So I am currently waiting on the final approval to add a new puppy to my home ( Yeah), and have been thinking about a few things. I have always just filled Vito's bowl in the morning and once at night, letting him eat whenever he feels like it. I did this because when he was younger he had liked to eat the entire meal in seconds and I am terrified of bloat. And also because of me being a night nurse at the time, my schedule was horrible, so timed feedings could have been very untimed sometimes. So now that we are getting a puppy, and I have a better more regular schedule, I wonder if I should change this as the puppy will be eating a different food for a while. If you feed them in their crates do you put water in as well? Is it just dried food that you feed them? By doing the timed feedings do you find "potty" time more routine? Vito always goes out first thing in the morning and at 9:30pm like clockwork, but the rest are just whenever, but never in the middle of the night. I guess with the preparation of a possible new puppy I have been rethinking alot of things, and I really want to do what is best, both for Vito and a puppy.

Also, we currently feed Vito Purina Pro Plan for Large Breeds and I have often considered changing that, but just never have. I really want a good quality food, but do not want to spend a fortune on it either. Any suggestions? Please help.

I don't like free feeding dogs, most will eat too much. I think the best feeding schedule for an adult is 2 meals a day. I also am not a big believer in feeding at the same time all the time, but it is good for puppies to help with housebreaking.

It's a bad idea to free feed your weim. Oh the reasons...
1. food is a valuable resource that YOU as almighty ruler should control
2. weims are manipulative, they often play games with you and this starts with their food--usually at about 5 months of age. If your current weim isn't manipulative, then your next one will likely be. Just odds.
3. you can use food to help crate train, potty train, and all kinds of other things. "Sit" "stay" and "wait" are all taught and reinforced very easily with their food bowl.
4. If you're free feeding more than one dog it can be dangerous. Weims are stoic and often the first sign of a real illness is going off their feed. How do you know when one dog stops eating, eats slower than normal, or doesn't feel well? How do you know which one it is?
5. Gulping food can contribute to bloat, but dogs can also bloat on an empty stomach (from barking, etc) if predisposed to it.
6. If you take away food as a reward, you'll need to find something else that motivates them. Easy to do, but I like to have lots of motivators at my disposal!
7. I can keep going with this list...

Sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves for personal reasons. It really is not a good idea to free feed a weim. It can be done with more than one dog, but you're giving them a big piece of control and I for one am not willing to do that.

lol Mer
of course great list of excellent points

Hello... my name is Sophie.... and I'm a Food-aholic.

There's no way I could free feed Sophie. She's be a fatty-fatty. I feed her twice a day about 12 hours apart. She gets a a biscuit bone or two in between that.

Plus what she steals off plates, licks off the floor and table and licks of dishes in the sink and what she can find in the trash.

I think she has lost a few pounds now that we switched from puppy to adult food. I think she looks better.

I don't like free feeding, either. For all of the reasons above. I'll add another - medicating! If you have a medication that one dog is supposed to get in his/her food, and the other isn't, how do you know if the right dog got it, or all of it, if you're free feeding? And you can't just NOT free feed during that time period that the dog needs the medication because they might not finish it all because they're not used to HAVING to finish it all right now.

I, personally, have not had a dog that this works with - they'd eat every piece of kibble they could find, and then some! And every dog that I've seen that the owner free feeds is GI-normous!! I like having the control over the food, because that generally means I also have the control over my dogs. I actually just had this conversation with my counselor last week, who is a die-hard free feeder who was complaining that her dogs were out of control and wouldn't listen to her. Somehow she just can't grasp this particular bit of psychology!!

Yikes, didn't realize this would hit so many nerves. I may just refer to my books, next time. And my dog is not a in control over the food. He gets the same amount 2 cups in am, and 2 cups in the pm, everyday. I just don't take the food if he doesn't eat it. I don't have problems with Vito being out of control. He never steals food from the counter or table, and when we eat he goes and lays down. And as Vito has never been on medication that has never been an issue. Thanks for the lessons guys. I will consult the books from now on.

bmaienza wrote:Yikes, didn't realize this would hit so many nerves. I may just refer to my books, next time. And my dog is not a in control over the food. He gets the same amount 2 cups in am, and 2 cups in the pm, everyday. I just don't take the food if he doesn't eat it. I don't have problems with Vito being out of control. He never steals food from the counter or table, and when we eat he goes and lays down. And as Vito has never been on medication that has never been an issue. Thanks for the lessons guys. I will consult the books from now on.

Nobody was trying to hurt your feelings, we are all passionatre about our dogs and most of us have tried (and usually messed up) something similar in the past. There probably aren't books about this kind of thing. True "free feeding" is leaving food out all day and putting more down every time the bowl is empty so the dog can just take a bite here and there. But opinions are just that. I do know someone who free feeds two weims and other than being a few pounds overweight there is never a problem. So it can work. But you did ask for opinions, and we gave them to you.

Please don't feel attacked! When I was reading through the replies I did not get the feeling that you were hitting people's nerves. I thought they gave great advice without judgement. You asked for opinions and got them. I don't think you should feel discouraged

We don't feed in crates, but do feed our two dogs a meal in the morning and a meal at night. The times can vary a bit, depending on our schedules. We make them sit first, then we put their bowls down (a little bit apart so they're not on top of each other), then make them wait until we say it's OK to start eating. Both of them eat really quickly, so we don't need to worry about one leaving the food so that the other eats it instead (we have more of a problem slowing them down!). If Vito is a super slow eater and doesn't eat it in one "session", then you'd need train him by just taking the bowl away after a certain amount of time. He'll quickly figure out that if he wants his food, he has to take it when you put it down.
We have water bowls out for them all day, so they drink whenever they want/need to.

