We are raising 2 GSDs, female is 16months, male is 15 months old. We've had them since they were 8 weeks old. Until recently they have been crated seperately at night. Since my wife and I are working at home we are with them all day. Both dogs get along very well. In the beginning the female was dominant, but now the male has taken over. No problem here. Until 1 week ago they have both eaten together in the kitchen from seperate food and water bowls. Since we did not like the switching of bowls we decided to seperate the 2 dogs when feeding. We feed them once a day at night around 6pm. We mostly feed raw food, meet,bones and vegetables.
After we started seperated them, the female eats immediately, while the male seems to be little interested in his food.
After some encouragement he eats a little bit then lies down again. Most of the time I give him max. 1 hour and then take the food away. When he did not eat much the day before, the next day he'll eat a bit more.
I would like to know if I should simply not care and just take the food away after 1 hour, no matter how much he has eaten. If he gets hungry enough, eventually his habits might change.
I also noticed that when the female is finished and I let her in with the male, the male then does not let her near his bowl and starts eating.
Any input would be helpful. Thanks for your time!

we feed all of are dogs seperate (16 of them)in crates or kennals an hour is plenty long enough to leave food down. dont let your female near the males food if he's done or you decide he's done just pick up the food. your male will eat if he gets hungry enough.please dont get me wrong you know your dog ive never met him.this advice is for a physically and mentaly healthy dog.last thing i want to start is an eating disorder. also remember your dogs scents of smell. is any thing starting to go bad in the food your feeding him . we feed a good kibble and suplimant in numerous differant ways.so i am not the one to reply about the type of food your feeding. one last thing depending on his genetic growth cycle and age plus activity you may be over feeding i have 65# mali that eat 4 to 5 cups twice a day and i have gsd that weigh 90# and eat 3 cups once a day. i hope this is a start for you TOM

Thanks for the reply and advice, Tom. We started seperating them about 1 week ago and sometimes (like tonight) the male hardly ate anything, while the female ate the same food in 20 min. We only feed good quality meat and bones, nothing rotten or smelly.
Maybe the male has to get used to the fact first that he is eating alone now.

I am trying to get my pup to eat more consistently so what I do is put her in her crate and feed here there. I then put my other males food down next to the crate and he eats next to her. I think that motivates her to eat when she sees him. GSD's in my opinion are tempermental eaters <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />