The temperature rises quickly and serious problems and death can easily occur.
Recently someone asked me about feeding, especially puppies.
If you ask a dozen people about feeding dogs, you will get a dozen different answers - literally. Nothing evinces more controversy than how, when, how much, and what to feed. Fortunately our Icelandics are a tough breed having survived the vagaries of the Icelandic climate with its wild fluctuations and the resulting feast or famine periods for centuries.
While the puppies are still living with me I feed them three meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. The portions are the same size for each meal and the portion size gradually increases as the pups get older and bigger.
When they leave their birth home they are normally eating ABOUT 1/2 a cup at each meal. I feed them in a communal bowl so they learn to get along, to share. Because they all eat together, I'm not sure how much each one consumes. (My adults each have their own bowl; they never fight over their meals even though their bowls are within a few feet of one another.)
I have told new owners that they need to gradually increase the amount of food per meal as the pups get larger. (Puppies should be eating adult food soon after they leave their birth home to slow their growth - I've talked about that a lot in previous blog posts. Do not feed puppy food. Please. Do I need to add: - "In My Opinion"? Scientifically controlled studies have shown that slowing growth has a positive influence on future hip health.)
Puppies normally wean themselves from their noon meal after several months when their growth normally starts to slow. When they show less interest in the noon meal, stop it. Compensate by increasing the dinner meal. At around this time I personally would gradually decrease the size of the breakfast meal. It makes it easier, I believe, for the dog to "hold it" during the day if you're not at home and if they don't have a large meal in their stomachs.
As I have said many times, the bottom line is that everyone gets to decide for themselves how they are going to work with their dogs.
Each of my dogs has a slightly different protocol. Some are older; some younger. Some are naturally thinner; others tend to put on weight easily. Some are more active; others are more sedentary. So I watch them closely and try to tailor their diet based on each one as an individual.
My dogs all weigh between about 24# and 34#.
I like the ease and convenience of kibble and regularly buy two brands. So far I've been fortunate that neither of them has had recalls. Isn't it a crying shame that we have to worry about that for our dogs and also for ourselves. I tend towards the 'senior' blends and the 'weight control' blends. I'm less active at my age which means my dogs are too.
* - My dogs wake me up rather early to go outside for the first time. They get a small breakfast of around 1/4 a cup of kibble each soon after they come back inside.
* - Around noon I scrape some raw carrots and cut them up into chunks or strips and feed them those. The carrot strips fill them up and don't add calories to their diets. If I have leftover broccoli or cauliflower stems, I also give them those - after washing them. They love them.
* - In the late afternoon they each get a scant cup of kibble - some get more, others less. I usually mix in a little water and a small spoonful of canned dog food - mostly for my benefit. I also give them a spoonful of an active culture yogurt mixed in with the evening meal about once or twice a week. I am sure they don't care. One of my dogs used to eat dirt so I put a little salt on his evening meal. Since I started doing that, he stopped eating dirt. I think. (At least I don't catch him doing it any more but the yard is a big one.)
I never give my dogs leftover food from my table. (Actually, I never have leftover food. Sigh!) I figure that the reputable dog food manufacturers have done a great deal of experimenting and adjusting ingredients to produce a balanced diet. The more human food you add to your dog's diet, the less of the balanced food they are getting. That's just my opinion.
When one of my females is pregnant or nursing their diet changes dramatically. But that's another story. I spoil them.
My dogs also get a cookie when I leave the house to do some grocery shopping and occasionally during the day. I also use lots of treats when I train.
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