One Meal Per-Day
Keeps The Veterinarian Away.
Once-a-day? Twice-a-day? Free-feed? Ask
around and you’ll hear lots of different opinions on the optimal
feeding schedule for your dog or cat. So what is the correct answer?
Well first off, rest easy as there is no hard and fast correct answer.
That being said, it’s our opinion that free-feeding is the worst way to
go. The best comparison we can make is that free-feeding is like having
a full buffet in your house, stocked with food 24 hours-a-day. When you
think of it this way, it’s not hard to understand why pets that are
free-fed tend to be sluggish, lethargic, and passionless about their
food. After all, how excited would you be about that lasagna if you had
a big bowl of it sitting in the corner all day long? In a dog or cat’s
life food is the number-one motivation. Sure, they love rides in the
car, going for walks, or getting a visit from the neighbor’s pet. But
nothing beats food. A critter with no passion for food is an unhappy
critter. A pet should have an unbridled passion for food. They need to
look forward to their next meal with anticipation and excitement. This
creates the foundation for a well-tempered, happy pet.
In addition to the negative effect on
disposition, free feeding is not ideal for the digestive system. Dogs
and cats in the wild have long breaks between meals -- far longer than
humans who operate ideally on 3 meals per day. These breaks give their
digestive system a chance to rest and prepare for the next meal. So, if
this is all true, why do some pet foods suggest free-feeding? For the
same reason that your shampoo bottle tells you to lather, rinse, and
repeat . . . to sell more shampoo. The sad fact is that many pet food
manufacturers are far more concerned with the almighty dollar than the
health of your pets.
So now that we’ve eliminated free-feeding,
should you go with once or twice per-day? (We don’t suggest three meals
for the same reasons that free-feeding is not ideal.) Between
once-a-day and twice-a-day, it’s really a matter of convenience and
preference. If you need a definite answer, we would go with once-per
day. This allows for a long period of rest for the digestive system and
has been shown to optimize the health and attitude of the dog or cat.
However, once-a-day feeding can be difficult. Many dogs and cats drive
their owners crazy begging for food throughout the day when on a
once-a-day diet. Usually this type of behavior can be trained out of
the pet if you stick with it for a couple of weeks. But it does take a
lot of patience in those cases. On the other hand, twice-a-day feeding
does work for many people and they still have very good results --
along with a pet that’s not quite so obsessive about food throughout
the day.
Whether you’re trying to achieve
once-per-day or twice-per-day feeding, the best way to do it is to be
as consistent as possible with your feeding times. Put a bowl of food
down and pick it up after ten minutes (whether the food has been eaten
or not). Pets will quickly conform to this new feeding window. The more
you cave in to your pet’s demands, the longer it will take your pet to
conform to a new feeding schedule. If you’re going to do snacks during
the day, we recommend feeding them as rewards only, and to use healthy
foods like raw carrots or apples. Also, the more you stick to a routine
of specific times and events for reward snacks, the less your dog or
cat will beg between meals.
If you’re doing twice-per-day feeding we
suggest one meal in the morning and one in the evening. If you’re
feeding once-per-day, either morning or night will work. Also, keep in
mind that these rules do not apply to puppies and kittens, which do
need 2-3 smaller meals throughout the day as opposed to once-a-day
feeding.
Article
provided by:
Sojourner Farms
Lucy
The Wonder Dog Carries Sojourner Farms and other super premium holistic
brands
