[Tuesday]

Hello everyone. I'll just start by saying I've really enjoyed reading the stories and other post so far. I can tell that there are some very experienced owners here.

So that being said, I have a question with how my Beagle chooses to eat her meals. We feed her twice a day, going by the recommended amount on the bag.

Now sometimes she will eat as soon as we put the food in her bowl. Other times, she won't even care and will leave the food until she feels like it. Sometimes she'll leave her first meal in her bowl all day and we have tried putting her second meal in the bowl with her first meal so she's still getting the food she needs for the day. Usually she'll just eat it all at once late in the evening.

However we've thought this can't be good for her eating all at once and will just make her continue this habit of leaving the food.

We've also tried removing the food after 20-30 minutes of it being in the bowl, thinking that she will learn that means food time is only limited, and she should eat while she can. Yet she will still leave her second meal in her bowl even if she didn't eat her first meal.

I know it's not because she's not hungry as we can give her treats and she'll gobble them up (as well as the cat food if she get's the chance) and we know she will eat this food. She has only eaten this food and oddly enough, if we put it inside a kong toy, she will play with the kong and eat the food as it falls out. So is it something about it being in the bowl that she doesn't like?

This behaviour is not something that happens all the time, but when it does, I feel like she should be eating more since she's already a pretty lean dog. I suppose I should count myself lucky since I've heard that Beagles can easily become overweight from over eating.

Thanks for reading my large post, and I'll try to clear up any confusion that my run on sentences may have caused

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Welcome!

I don't think it's all that unusual. There are times when Murphy (9 months old) will skip a meal. We fill his bowl twice a day, and sometimes we only need to fill it once a day.

That being said, we had Murphy on Nutro, but just switched to Bil-Jac yesterday (Friday). Yesterday and today he finished everything in his bowl at both the morning and evening feedings-rather unusual for him. I don't know if it's just because the Bil-Jac is different, or that the Bil-Jac tastes that much better than Nutro.

 

[Opus]

First of all Welcome to the BW pack.

I would definately continue with the set feeding times, and removing the food after 20 minutes or so. I really wouldn't worry if she eats sometimes and not others, as long as she is still active and healthy otherwise. I wouldn't add the second meal to the first. Too much at a time can be worse than not at all.
She may not really like the food, and you may just have to try some different kinds.
She may really not be that hungry. If it is really hot out, she may not want to eat.
It may also be as simple as the bowl. We had a dog once that would not eat out of glass or metal. We eventually figured it out that her tags clanked on those bowls and the sound scared her.

 

[Tuesday]

Originally Posted By: Winston's Mom
It may also be as simple as the bowl. We had a dog once that would not eat out of glass or metal. We eventually figured it out that her tags clanked on those bowls and the sound scared her.

Thanks for your suggestions, and I do agree that those may be influencing her, but I think this might be it and it makes perfect sense now that it's been pointed out.

We'll try in a different type of bowl and see if there's any changes.

 

[cheezyridr]

i only feed mine once a day. if i feed them in the morning, sophie will eat her food, and twitchy won't. then sophie will eat twitchy's food. now i feed them at noon, and they both eat right away.

 

[tntnjmom]

We go through this with JoJo a lot. And actually, some days she won't eat at all...(only when she's had a lot to eat the day prior).

She often saves her breakfast until 3-4pm. Then expects dinner promptly at 5. We try to hold her off then until at least 6, but don't give her nearly as much as normal so her stomach's not upset from so much food.

I think it's fairly normal.

 

[Smeagle]

If you take her food away how long do you leave it until you give it back to her?

It sounds like she's being fussy because she knows you'll give her something else like a treat. I don't know that it's the bowl because she doesn't sound like she's showing any aversion to it and she eats her other meal out of it.

If it were me, I would put her bowl down and if she didn't eat it within 15 minutes I'd pick it up and give her NOTHING (no treats!) until the next meal time.

