Free feeding your dog
Free feeding is a method of dog feeding that allows the dog to pick and choose when and how much the dog wants to eat. It is designed for dry food only. Many cat owners already do this for their cats but dog owners are often reluctant to try it, thinking that their dog will just pig out and get grossly overweight or if there is more than one dog in the house, fight over the food.
I started free feeding my Chow Chows over 20 years ago when we had 3 of them. At first they pigged out but that lasted only a few days. After they found out that the food was always there they stopped pigging out. They never got fat or thin but seemed to regulate their own weight very well.
It has been 8 years now since I had my Chows and I am now returning to free feeding my little porker of a Min Pin, since I was trying to make him lose weight the old fashion way of measuring out his food. His body was just clinging on to very calorie that he ate. I am hoping that the free feeding method will act like a appetite suppressant and he will learn to nibble throughout the day and start to lose some excess pounds.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that this works out.
