is this normal?

[ablack]

I've been told to seperate Tobey's 1/4 cup of food into three sections, morning, noon, and supper. But Tobey eats the food bit by bit. Like he will take only one or two pieces of the puppy chow and walk to a different area, eat it and go back later to get more. He doesn't stand there and eat it all at once like other dogs do. Is this normal? Is this good? Should I try to change it? And how?

[jmm]

You might try adding warm water and letting it sit for 5 minutes before you feed him. I would leave the food down for 10 minutes and pick it up till next meal. Most dogs eat quite well once in schedule. Is he under 12 weeks? I'd feed 4 times per day.

[I found nemo]

I can just say Nemo does the same with his food. He will bring it to the puppy pad (As long as it is clean, which it always is) but if I am not home and there is pee on the pad he will bring the food to my kitchen rug.
I have seen a lot of Maltese do this. I think it's SO cute

[sassy's mommy]

Sassy used to eat like that too when I left her food down 24/7, but now I have her on a scheduled feeding time.

[ablack]

I don't want to leave it down 24/7, but I don't want to pick the food up before he eats enough. Does that make sense?

[ilovemymaltese]

Yes, many malts eat like this. Just another adorable thing they do!

Here's a recent thread about it: http://spoiledmaltese.com/forum/index.php?...p;hl=relocation

[Deborah]

I am fortunate Rylee eats whenever she wants to. One of the reasons we do this is because she is an only fur child. I have watched co-workers jump through hoops to get home in time to feed their doggies on a schedule. I am able to do this because she is the only one eating and I can monitor how much she eats. This works well from me.

[beckybc03]

Lilly is exactly the same way. She has food in her bowl 24/7 and she nibbles here and there. Sometimes, when she is really hungry, she will actually stay by the bowl and each a bunch at once.

The only benefit that I can see to scheduled meal times is that your dog may get on a consistent potty/poo schedule. Other than that I don't see the benefit. Lilly is pee pad trained so her potty schedule is irrelevant for us. My vet has said that it is much better for a dog to eat slowly and not scarf down food. I agree with Deborah that it is really nice to not have to rush home or worry about Lilly waiting for her meal at a specific time since I know she always has food.

[camfan]

I always free-fed Ollie and he did fine and still pottied on schedule like clockwork. He ate the same amt. every day in 24 hours.

When we got YoYo, probably b/c of his background being a rescue, for whatever reason he gulped his food down. So I put both of them on a schedule. Ollie did fine AND it did not change his potty schedule whatsoever. YoYo was still having accidents.

NOW I am free feeding both of them b/c YoYo has stopped gulping his food and since Ollie did just fine being free-fed I thought I'd try it with YoYo as well. They are both eating what they need to in 24 hours BUT YoYo's potting is still not consistant and he still has accidents. And also Ollie's potty schedule remains the same.

My point (sort of, lol) is that I don't know if regular pottying has much to do with free feeding or non-free feeding. In theory it sounds like it should, but in my case it hasn't made a difference either way in either dog. One poops like clockwork either way, the other poops whenever he feels like it either way! LOL!

[ablack]

Well, great! I'll just free-feed Tobey. He's potty pad trained most of the time, but he still has a few accidents. He still has yet to poop on the pads.