A lot of people feed in their crates, and I know it works for them. Hopefully they'll weigh in with some advice. I think it might be particularly useful with the puppy for crate training. I don't believe people put the water in there as well though.

As for food, check out the nutrition section below. There are a lot of opinions and it will mainly depend on what your dog does well on, what's available for you and, to a certain degree, what your finances are. We feed Taste of Wild, the Pacific Stream formula. It's pretty good quality, and more importantly, our dogs do really well on it.

Hope this helps a little!!

And congratulations on your prospective new pupp!

tans wrote:We don't feed in crates, but do feed our two dogs a meal in the morning and a meal at night. The times can vary a bit, depending on our schedules. We make them sit first, then we put their bowls down (a little bit apart so they're not on top of each other), then make them wait until we say it's OK to start eating. Both of them eat really quickly, so we don't need to worry about one leaving the food so that the other eats it instead (we have more of a problem slowing them down!). If Vito is a super slow eater and doesn't eat it in one "session", then you'd need train him by just taking the bowl away after a certain amount of time. He'll quickly figure out that if he wants his food, he has to take it when you put it down.
We have water bowls out for them all day, so they drink whenever they want/need to.

A lot of people feed in their crates, and I know it works for them. Hopefully they'll weigh in with some advice. I think it might be particularly useful with the puppy for crate training. I don't believe people put the water in there as well though.

As for food, check out the nutrition section below. There are a lot of opinions and it will mainly depend on what your dog does well on, what's available for you and, to a certain degree, what your finances are. We feed Taste of Wild, the Pacific Stream formula. It's pretty good quality, and more importantly, our dogs do really well on it.

Hope this helps a little!!

And congratulations on your prospective new pupp!

Thank you. This is exactly what I was asking for.

ellaphant wrote:Please don't feel attacked! When I was reading through the replies I did not get the feeling that you were hitting people's nerves. I thought they gave great advice without judgement. You asked for opinions and got them. I don't think you should feel discouraged

I do feel attacked. I was asking a question and I got lists of why free feeding is bad, but no answers to my questions. I felt judged. I am not an expert on weims or dogs. I read a ton of books prior to getting Vito, in an attempt to be the best Weim Mom I could be. Things have been great, do we have problems yes, but typical problems that we are working on. I am a book person...if I have a question, I consult a book. Books don't have experience, and that is what I was looking for here. I truely thought that with this being a Weim Addict site that a little compassion would be given to people who are asking questions and trying hard to figure things out. I know people are compassionate about their feelings, but I am compassionate about Vito, and when someone makes me feel like I have been "bad" for feeding him the way I do, I get upset. I had no idea that free feeding can be so bad, Vito is not overweight, not food aggressive, so food has never been a big issue for us. The only reason I asked is because of bringing in a puppy to the situation, and reading other people's comments about feeding in crates, and was curious, as it sounded like a good idea. This is one of the first questions I have asked on this site, and I am not sure if I will again.

bmaienza wrote:This is one of the first questions I have asked on this site, and I am not sure if I will again.

We hope you do ask more questions, and we're sorry you feel the way you do. Things get very heated on this site and nobody wants to offend, but it does happen because we're all very passionate about our dogs. And many times it's just because we don't want to see the same mistakes repeated over and over again. Go back and read the posts and you'll see that nobody was attacking you. We all appreciate anyone who does their research.

bmaienza wrote:
I do feel attacked. I was asking a question and I got lists of why free feeding is bad, but no answers to my questions. I felt judged. I am not an expert on weims or dogs. I read a ton of books prior to getting Vito, in an attempt to be the best Weim Mom I could be. Things have been great, do we have problems yes, but typical problems that we are working on. I am a book person...if I have a question, I consult a book. Books don't have experience, and that is what I was looking for here. I truely thought that with this being a Weim Addict site that a little compassion would be given to people who are asking questions and trying hard to figure things out. I know people are compassionate about their feelings, but I am compassionate about Vito, and when someone makes me feel like I have been "bad" for feeding him the way I do, I get upset. I had no idea that free feeding can be so bad, Vito is not overweight, not food aggressive, so food has never been a big issue for us. The only reason I asked is because of bringing in a puppy to the situation, and reading other people's comments about feeding in crates, and was curious, as it sounded like a good idea. This is one of the first questions I have asked on this site, and I am not sure if I will again.

You're not a bad Weim parent and nor does anyone think so
I think people were just giving advice on the free-feeding in case it didn't work out so nicely with your other pup. It sounds as though you do well with free-feeding and that's great. Please feel free to ask questions again. We aren't such a bad bunch and I myself found the advice given here very useful.
In response to your question, I never fed Ella in her crate, just beside it. However, she gets her vitamin supplement in her crate at bedtime so she corresponds it with settling down to go to sleep. I think timed feedings are a great way to help with potty training as you can anticipate when "potty time" is coming. It'll help you be on your toes with corrections if she does it in the house, or you could bring her outside after her meal until she goes.
Congrats with the new puppy!! We all love pictures here so don't hesitate to go crazy

We free fed our Husky mix for 10 years and it was 100% successful until we added a second dog. Then, it was impossible to tell who was eating what, how much and at what time. We switched to feeding them all at the same time, twice a day, and that works well too. I think every dog and every situation is different and you just need to figure out what works best for you. Best wishes!