We just keep our cats food bowl filled at all times, and she eats when she is hungry, but never over eats. We were at our friends' house last night and they only let their cat have a small scoop of food a day. You can see the cat's spine/ribs...so sad. So it got me thinking, do most people limit their pets food intake or do they just keep food available at all times?
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I think it very much depends on the pet. Some breeds of dog are definitely known to not be able to regulate themselves and will over eat if allowed no boundaries. Other breeds are more likely to self-regulate. I've known cats that way as well - some with little self control and others with more than enough. It saddens me to see pets that are allowed to graze all day that don't have the ability to self-regulate and are truly obese and suffering from it (joint issues, etc.). But you can also see the other side too where people are too tight with the food allowance. We know what weight is safe for our dogs and we play with the appropriate amount of food (dependent on the brand and flavor) that will keep them at that weight and feed that amount twice a day.
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We put out two meals a day for our dog (and he gets treats at times, too). But he spends a few days a week at daycare, so we had to train him to eat when we put food out since he's not home all day every day! Occasionally he doesn't eat a meal (usually at breakfast time), and we'll leave it out for an hour or two and if he still doesn't eat it, we pick it up and he gets more food at dinner...and he's fine! No ribs in sight
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Oh yes! Like @Pelikila said - I have a pug. He will eat until he literally bursts if we don't control his intake! So he gets a measured amount of food.
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our cat has never had a weight problem, in fact recently i was worried because he started losing weight. so we keep his filled. if he was over weight i would just because being overweight is really bad for cats.
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I agree with @pelikila:.
I have always free-fed my dog(s) and they've never had weight issues. Perhaps because they've been small breeds and tend to pick at a few pieces of kibble at a time.
But I've had friends' dogs come over who will make a beeline for my dog's food bowl and eat the whole entire thing! I usually know which dogs do that now and move the bowl because those are the ones who aren't free-fed and can't self-regulate. -
We limit, per our vet's suggestion. We give our cat a small scoop in the morning and a small scoop at night. She usually has at least some still in the bowl whenever we go to refill. We could probably cut it back a little more... the vet said she could stand to lose a few more ounces.
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Oh yah.. My dog totally has an eating disorder and is already overweight. He gets 2 cups a day!
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My bulldog would eat himself to death if we didn't regulate.
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One of our cats is overweight, so we measure and regulate food. None of my other cats have needed that, but my big boy would eat all day if he could.
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Our greyhound gets fed twice a day. Sometimes she doesn't finish her food, so she'll come back and graze on it later.
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Our Newfoundland gets 2 c of food a day split into two meals. Our cat gets 1/3 cup a day but since our 2 1/2 year old is in charge of feeding him and usually forgets he gets 2/3 c every other day; he would totally overeat if allowed free access to food.
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We do. Our lab gets one large cup (like a mcallisters restaurant cup) a day !
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Ours eats when he wants but his breed is really thin naturally. If he struggled with his weight, we would monitor more
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Our pets get fed twice a day.
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I just left food out for my dog. He would stop eating when satisfied and never over ate.
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Our cats get two cans of fancy feast each day, one in the morning and one at night. One of them was seriously overweight, and the vet recommended wet food at about 200 calories per day. They seem like they're ALWAYS hungry, but their weights are fine. I also think they just really like wet food (which they didn't used to get), so they whine for it.
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We stopped leaving the food dish out and he eats twice a day!
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17 comments