Food - amount and time of feeding

[ChristineL]

@GinnyW - You mentioned several times during our past webinars that you feed your pup once a day and on a flexible schedule. I am very interested in getting my dog Hope on this track as well, especially after reading this article by Dr. Becker (https://healthypets.mercola.com/sit...L&cid=20220207Z1&mid=DM1103774&rid=1401012822).

Hope is currently on time restricting feeding schedule (within the 8-hour window) of two to three meals per day [It was originally just two meals but she gets very very hungry after snuffle session so I split her dinner into half so I can offer her some food after the session without adding any calories.]

I originally was concerned that by giving her one meal per day would be too much food for her at once, thus may cause gulping or regurgitation as she had experienced that before. How did you transition your dog to one meal a day and how flexible are you in terms of feeding time? Your experience as a pet guardian is very valuable.

@Dr. Jeff - would you recommend one meal per day for Hope considering she's a senior (and based on her health history/records). As I mentioned during our appointment about three weeks ago (a follow-up report was sent), she gets very hungry after snuffle mat session so I was contemplating on feeding her that one meal after the snuffle mat session (but it would be after 7pm)...will that be ok?

Thank you,
Christine

 

[ChristineL]

@Dr. Jeff - I forgot to mention that her appetite for her first meal has gone down overall - sometimes she seems less hungry and doesn't finish the entire plate less - it's a hit or miss situation...that's another reason contributed to my thinking about just giving her food later in the day since her appetite is always good then. What do you think?

 

[Dr. Jeff]

A single meal later in the day after a snuffle mat session is fine (but evaluate her responses to it).

 

[GinnyW]

You will want to feel your way on this. If she has eaten the same schedule forever, make changes slowly. Always remember that "hungry" is a healthy state: no animal in the wild is habitually satiated - especially carnivores. I definitely would not feed any more than she will eagerly scarf up. It's OK to skip or postpone a meal anytime. What I would NOT do is to feed more than once a day; it's just not natural for them.
My guy eats once a day, but also gets a "peepee" cookie at bedtime. The time only varies a few hours, though. I often give some raw milk after an outing, too. I weaned him to raw, feeding twice a day as a baby, then went right to once. My only "old" dog ate once a day his whole life... I change it up when I can, but heck, we're all creatures of some kind of habit

 

[AlysonR]

OK... this seems like a great time to jump in on this issue. Some people say feed the dog once a day, and some say twice a day. I remember at least one vet claiming that once a day is closer to what happened 'in the past'. But here's the thing... there are multiple views as to how dogs became domesticated, and at least one view holds they were scavengers around human groups before actually joining forces with them. As scavengers, they most certainly would not have eaten a single, large meal every day. There would have been a lot of 'grazing' -- picking up scraps throughout the day. I suppose if some civilization lived within a walled enclave, kept the dogs outside that enclave, and only took out the garbage once a day, then the dogs would have eaten a single meal a day. But...maybe not. It's also true that wolves, depending on where they live and the time of year, engage in scavenging -- eating berries, and catching small prey frequently.

OK, having said all that, I have one dog who often eats from around 5 pm to 9pm -- by choice. I offer him his breakfast and a marrow bone, and he may or may not eat it before 5pm. Today he ate his breakfast but ignored the marrow bone (which he most definitely will want this evening). I have another dog that would happily eat anything offered whenever offered. In addition, she starts going a bit crazy (ripping up toys and twigs and such) whenever she's hungry (my interpretation, as feeding her a snack stops the behavior of tearing up toys and twigs). When I offer 'unscheduled' snacks, I always offer things I know they don't like as well (but are still nutritious). In particular, neither dog is wild about trachea chews, so if they've had everything they normally get and are still acting hungry, I'll offer trachea chews. If they take them, I assume they were still hungry. If not, I ignore further requests for food. Since their activity level varies considerably on any given day, it's not surprising they're hungrier some days than others.

As has been implied above, there's no one answer as to when and how often to feed dogs. A constantly hungry dog can be very problematic (and impossible to train!). I think the real problem is when people overfeed and then get upset when their dog doesn't want to eat, adding tempting toppers to try to get them to feed. The right thing is to cut *back* on food at that point and see if the appetite picks up. And, of course, keeping track of their weight is paramount.

 

[ChristineL]

Thank you all for your input - this raised a question - A constantly hungry dog may have thyroid issues?

I will observe and feel how to proceed with transitioning my dog to be fed just once a day. Yesterday, instead of feeding one small before and one after her snuffle session, I fed one larger meal after the session and it worked! Stay tuned....

