Reducing to 2 meals a day

[Maggie Mul]

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Hi Everyone,

Our Puppy, Maggie, is almost 7 months old. I believe she should be on 2 meals a day now. She is a fussy eater and at the moment is on 2 varieties of Canagan kibble mixed together. (Chicken and lamb) She is not a huge fan and I got into the terrible habit of mixing a bit of chicken, or sausage, or gravy to the kibble to make it more appetising!! Now I have a fusspot who turns her nose up and just plain old kibble!! Entirely my fault!!
What is the best way to cut out the lunch time meal? This is usually fed by hand as we do training then and I make her 'earn' it so to speak. Do I cut it out completely, or bit by bit over a couple of days? At the moment she has 1 cup of kibble split over 3 meals also sometimes a kong, but always chewy bones throughout the day. She also gets some treats when we are out walking. She is defnintely never starving!!
Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

 

[JoanneF]

I would suggest reducing gradually but I have a bit of a confession - T will be 8 next month and gets 4 pieces of food for breakfast and 4 at bedtime as well as his lunchtime meal and evening meal. It works for us, his other meals are adjusted to take account of these and being a creature of habit, he expects it.

 

[JudyN]

Bit by bit, but it can be over a couple of days, couple of weeks, whatever - just make the 'lunchtime training session' shorter each day, then move it around a bit timewise, till she stops thinking 'lunchtime!'

As long as the additions to her meals are healthy, that's fine. It's not fussy to not want to eat boring (in her mind) kibble at every meal.

 

[Teddy560]

I think it's ok to add food to make dry food more appealing and don't think it is your fault that she prefers thia tp juat dry kibble. Think most dogs are like this. My Teddy is 4.5 months and isn't overly fond of his dry food but will eat it and wolfs it down if there's something added like chicken. Also, I have to keep him primarily on this dry food as it's the best one I've found for his belly so far.