie and Rose hit their senior years, they were only eating 1x a day.