atomatic portion feeder or gravity feder?? - Page 1

I have two gsd's both pups wondering if anybody's tried either feeder. I work long hours so i am i need of one of these. Im worried my dog willl be overweight if i do the gravity feeder. Only benefit is they hold large amounts of food and both dogs can share feeders since its rather large.

It would be safer if you could arrange to have someone stop by and actually feed the dogs, rather than use an automatic feeder, for several reasons.  One you've mentioned, that the dogs will become overweight, is definitely a real concern if they're able to self-regulate their food intake and a gravity feeder will do just that.  Another very real concern with this feeding method: it creates a situation that's rife with the promise of dogs fighting over the food, and you coming home to (at best) dogs which greet you with lacerations and puncture wounds, or (at worst) one or both dogs dead from their fighting.  Neither is an acceptable selection.

When you speak of an automatic feeder, I presume you're referring to those feeders which have a timer mechanism which you set to the time of day you want the spring-loaded hatch that covers the food to open and permit the dogs access to that food--well, using that device with two dogs raises the same concern: again, there's the fighting over resources problem mentioned above, which would be unchanged by this method unless the dogs were being kept completely apart while you were gone and therefore they'll have no contact. 

If you're unable to have somebody stop by to feed the dogs, and *had* to go with one of these two options, then I suppose the better of the two would be to use two automatic feeders and keep the pups separated while you're gone so there's no risk of resource fights.  Is this long hours situation just a temporary thing, or will this be the norm for your dogs even after they're adults and only need one or two meals per day?  If it's the latter, do you really even have enough time to *have* these dogs--when are you going to be able to train them, socialize them, play with them?  If it's just temporary, I'd still rather see you have someone come by once or twice per day to feed and just generally check in on the pups...they do better that way.

Cookiedam,
How old are the pups now?

Are they litter mates?

How are they eating currently?

Moons.

Ok hexe got the wrong idea and ran off with it. But this always happens some one asumes the the worse. Well first of all let me explain my schddule so no one assumes they know it. I wake up take my pups outside(no not litter mates) thank you two moons for asking before assuming. As the older one(female) 15 weeks of age pottys in her specified designated are which took weeks of training, I prepare their portions separate bowls portion according to weight. The pups are kept appart since the male is only 8 weeks hes in a different eviroment but feed at the same time as the elder. After they eat they are exersised/appart since they play ruff and one has a clear advantage, tug o war,& retriving objects. After they have released extra energy I train each one appart different training ofcoarse. Then their portions for lunch are prepared. My wife is incharge of giving them their bowls sepparatly again but at the same time. Now the problem is some times she has to run errands not to mention take care of our kids a toddler and a infant, so she might be late to give them their lunch. Thats the reason I wanna purchase a atomatic portion feeder one for each dog just for that one lunch meal since I give them their last meal of the day then give them a short training lesson making sure its 4 hours before they go to sleep to avoid crate accidents or being woken up in the middle of the night. The 15 week old pup is crated to sleep the 8 week old is kept in a room with toys a bed and a grass potty pad since he is really young, he will be crated as soon as he learns the schedule.

cookiedam,
Keeping to a schedule is a good idea when trying to train for crate or potty and you do need consistency to time these things out.
The older pup could go to one feeding per day after training of course.
In my opinion the younger pup could be left free choice for a while if that helps.
Timed feeders would seem to be useful but I've never used one.

As for Hexe,
I too had concerns but with this information I think your doing the best you can, people do have lives and complications.

Moons.

Yeah I too worry for pets when I think they're not being cared for but I love animals too much I would never adopt a pet if I couldnt care for it. My dogs are part of my family. Well I wanna feed 3 times it has been proven to be the healthier method rather than one time. Nutriens and vitamins are better absorbed. If my dogs were on a raw meat diet than one time would be enuff. Since raw meat is so slowly digested and so protein enriched. Well thanks for the input guys. I seen this automatic feeder feeds specific portions at specific time also alows to record a message up to 20 seconds, which I think is really cool, I will not only rely on these bowls but on days my wife is out and im at work I think they will work fine, I will post how they work out.

Well, cookiedam, if you had provided the full story in your initial post, my response certainly would have been different.  You're the one who stated that 'both dogs could use the same feeder', and made it sound as if you were working such long hours that the dogs would miss meals entirely if you didn't use a gravity feeder or an automatic feeder. And you wouldn't have been the first person to join this forum who was misguided enough to think that they could successfully raise and train a GSD pup or two when their work schedule had them gone 12+ hours/day, five days a week--when you add in hours used for sleep and necessary personal responsibilities, it usually leaves a whopping four hours a week that can be dedicated to the dogs...and that's not enough, as I'm sure you recognize.  Knowing now that you're not the sole caregiver for the pups, and the feeders are meant for occassional use and not as a daily solution, changes the picture entirely, and I'm relieved that you *aren't* just another naíve puppy buyer who wasn't going to have enough time for their pups. 

As for your preference for three meals/day versus one or two, you're correct that dogs do better if their ration is split into more than one meal per day, but you may find a three meals/day schedule can interfere with housebreaking, as it may create a need for the pups to relieve themselves mid-day instead of being able to work up to holding their bladder and bowels for 8 hours...Typically, the three meals/day would be standard until a pup was about 14-16 weeks old, at which point they're switched to a twice daily schedue that they stay on for life (though as senior dogs they may need to go back to three times/day).

Sorry hexe I assumed people knew my dedication and love for my pets, its my fault. As for the gravity feeder it holds 50 lbs, its huge. Since doing a gravity feeder means the dogs are free feed they dont necessarily have to eat at the exact same time. However its big enuff to feed 2 adult dogs at once. Since they are pups I teach them to no be aggrasive while eating,.I put my hand in there bowl and have them share a bowl just for training purposes. If a big gravity feeder would be introduced they would be ready to share.

I've free fed dogs from puppyhood on and none have ever gotten fat. They eat a little when they are hungry and leave the rest until they are hungry again. If they know food is always available from puppyhood onward, they will not overeat or fight over food

Yes alaman that is true if as puppys you start free feeding they wount ovet eat, and they can also benefit from eating small meals thruout the day. Now im leaning towards free feeding, im back to square 1