Cruel and unusual punishment

[Shalista]

So bax loves his food. LOVES his food. Especially now that he's raw. He always gets breakfast immediately following his first walk of the day and he KNOWS IT. now when he was on kibble he would get a second meal of the day around 8pm. since he switched to raw he no longer gets that. However since i don't quite weigh everything out right about once a week he gets a dinner. Every night he gets all excited for 8pm..... and waits... and waits... and whines...... and whines.... and nothing.

Am i being cruel? should i discontinue dinner altogether and merge it with breakfast? should i distribute dinner so he gets a teeny tiny one every night instead of a big one every eight days or so?

also is it wrong of me to cave if he starts whining at 6 or 7? am i setting a bad precedent?

[JudyN]

Yep, I feel sorry for the poor lad! It's like knowing there might be pudding every day, and then not getting it most days - it's far worse than knowing you're not going to get pudding And if you ever cave in, it's good reason for him to whine, and whine, and whine, and whine....

Ideally, he'd be having two meals a day anyway, though I don't think this is so important in small dogs as large, deep-chested types. Just for his state of mind, though (and yours come to that), I'd make sure he either never gets anything in the evening, or always gets something in the evening. There are dogs out there who will happily skip meals, even have fast day once a week, but for some dogs (Bax & Jasper for starters ) this would be the end of the world.

Jasper always gets to lick the plates/baking trays after we've eaten in the evening, and even if they're pretty clean, we now have to make sure there's something for him, even just a sprinkling of grated cheese or a smear of tomato sauce. It's a rod we've made for our own backs, but on the other hand, it's great for cleaning greasy baking trays Not such a good idea for much smaller dogs, though, for whom every calorie counts.

Ideally, also, he'd have a rest of around an hour after exercise & before eating (imagine running a few miles and then eating straight away). However, I don't think the link between eating after exercise and bloat is proven, and the risk is also thought to be smaller in raw-fed dogs, so you have to weigh this up against your own daily routine and Bax's stress levels.

[delladooo]

I would say it's quite mean to only get it one day a week and as Judy says, definitely reason for him to cry.

That said, we have something of a quirk too - Laufey and MiMi are on three meals a day (not ideal really I know but it didn't go so well when I tried to phase out lunch, I do plan to try again) but on a Monday we have to skip lunch because it's too close to our agility class. It's the only meal a week we skip and it is accompanied by its own routine so has a very definite structure to "today is no lunch day"

[JudyN]

Slightly off topic but Delladoo, when I moved Jasper from 3 to 2 meals a day I gradually reduced the size of his lunch till it was so small I just combined it with a training session and gave it as rewards. It was a bit easier because he was on kibble back then though.

[delladooo]

Thanks Judy, my original issue was Laufey became an absolute menace eating anything remotely he like could swallow it (and people around here seem to have a bin aversion) but now I'm more concerned with that it might "rock the boat" with MiMi as 99/100 she's eating every meal now whereas the end of last year she starved herself for over two weeks so don't know whether it's better to just stick with it and not fix something that's not broken

[Shalista]

yeah bloat isnt an issue since he only pops out really quick for a potty walk. he usually takes his big walk later in the day. I might just cut his pork in half and then give him half in the AM and half in the PM? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
EDIT: and you guess right bax will eat anything that even remotely smells of food and is very punctual about keeping his meal times

[delladooo]

Shalista, Bax sounds very like Laufey on that front - nightmare aren't they!!

[Shalista]

goes to show what a change in diet will do though. on kibble he'd leave his bowl untouched all day