Should I leave dry food out for my dog all day

Meal Feeding vs. Free Feeding Cats: What's Best?

Meal feeding means you're providing food to your cat only at specific meal times during the day. Both canned and dry foods can be fed in this manner.

Advantages:Food intake can be closely monitored, which means it will be easy to tell if your cat has had a change in appetite. In addition, if you have the joy of amultiple cat household, all cats will have access to food without one being dominant over the others one cat could be eating all the food and gaining too much weight, and the other cat(s) could be missing out on the nutrients they need to stay healthy.

Disadvantages.Cats might beg for food between meals. Your cat cannot control how much she eats at a certain time. However, if you are following your veterinarian's advice with proper amounts and regular feeding, you can rest easy that she is indeed getting the right amount of food and nutrients.

The bottom line.While kittens should be fed up to three times a day, once a cat becomes an adult (at about one year of age) feeding once or twice a day is just fine, says theCornell Feline Health Center. In fact, feeding just once-a-day should be acceptable for the majority of cats. "Once cats reach adulthood, once a day feeding is fine as long as they are healthy and have no disease problems suggesting a reason to feed differently," Cornell reports. Again, always check with your vet before deciding on a feeding regimen.

If you have multiple cats, ideally each cat should have their own food and water station in a quiet, low-traffic place where the cat likes to spend time,The Cat Doctorsadvises. That's because cats are solitary eaters they prefer to be alone when they eat.

How Long To Leave Dog Food Out: The Importance of Timing

As a new dog owner, I used to obsess over how long I should leave my dogs food out. On the one hand, you want to make sure your dog has enough food to eat, but on the other, you dont want to leave food out for so long that it becomes spoiled or attracts pests.

How long you leave your dogs food out depends on the type of food you are feeding your dog. Wet, homemade, and raw food can be left out for up to 20 minutes before it spoils, becomes less appetizing, and attracts pests. However, dry dog food can be left out much longer between 6 to 8 hours.

In this article, well explore the following:

• How long can you safely leave out each type of dog food
• Factors influencing the extent to which dog food can be left out
• Consequences of leaving dog food out too long

As dog owners, we spend a lot of time evaluating and choosing the best food for our furry friends. Its just as essential to know how to keep your dogs food fresh when feeding him.

How Long Should I Leave Dog Food Out?

You should leave dog food out as long as it takes your dog to finish it, provided that your dog completes his food in less than 15 minutes. Any leftovers should be emptied within a few minutes after the dog walks away from his bowl.

This encourages your dog to finish his food, establishes your authority as his provider, and ensures your dog gets fresh and healthy food. You can read more on this subject here, Should I Take My Dogs Food Away If He Doesnt Eat It? (Picky Eating Dogs).

Five factors dictate the extent to which dog food can be left out. This section will explore each so you can decide the best time frame for feeding your dog.

1. How Aromatic Is The Food?

Generally, the more aromatic the dog food, the less time it should spend out in the open. Pests can get attracted by the aroma of the food even if the food is kept in a kennel away from prying eyes. Dry food isnt as aromatic as wet, homemade, or raw food, meaning that the former type can be left out for much longer.

2. How Moist Is The Food?

Do you remember the 5-second rule? Though it has been debunked, I grew up thinking that any morsel or snack picked up within 5 seconds of falling on the floor was fair to eat.

The main reason it didnt stand up to scientific scrutiny was that the moisture content of the food dictated how long it took to get contaminated. Dry snacks like hard candy didnt have as many germs upon dropping compared to wet items.

Even the myth busters demonstrated this to an extent

While there is no 5-second rule for dogs, the moisture contents relationship to the speed of contamination is quite relevant. The drier the food, the longer it can stay in the open without getting spoiled.

3. How Quickly Does Your Dog Finish His Food?

The third factor that dictates the recommended duration for leaving out dog food is how quickly your dog finishes it.

Ideally, the food must be left out long enough for the dog to finish it, and this time should not be more than 15 minutes. However, some dogs take longer to be done with their food. Dont keep the dog food out perpetually, though. You dont want your dog to realize he can be picky.

4. Where Do You Place The Dog Food?

Here, the main concern is whether the food is outdoors or indoors. If it is outdoors, then you can develop a fanbase among uninvited birds. Outdoor bowls must be emptied as soon as the dog walks away.

See also: 7 Easy Ways To Keep Birds From Eating Dog Food

Indoor bowls shouldnt be left out continuously, either. But you can afford to keep the food out for around twenty minutes without gathering a crowd of birds.

5. How Humid Is The General Environment?

The final factor which most dog owners overlook is the general humidity. In a dry environment, food can stay out longer without going bad. In a humid atmosphere, even dry food can get contaminated by microorganisms, if not insects.

Now that we have gone over the five factors that affect the general duration for which you can keep dog food out, lets look at the specific timeframes for three main types of dog food in an average atmosphere.

How Long Can You Leave Dry Dog Food Out?

You can leave dry dog food out for around 6-8 hours, as without moisture, it will remain mold free and not spoil. However, if you leave kibble out all day, it can still become exposed to bacteria and become stale, with a substantial loss of aroma.

If youre a regular reader of my blog, youll know that my German Shepherd eats dry food with either a wet food or a human food topping. However, that wasnt always the case, as when she was younger, she would eat kibble with nothing added.

Please keep in mind that some dogs do not find dry food appetizing, which might mean that they will be picky. Take your best measures to make dry food flavorful so it gets devoured as soon as you put it down.

Do not resort to perpetual availability as a tool to encourage eating. It will only encourage picky behavior.

