# Suddenly Eating Less



## Bock (Jun 23, 2008)

5 cups is quite a bit. I feed Tysen 2 cups morn and 2 more in the even.

Also, when you feed your dog put the food down and only leave it out for 10 minutes then pick it up. This helps prevent your dog from being picky. If your dog doesn't eat a meal, still pick it up. No healthy dog will starve itself.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I used to free feed Shadow. He did well. When Tucker came to live with us we had to stop free feeding. My two are both going to be six years old soon and only get a total of 2 cups or 3 cups a day. Depends on the dog and the caloric content of the food. 

Teething must be over by now. It's been a long time since I've had a pup or a dog under the age of one. I've forgotten a lot!


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

You might want to eliminate lunch. He's pretty old to be getting three meals a day. It's quite normal for his appetite to change if he's not growing as fast at the moment. He'll likely eat better if you don't free fed; he'll know that he doesn't get to come back and snack after a few days of bowl down for 15 minutes and taken away, even if no food has been eaten. As far as how much to feed, if you eliminate that cup at midday, he may do fine. If he seems at all pudgy, you may want to cut down even the 4 cups....that can be a lot depending on what food you're feeding.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

I feed mine twice a day. When Bama was about 5-6 months he stopped eating lunch and didnt miss it at all.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

ditto to what everyone says. That's a lot of food for his age. My dogs could eat 7 to 9 cups at 6 months old, and down to 4 cups by 9 months. He's telling you that his metabolism is slowing down and he doesn't need so much food. Also, I've not really heard of giving them 3 meals a day at his age, that's very unusual.
I would not leave the food down for "a couple hours", that encourages really picky eating. If he hasn't eaten it in 10 minutes, he doesn't want it. Pick it up and offer it again at his next scheduled meal time. He'll learn to eat when it's there, and it avoids a lot of behavior problems later on.
JMO of course.


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## elliejon11 (Feb 3, 2008)

ykcamom said:


> We've noticed that Riley (10 months) is now eating less at feedings. In fact, some days, he doesn't even eat his morning feed until a couple of hours after we put it out for him. And he rarely finishes any feeding at all.
> 
> This is very unusual for Riley because he was always one of the "inhale every feed like it's his last meal" kind of puppies. We had to feed him with muffin containers when he was really little because Riley would inhale his food so fast he would get the heaves!
> 
> Anyhow, is this sudden slow down normal? He doesn't appear ill in any way, stools are normal, etc. I'm thinking he's just not growing as much and his body naturally needs less? Should we cut back how much we give him? (He currently receives about 2 cups at morning and evening feeds, and 1 cup at lunch. Maybe this is too much now?


I understand where your coming from my 10 mos. old is doing the same exact thing...cept for he just finished 4 weeks of lyme disease medicine, so I thought that might be the cause but he goes to the vets wednesday and we'll get more info. on whats going on then...I have measured his food and for the last week he's lucky if he eats a cup and a half of food for all day, I feel I need to free feed him :uhoh:


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