Food Availability

[RabbitDad]

With the exception of large animals / livestock, all of our critters have plenty of food & fresh water available 24/7.
Many have expressed their opinion on how wrong that is for dogs, cats, rabbits etc.
I've never had an issue with it. My dogs aren't fat... they snack when they feel like it but never overeat.
Anyone else do that or are they on a feeding schedule?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

All my rabbit have unlimited food (ex. They always have at least half the food bowl full and I refill it every day)

 

[RabbitDad]

One of our bucks is quite the artist. They all have blocks of wood to chew on & play with but he works on his constantly.
A 2"x2" x 6" long block ends up like a pencil in just over a week. Some of the patterns he carves are kinda neat looking.
The rest take almost 2 months to destroy one.

 

[kusanar314]

My cats are free fed but they maintain weight fairly well that way. The dog I had would balloon up if you tried that. He had to be fed daily or he would go through a week's worth of food in a day and then starve.

 

[Cindy in SD]

With the exception of large animals / livestock, all of our critters have plenty of food & fresh water available 24/7.
Many have expressed their opinion on how wrong that is for dogs, cats, rabbits etc.
I've never had an issue with it. My dogs aren't fat... they snack when they feel like it but never overeat.
Anyone else do that or are they on a feeding schedule?

I feed the bunnies morning & evening: grass, thistles, bindweed, dill, dandelions, assorted unidentified forbs... Many & lots of greenies (plants, not environmentalists). I figure they know what they ought to eat. Plus pellets (free-feed for mammas & babies). Soon I'll be eating the bunnies... not sure whether I can sneak bunny in as chicken. If not, DH will get pretty hungry before he tries it. It could happen. (LGB)

The doggies get raw chickens/turkeys/ducks/geese in the evening when *I* feed them (they love me best) & icky fake food in the mornings, early. Some dogs are self regulating and others will eat as long as there is accessible food. My dogs would, I think, eat too much if given constant access, and I'd run out of poultry.

My sheep would eat themselves silly if given free admission to corn or sweet feed, but they can gobble all the grass & forbs they can gobble during summer. In winter they nibble all day from a big round bale.

Winter for bunnies is kind of boring, but I do give them reconstituted potato flakes or cooked oatmeal and a few bits of grocery store carrots/celery.

 

[ladysown]

EVERYTHING is on measured rations around here if they are a critter.

Some of the people living here should be on measured rations as well.... but people are not.

 

[eco2pia]

My cat and dog would eat until they vomited and then eat some more, they clean their bowls in 5 minutes. I try to give the ducks and chickens only what they can eat during the day so that I am not feeding rats all night. I plan to wean off rabbit pellets in the next year or so (due to rat issues--they like the pellets a lot), at which point hay will always be available. The outside fish are not fed at all, they are on mosquito duty.

 

[CedarRidge]

EVERYTHING is on measured rations around here if they are a critter.

Some of the people living here should be on measured rations as well.... but people are not.

I resemble that remark...

 

[Rabbit Tree Farm]

With the exception of large animals / livestock, all of our critters have plenty of food & fresh water available 24/7.
Many have expressed their opinion on how wrong that is for dogs, cats, rabbits etc.
I've never had an issue with it. My dogs aren't fat... they snack when they feel like it but never overeat.
Anyone else do that or are they on a feeding schedule?

I operate on an individual basis. With dogs, I let them prove they can self regulate. My current dog likes her main meal in the evening but won't eat her entire ration then. So she gets her dry ration in the morning to pick at, then whatever is left she gets to have with her yogurt, egg and broth. My previous dog, a heeler collie cross, would eat till he rolled. So we had to be stricter. He died last year at fifteen from a neighbors pack of dogs attacking him in his own yard while we slept.


Rabbits get fed by weight as do chickens. As did the old draft cross we had. My dh can eat what he wants but not without me reminding him he had a heart attack at 55! I can eat what i want so long as i grew it.