Dog food/elimination schedule

2452 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by hah2110, May 4, 2009

hah2110

Discussion Starter · May 4, 2009

Here is my 1 yr old Beagle/Boxer's current schedule:

9:30 -10:30am(ish): Eats her food
1:00 - 2:00pm(ish): Goes poop
7:00 - 8:00pm(ish): Eats her food
10:30 - 11:30pm(ish): Goes poop

Obviously there are a few pee breaks in there. She is not very picky at all. In fact, there are a few times where she skips her nightly poop and goes the next day. Just last week, she wouldn't do her afternoon poop and I fell asleep on the couch and didn't take her out for the nightly poop (shame on me, I know). Anyway, around 10am the next morning, I woke up to her on my face with her leash. Needless to say, I took her out and she pooped right away. Moral of that was she holds it if needed, never has accidents and accommodates our schedule. Now to my questions:

1) Are there any disadvantages to only feeding her once a day, in the morning (obviously double the serving)?
2) If we did this, would she "most likely" only poop once in the day?
3) Would it be terrible if she didn't poop at night for five days and was taken out in the morning?

The primary reason I ask is because I will be away on work for 5 days and would rather my girlfriend didn't walk her at night (there have been sexual assaults lately) so I am trying to find a way around this.

Thanks in advance!

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Independent George

· #2 · May 4, 2009

1. The downside is that the dog can only digest so much food in a single meal; even if she eats the entire amount, she may not get the full nutritional benefit of the meal.
2. I doubt it. Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates digest at different rates, and she's not evacuating everything with each poop; whatever's left over after each poop, plus additional material, is probably building up.
3. For 5 days, it probably won't be terrible, but it's still not something I would try. It's the same as with humans - holding it increases the chances of an intestinal blockage, infection, and water retention issues.

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TooneyDogs

· #3 · May 4, 2009

The schedule will depend largely on what you're feeding. Dry kibble takes about 16 hours to digest and eliminate; moist kibble about 12 hours and a RAW diet takes from 6-8 hours. Other things that will impact the schedule are exercise level, water intake and the dogs metabolism rate.
If she's still on puppy food, you can switch to adult at one year of age and you can also cut back on the number of meals per day depending on the exercise demands.
My two dogs get 1 meal a day. One eliminates only once per day the other 2 times a day but, that one is much more active....he also gets more food.

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hah2110

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 4, 2009

She is on adult Blue Buffalo dry food. About 3 times a week I take her out for really heavy running and exercise. So the food I'm giving her, she isn't pooping a few hours later?

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