Re: BILJAC for dogs and other food question


"Suja" <spanaval@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bwYOf.478194$0l5.146589@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"wolfpuppy" <togrul@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message:

On the other hand, if you have your dog on continuous feed, and I am
speaking of a good quality dry food, he will realize that the food will
not
"be gone" and will calm down when it comes to eating. In other words, he
won't try to eat it all at once.

I am not talking about a dog eating its food all at once. I am talking
about a dog self-regulating its intake. To the point where the dog only
eats enough to maintain its ideal body weight. Is it your contention that
animals that know that they have a steady supply of food available to them
24/7 will not overeat, and will not pack on more weight than they should?

My point? Simply that once this Great Dane realized that there would
always
be food available, he no longer felt the need to eat it all as quickly as
he
could. From that point on he would eat a bit, and move on, returning to
the
bowl as he desired, eat a little more, and so on.

I know plenty of free fed dogs. I am not contending that they'll clean up
the bowls of whatever food is put in front of their face if they're free
fed. It is my contention however that dogs don't always know at what
point
they should stop themselves so that they are not overweight. As far as I
know, dogs don't really seem to know the difference between 'ideal weight'
'overweight' and 'obese'.

I have a female Great Dane who was free fed for the first 3 years of her
life. She has lost over 15 pounds in the two years I've had her, and will
more than likely lose another 3 before we're all said and done. I have a
male GSD mix who weighs 90 pounds. His total calorie intake for a day is
between 500 - 600 calories. Why? Because he is an 'easy keeper' who puts
on weight on any more. If allowed to eat until he is full (and it is
possible that he will stop eating at 2 cups a day instead of the 1 1/3rd
cups he can have), he will turn into a blimp.

It is important to me that my dogs be fit. It is important to me that I
know which dog is eating how much, and it is important to me that I know
when my dogs are off their food. Not free feeding confers (for my dogs
anyway) the advantage that my dogs are excited about their food, which
makes
it easy for me to train them. Of course, my dogs generally don't eat the
same thing twice, and their kibble has to be wet, and each dog gets a
different dosage of nutraceuticals, so I really can't leave their food
down
all day anyway.

Suja

I think you misunderstood me. You are using the term free fed and I am
using the term continuous feed, and I am not sure where you are coming from.
What I am saying is that I use a high quality dry feed (IAMS) and keep food
in their bowls. They do not eat until it's gone. They eat a bit, then go
off to do dog things. I have had dogs for over 35 years and this is how I
feed. I got this information from reading articles in Dog World and Dog
Fancy magazines, by authors who have forgotten more than all of us posters
put together, vets, and other dog owners, and my own experiences.

If my dogs ate like goldfish, then I would feed differently, but they don't,
so I feed continuously. That isn't meant to imply that they are actually
eating continuously, just that food is "continuously" avaliable to them.
Look, dogs are smart enough to realize that if there is always food there to
eat, then they don't have to try to always eat it all up. I just can't make
it any plainer than that, nor am I going to try. If it worked with the
Great Dane in my previous post, it would certainly work with most every
other dog. Are there going to be exceptions? Sure, there may be. Does
that nullify my argument? Nope.


.

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