When you place the food in your puppies crate how long do you leave it in there before you take it away?

Thanks Brian

 Quote: Brian Huinker

When you place the food in your puppies crate how long do you leave it in there before you take it away?

Thanks Brian

Hi Brian. I personally like my dogs to eat with vigor when the food goes down. I believe this is a behavior that some pups come by naturally, and others have to learn. So...especially with youngsters, I keep an eye on them and try to use good judgement as best we can.

What I watch for within...say...15 minutes is the pup totally losing interest in the food. Whether that's 5 minutes or 10 minutes or something close, I tend to pick up their food if they loose total interest.

BUT.. puppies need their nutrition, so witholding food across several feedings is not somthing I would do on a regular basis. IMO, in adult dogs, there are different things to watch and try. And even with pups there are different things to try.

When we were feeding kibble across our pack of 4, we had issues ranging from 1 dog gobbling kibble and looking for more in an almost scary way, to another dog not wanting to eat much at all, and then 2 dogs in the middle - what I would call normal eaters.

Since we switched to raw feeding, all of these same 4 dogs eat in a way that seems normal to me.

I don't think your question has an exact answer (and mine certainly isn't) Hope this helps in some way.

Beth

Thanks Beth. Right now my Boston doesn't seem to be fully interested in the food when I put it down in his crate. I've started to take it away once he leaves full interest in it, but like you said I definitely don't want to deprive the little guy of his nutrition, but also I don't want to leave it in there all day...

Hi Brian. Just out of curiosity, what food are you feeding?

I know how concerning it is when you have a finicky eating (or not) pup. I hope you will check out all the raw feeding info available here on Leerbug. As I alluded, it solved several problems for us. We had an extreme chow hound, who from the time he was born was just a food hog. He inhaled his kibble so fast it was scary - and would eat *anything* that dropped to the floor whether it was food or not. (I mean that - he would swallow a nail before he knew whether or not it was food, and ask questions later... or we had to ask the vet later!)

We had the other extreme of "picky" eaters too. Our mixed breed mutt would *play* with her food. She didn't want to eat it, but she wanted to protect it, see what other dogs wanted it, fight over it (of course we don't allow food fights, but she would have welcomed one seemingly, etc. and she got too thin for where we thought she should be.

I am so relieved to be able to put 4 dogs in their crates, give them their individual food, they are done eating (all of them) within 15 minutes, and that part of the day is over with. And I believe they are eating way healthier in the process. I hope you consider more research on that topic.

Best wishes!

Beth
http://www.JolietSchutzhund.com
Training@JolietSchutzhund.com

For my dogs I don't take the food away until they actually stop eating and move away (or lose interest) from it.

I feed raw and if my pup needs 2 hours to chew up his bones, I'll give him his time. I don't want to pressure him into rushing and gulping up meaty bones because he's worried they'll be taken away after a certain amount of time.

If the dog shows no interest at all in the food, I'll give it 10 minutes and take it away until the next meal. If it's hungry enough it'll eat.

If it's a really young pup, I'll just find something that it wants to eat. Wouldn't want an 8-week-old baby missing too many meals.

 Quote: Yuko Blum

For my dogs I don't take the food away until they actually stop eating and move away (or lose interest) from it.

I feed raw and if my pup needs 2 hours to chew up his bones, I'll give him his time. I don't want to pressure him into rushing and gulping up meaty bones because he's worried they'll be taken away after a certain amount of time.

If the dog shows no interest at all in the food, I'll give it 10 minutes and take it away until the next meal. If it's hungry enough it'll eat.

If it's a really young pup, I'll just find something that it wants to eat. Wouldn't want an 8-week-old baby missing too many meals.

I totally agree with you. For us anyway, it's not about a time clock - it's about the pup/dog having or not having interest in the food. And each dog is different - if the 6 year old mutt decides to act like a b-i-t-c-h over her food, I have no problem removing it. (but we haven't have that problem, thankfully, since going raw). It's a different assessment IMO, when you're dealing with a very young pup. OH....the judgement calls we have to make!

Beth

 Quote: Beth Fuqua

 Quote: Yuko Blum

For my dogs I don't take the food away until they actually stop eating and move away (or lose interest) from it.

I feed raw and if my pup needs 2 hours to chew up his bones, I'll give him his time. I don't want to pressure him into rushing and gulping up meaty bones because he's worried they'll be taken away after a certain amount of time.

If the dog shows no interest at all in the food, I'll give it 10 minutes and take it away until the next meal. If it's hungry enough it'll eat.

If it's a really young pup, I'll just find something that it wants to eat. Wouldn't want an 8-week-old baby missing too many meals.

I totally agree with you. For us anyway, it's not about a time clock - it's about the pup/dog having or not having interest in the food. And each dog is different - if the 6 year old mutt decides to act like a b-i-t-c-h over her food, I have no problem removing it. (but we haven't have that problem, thankfully, since going raw). It's a different assessment IMO, when you're dealing with a very young pup. OH....the judgement calls we have to make!

Beth

Ditto all the way.

I have all pigs, but I once had a 16-year-old who took her time. I never picked up her dish until she was obviously finished with it. I think of this as completely different from free feeding.

So far I have not owned a dog who was picky with fresh food (except I do run into resistance to liver.... go figure; maybe they sense it from their owner! :grin.

But I have had (and still do have) both inhalers and chewers. Like Yuko, I also would never want the chewer to be worried that his food could be picked up while he was still chewing away on it.

I think if my pup or dog wasn't interested in his food when it was put down, I might re-think the food choice. But that's just me, and I do understand that if the dog is hungry enough, the dog will eat. I personally really derive satisfaction from seeing my dogs eagerly attack their bowls of food.

Connie, my pup is just like that with liver!! He won't touch raw liver unless it's cut up really really tiny and mixed in with muscle meat. I use the same liver but cooked for training and he loves that!

One trick I use with my pup if he acts picky or unsure about something (or if I want him to speed up in his eating) is that I'll make a big deal of calling over my other dog (a 10-year-old female) and that'll get him going
Of course don't try this if your dogs are food-aggressive - mine aren't at all and will peacefully eat out of the same bowl. But my pup will get very concerned if my female approaches while he's eating and will speed up (so cute to watch )

Doesn't work with liver though... go figure.

Lol Connie I know exactly what you mean about delighting in watching your dogs go at their food.
For example, I personally can't stand the smell of fresh tripe, but will go out of my way to get it whole just so that I can watch my dogs violently shake it. They love tripe more than anything in this world and seem to think that it needs quite a bit more "killing" before being consumed.

I'll even go to the lengths of taping their eating if I happen to have something exciting for them (such as a whole, freshly slaughtered rabbit, fur and all!)... or say, a deer head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHi3NWY12Fk (Moka, my 10-year-old munching on a deer head)

I then send the videos to all my friends, family and anyone who owns a dog and tell them to switch to raw. The reactions are usually a mixture of fright and fascination

I'm happy to report my pup is now chowing down in his crate come feeding time. I guess it just took a couple of times for him to realize that feeding time is the time to eat not play...Thanks for all the advice and have a Happy New Year!

Brian

 Quote: Brian Huinker

I'm happy to report my pup is now chowing down in his crate come feeding time. I guess it just took a couple of times for him to realize that feeding time is the time to eat not play...Thanks for all the advice and have a Happy New Year!

Brian

Excellent!!!