Hi everyone, Just looking for some advice on feeding my 2yr old male akita. He loves the food we give him and currently he gets fed once a day in correct portions to his weight. I had read recently this can be unhealthy for the akita and it's better to break this down into 2 feedings, any thoughts? I also tried a weekly fasting but this made him act up as he was so hungry.
Hello Ricky - welcome to you and your beautiful dog. When I was growing up (I'm quite old!) it was the custom to feed dogs once a day, and they certainly seemed to do OK. Nowadays I think most people feed an adult dog twice a day. That's what I have done for very many years. Feeding time is such a joy to most dogs, I like to give them that joy twice a day instead of once! I know some people advocate a weekly fast, but I've never been able to bring myself to try it! I have no experience of your breed so can't comment on what is the best feeding regime for them, but hopefully someone will come along who can give you breed specific advice.
I prefer to feed twice per day (Akitas /Gsd's)I believe it helps with digestion, reduce gas and the risk of bloat, especially with complete feeds as they swell up after eating before digestion.
Hi Ricky, I have taken feeding advice and plenty of other advice from very experienced people from this site. I have a 5 month old Akita and spread his d'aile feed allowance over 3 meals, that's because we have the time during the day to do so, as he gets older we will probably bring it down to 2. As GsdSlave advises, it's better for digestion and they enjoy feed time, I can't imagine feeding him once a day and I really can't imagine having a ' fast ' day - I may come around to it with more research
It also depends on his food, ie 24 hours between meal times is too much for any breed I think My personal opinion, top quality kibble or healthy barf twice a day Old wives tale is to leave the dog without food once every 10 days Helps there digestive track More you work the dog The More it will need aswell
I use "Blue Buffalo Large Breed Salmon Recipe", My Akita is 8 months old, 55lbs and I give her about 1.5'ish cups twice a day approx 9am/8pm. Then some treats, a couple of chicken jerky strips and one of those green teeth cleaning chews per day. My Husky will instinctively fast for a day once a week on average, he eats only what he needs and will even leave food for later. Its a good idea to let them have a break from their regular food once a week or 10 days. It doesn't mean you "starve" them, you can give them things like berries, some fruit and veggies. I think its more like a day without a 'meat based' meal is the kinda "fast" people talk about. For a dog like an Akita to eat nothing and then have a normal sized meal 24 hours later could increase the risk of bloat which is more often than not, fatal. Its a fear that is in the back of my mind when feeding. I also put about a 1/4 bottle of water into her kibble and leave it for 10 mins to expand it a little before she eats it, instead of letting it expand in her stomach. Probably being a little paranoid about that, but better safe than sorry, I'd like the trial with the error on that one. Awesome looking fella by the way. Judging by his size I'd say you might need to add a little to my food calculation lol, He's a bigan!
@Heidyjo I have been wondering how you are getting on at meal times, you had quite a lot of good sounding advice I wondered which way you decided to go. Also, how are things in general, have things settled down in you house now ?