 

[Brien]

On the most part whenever we put food down Bodie eats it right away. However, he's never been an early to rise and early to eat dog. He might eat 2-3 hours after he gets up in the morning. And we also notice he doesn't eat when it's hot out. I think he loses his appetite. But if we bring the food inside he'll eat it.

 

[Tuesday]

Originally Posted By: SmeagleIf you take her food away how long do you leave it until you give it back to her?

It sounds like she's being fussy because she knows you'll give her something else like a treat. I don't know that it's the bowl because she doesn't sound like she's showing any aversion to it and she eats her other meal out of it.

If it were me, I would put her bowl down and if she didn't eat it within 15 minutes I'd pick it up and give her NOTHING (no treats!) until the next meal time.

When we took the food away, we took it away until her next meal time, but it didn't seem like she cared much when we did this.

As for the treats, it's not something we give her only if she doesn't eat. Typically, we would give her them a couple hours later (say we give her food at 9am, she doesn't eat, we give her treats around 12pm). I assumed she wouldn't make a connection with it being so far apart, but then again, she's shown me a lot of things I would've assumed before were wrong.

Also reading a couple other posts, I'm thinking that maybe we're feeding her first meal too early since she likes to spend the first hours in the morning sleeping on the couch instead. We'll try moving the feeding time back and see how she takes to it.

 

[Smeagle]

Originally Posted By: Tuesday

When we took the food away, we took it away until her next meal time, but it didn't seem like she cared much when we did this.

As for the treats, it's not something we give her only if she doesn't eat. Typically, we would give her them a couple hours later (say we give her food at 9am, she doesn't eat, we give her treats around 12pm). I assumed she wouldn't make a connection with it being so far apart, but then again, she's shown me a lot of things I would've assumed before were wrong.

Also reading a couple other posts, I'm thinking that maybe we're feeding her first meal too early since she likes to spend the first hours in the morning sleeping on the couch instead. We'll try moving the feeding time back and see how she takes to it.

If you are giving her treats in between meals it could be filling her up so she's not as hungry by the time the next meal time comes along

How old is she and how much are you feeding her each day?

 

[Tuesday]

She's 1 year and 4 months old. The package suggests 1 and 1/2 cups a day (so 3/4 each meal) which is what we've been giving her (unless she doesn't eat it ).

 

[leonidas]

My 12 week old puppy does not digest well in the mornings right after he wakes up. I feed him around nine and he won't touch it, except for maybe a few pieces which he later throws up. So to fix this problem, what I decided to do was take him on a long walk in the morning right when he wakes up. I make sure he goes # 2 and then bring him back inside for breakfast. I put just a little bit of warm water in his food, and stir it up to make sure the water softens up the food. He loves it and will eat all of his food. Best of all, there is no vomiting! If I do this in the morning, he eats his other meals perfectly fine.

 

[Quinn&Grayson]

What we usually do is feed them in the afternoon and at dinner because Evan doesn't have time to take them out in the morning before work. When I do, I just fill up their bowls and let them eat as much as they want. Whatever they don't eat (they almost never finish off a bowl or even get halfway through it), I save for dinner and just let them finish what they didn't for lunch. That seems to work well...however, I should probably be feeding them more, shouldn't I?

 

[Tucker]

If Tucker doesn't finish his food or want to eat, we make a vet appointment. He will eat anything anytime. Our Chihuahua mix used to not eat. Before we got her she was fed table scraps and treats all the time so she would try to hold off for those. It didn't work on us so if she didn't eat we wouldn't give her anything until next meal. We couldn't leave it out because Tucker would eat it.

 

[RosCole]

Roscoe is funny with the food, he is also the skinniest beagle Ive ever seen but the vets are all very impressed about what great shape he is in! Every once in awhile he leaves some food in his bowl, other times he eats it all! He is a very slow eater though, we have to feed him in another room b/c once our other two vacuum cleaners (I mean beagles) are done inhaling their food they will just push Roscoe out of the way and eat his, Roscoe does not retaliate!
Funny, Roscoe will NEVER turn down treats or table food