[Leah12345]

What is the prevailing thought regarding digestion and other issues related to the number of feedings each day? We have been feeding our year old Lhasa-mix twice a day. I am going to return to work in the fall and wonder if it would be okay to feed her a small amount in the morning and the balance in the afternoon/early evening. She is house trained and theoretically could stay in the sun room to bask in the sun and bark at the birds and squirrels if she didn’t have to relieve herself. She always has water and doesn’t drink except when thirsty so of course, she will have water. She will be alone between 6 and 7 hours three or four days a week and the other option is to kennel her. Thoughts?

[Susan]

Hi, do you want to feed less so she wont want to poo? I feed my boy 5 times a day cause he has Pancreatitis & other stomach problems with digestion, Even though I feed him 5 small meals a day he only does his 2 poos aday, 1 on his morning walk & another poo on his lunch time walk, I’d walk her twice in the day & get her into a routine with the pooing & weeing, A nice 20min walk before you go to work, she’ll start to realise that she can’t wee or poo while ur working & will do her business on her walks, u’ll also get to know when she is pooing & how many aday, then thats when you walk her if she just does the 1 poo a day.
I’d start her routine 1 month before you start work..when I first got my boy he was pooing whenever & about 3-4 poos a day, I live in a unit & this was driving me nuts as he was sick & had diarrhea on & off, it has taken a while to find out all his health problems & what to feed him, but 1 yr later & Ive finally have him in my routine…

[Leah12345]

Yes Sue66b I am trying to manage her poo/pee routine. She poos first thing in the morning and then I feed her and she poos again about 3 or 4 hours later then we have our day. I feed her again late in the afternoon again and she poos about 3 hours later. I walk her every day so I like your idea of walking her in the morning. So I could get up let her poo, feed her, get the family and myself ready for the day, walk her, try to get her to poo again and then go to work. She goes 8+ hours without poo/pee overnight and she has never had an accident in the house since we adopted her in November. She is not destructive either. Your thoughts were very helpful Sue66b and got me thinking! Thanks! Leah

[Suburban Gal]

I work full-time and so does my mom. She’s gone 5 days a week and I’m gone 3 days a week (W, TH, F). She leaves the house at 7:15 AM. I leave 2 hours after she leaves. On the days we both work, Gizmo is left alone for 7 hours. I’ll typically walk him around 5, 5:30 in the morning. Mom walks him around 6:30, 7 in the morning. His last walk is at 9 in the morning. When mom comes home in the afternoon, the first thing she does is walk him. That’s around 4:15, 4:30 in the afternoon. 99.9% of the time he goes poop for my mom, both in the AM and in the PM which explains why he rarely poops when I walk him twice in the AM.

When I adopted him, he ate twice a day. Once in the morning between 5 and 7 and once in the evening between 5 and 7. I didn’t want to disrupt his daily routine so we kept on feeding him twice a day. He was the first dog we had that ate twice a day. We always fed our dogs once a day.

Now, Gizmo eats once a day. We used to feed him in the morning, after his first walk but Gizmo’s now eating in the evenings after 6 and that seems to work out better for him though regardless of when he chooses to eat I feel once a day is good enough for my dog.

[Suburban Gal]

By the way, Gizmo’s good at holding it too (never had an accident even with his foster mom) and has free range of the house while we’re both away.

[Suburban Gal]

Oh, and in case you’re wondering… Gizmo is a 7-year-old papillon.

[Leah12345]

Thank you so much Suburban Gal! The detail was very helpful. Your schedule is very close to my work schedule and my sons’ school schedules who also walk her a few times a day. If I fed her at night, I know that she could hold it all day. I am feeling more optimistic about this. Thanks again! Leah

[theBCnut]

Unless a dog has a medical problem, feeding schedule is entirely up to you. I know someone who feeds his dogs the way wolves eat, gorge and fast. He gives them enough food for 2 or 3 days at a time and they gorge themselves, then he doesn’t feed them for a couple days. Not my style, but that’s me, it works for him and his dogs. He is a raw feeder though. I wouldn’t ever want to feed that big of a meal with kibble that swells after eating.

[Leah12345]

Thanks so much theBCnut. You have been so helpful to me in the past and your thoughts are helpful here too. I started feeding her once a day today and she seems fine.

[Author]

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