 

[GinnyW]

And then there's this: More and more I find that intermittent fasting - or "time-restricted" eating is apparently a sure way - perhaps the ONLY way - to optimize our metabolic health and function across all species. Here's one article, and the takeaway is this: STOP feeding breakfast already!

An estimated 500 to 1,000 bacterial species reside in each person’s gut, perhaps numbering 100,000 trillion microorganisms. In a new paper, published July 5, 2022 in Cell Reports , researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine used mouse models to explore how diet and feeding patterns affect these intestinal microbes — and the health of the hosts, particularly with obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In both mice and men, the ileum is the final stretch of the small intestine, connecting to the cecum, the first part of the large intestine. In the ileum, nutrients are drawn out of liquefied food; in the cecum, which also marks the beginning of the colon, the process of extracting water begins.

In mouse models, researchers found that how much animals ate and when altered their gut microbiome, sometimes for the worse. Photo credit: Public domain — original work of the U.S. Federal Government

Both processes are complex, dynamic and profoundly influenced by factors ranging from the types of foods consumed and when, to the microbial residents of the gut, whose presence and behaviors help dictate digestion, absorption of nutrients, vitamin synthesis and development of the immune system.

“It’s important to realize that the gut microbiome is constantly changing, not only based on what we’re eating, but also based on the time of day,” said senior study author Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a gastroenterologist at UC San Diego Health.

“Most researchers are getting snapshots of this constantly shifting environment, which makes it hard to understand what is going on in the gut. With this study, we are trying to get multiple snapshots throughout the day, almost like a movie, to better understand how food and the microbiome interact to affect weight gain and diabetes.

“And what we’ve learned is that cyclical changes in the gut microbiome are quite important for health since they help with the circadian clock, and with that the regulation and control of glucose, cholesterol and fatty acids — and overall metabolic health.”

In their latest work, Zarrinpar and colleagues further elucidate the impact and interplay of these factors, particularly in terms of the ileum and its unique functions related to digestion and absorption. Specifically, they looked at how diet-induced obesity (DIO) and time-restricted feeding (TRF) alter ileal microbiome composition and transcriptome (the protein-coding part of an organism’s genome) in mouse models.

The researchers found that in mouse models, DIO and the absence of TRF (mice could eat as much as they wanted whenever they wanted) resulted in disruptions to gut microbiome rhythms and the signaling pathways that help modulate intestinal clocks. In other words, the mice became fat and unhealthy.

“It is interesting that restricting food access with TRF acts not only through restoration of patterns affected under the unhealthy state, but also through new pathways,” said first author Ana Carolina Dantas Machado, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Zarrinpar’s lab.

“These findings underscore the influence of diet and time restricted feeding patterns in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, which in turn modulates circadian rhythms that govern metabolic health,” said Zarrinpar. “It’s a very complicated relationship between the microbiome and the host, with the former helping determine the latter’s gastrointestinal functioning and health.”

Their work, said the authors, can inform future studies, in particular investigations of how the gut works or how drugs act upon the gut function depending upon the state of the microbiome at a particular time or time of day.

Reference: Machado ACD, Brown SD, Lingaraju A, et al. Diet and feeding pattern modulate diurnal dynamics of the ileal microbiome and transcriptome. Cell Rep. 2022;40(1). doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111008

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Beautiful post, thanks Ginny for sharing!!

 

[ChristineL]

Thanks, @GinnyW for the post! I am still having a hard time feeding my girl only once a day so we're sticking with eating within the 8-hour window...sometimes that is hard to do as well!

 

[GinnyW]

There is considerable research indicating that an 8-hour window can still be effective. I often find myself presenting this possibility to human friends, who apparently find the idea much more palatable, and less like starvation And there are always small "cheats" which don't really affect the digestion and metabolism much: dog cookies, a bit of raw milk, or, for me, a swallow of MCT oil, fish oil, or a pat of butter. I also have heavy cream in coffee and tea.

It's much more productive to use a 13 to16 hour fast than to try for more and break your resolution. All rules can, of course, be broken for special occasions - although no dog of mine has EVER had a Big Mac I don't see poor foods as a reward, ever.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Dr Saine did research on interval for intermittent fasting (for people).

His conclusion was that the 18/6 (18 hour fast) is second best to a complete fast.

 

[GinnyW]

Good to know! It seems as though all the "good folks" are latching onto intermittent fasting as a strategy. The science is solid, too.

 

[ChristineL]

Thank you for your input @GinnyW and @Dr. Jeff!