How Long Can You Leave Wet Dog Food Out?

You may read elsewhere that you can leave wet dog food out for up to 4 hours. Really? Would you eat your dinner after it had been left out for 4 hours? I know I wouldnt and neither should your dog.

Unless youre deliberately letting your dog free feed based on your vets recommendation, you should leave wet dog food down for no longer than 15-20 minutes. Depending on the perishability of the food and environmental conditions, you might want to leave it out for even less.

When the bowl is placed outdoors, it must be emptied immediately after your dog walks away.

Wet dog food is generally more appetizing, so you wont usually have the disinterested dog dilemma. And if you have it, empty out the bowl anyway because you dont want the food contaminated by bird poop or infested by bugs while your canine is acting finicky.

How Long Can You Leave Raw Dog Food Out?

Raw dog food can be left out for 15 to 20 minutes indoors and should be emptied out within 5 minutes of your dog walking away from the bowl, especially if it is placed outdoors. Raw dog food can have ingredients that are appetizing to insects, birds, and mammal pests too.

To avoid attracting raccoons and rats, ensure there is no raw dog food left behind in your dogs food bowl.

This recommendation also depends on the specific recipe. Some recipes feature freeze-dried ingredients, while others contain fresh and moist meat. The more perishable the final product, the less time it should spend out in the open.

Consequences of Leaving Dog Food Out (With Timeframes)

Now that you know the acceptable time frame for leaving dog food out, lets go over what happens to the food after it has been left standing for a while. This section covers the effects of food left out for different spans of time.

The Food Becomes Less Appetizing (After 5 Minutes)

After 5 minutes of being untouched, the odds of your dog perpetually ignoring his food increase exponentially. Food becomes less appetizing by the minute, so any attempt at making your dog like his food by leaving it out all day is inefficient at best and counterproductive at worst.

The Food Starts Attracting Microbes (After 20 Minutes)

Depending on the environmental conditions, the type and load of bacteria, and the type of food, bacterial contamination can occur to unsafe levels anywhere between20 minutes to 2 hours.The USDA refers to this as the 2 Hour Rule.

The Food Gets Spoiled (After 20+ Minutes)

Wet, home-cooked or raw dog food doesnt take long to go bad. After around 20 minutes of idle exposure, most dog food will begin to spoil. In the right conditions, bacteria can quickly grow to dangerous levels that can cause illness.

Bacteria multiply most quickly in the 40 to 140 F temperature range, sometimes doubling in just 20 minutes. Thats why we should not leave food out of the refrigerator for more than two hours or one hour in temperatures over 90 F.

Final Thoughts

You should train your do to finish his food as soon as you put it down. Fortunately, this does not require much effort because most canines are pretty interested in finishing their food. Leftover food should be cleaned out of the bowl immediately, as it can get contaminated and can erode your dogs food consumption discipline.

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Is it ok for me to leave my cats (dry) food out all day?

Many, many, many, MANY people free feed their furkids. It's probably NOT the healthiest option, but for some, it's just what works for them. I, personally, feed only canned food, and feed mine 3 meals per day. Does that work for everyone....NO.So, you do what works for you. If you CAN feed them scheduled meals, that is better for them, say in the morning, after work,and before bed, or even in the morning and at (your) dinner time, but again, if that doesn't fit your schedule, then just do what you can. If they start getting rotund, then you need to rethink the free feeding.

5 Reasons NOT to Free-Feed Your Dog

Taking responsibility for sharing your life with a dog brings many choices: How to train, what equipment to use, what are the best toys? When it comes to feeding a dog, the options are just as varied: Kibble or raw, with grain or without, meals in a crate or loose in the kitchen, free feed or meals served only at a certain time? In my years of teaching manners classes, the last question has come up a lot.

Free feeding is the practice of making food available to your dog at all times. Some people who free feed offer the dogs full daily ration at the start of the day, while others make sure the bowl is never empty, adding more food whenever it starts to look low. Its the canine version of a Vegas buffet there is always something being served, at any time of day or night, and the dog can eat whenever he chooses.

Convenience is typically cited as the reason some owners choose the free-feeding method. Others believe that constant access to food can prevent food guarding, particularly with adopted dogs who might have come from a situation where food was limited. In reality, constant access to food can create ongoing stress in a guarding-prone dog, as he potentially feels he must always be on guard to protect his buffet.

Choosing to be a responsible dog owner means doing whats best for your dog, even if its not always the most convenient option. Most animal professionals agree that meals versus free-feeding is the better option for our dogs, for many reasons, most importantly, the following:

1. Meals help teach and maintain clean house habits.

Simply put, if you dont know when food is going into the dog, its much harder to know when it will need to come out of the dog! This is especially important when initially housetraining a puppy or newly adopted dog, but it holds true throughout the dogs life.

When a dog is fed on a reasonably consistent schedule, its easy to determine his bathroom needs and develop a routine that is easy to follow. Even better than a set routine is to feed your dog in a window of time. This helps prevent stressing an anxious dog when life throws a curve ball and he cant be fed at the exact time hes used to; it also helps prevent the creation of a clock-watching, demanding, reminding dog.

2. Appetite is an important indicator of health.

Lack of appetite is often the first sign that a dog is not feeling well. If your dog has a habit of grazing throughout the day, its harder to know if he hasnt eaten yet because hes preoccupied by life or his stomach is bothering him.

In contrast, if your dog has been conditioned to exhibit signs of being hungry within a certain time frame, and readily eats when his meal is presented, youll have a reliable sign that hes not feeling well if he turns up his nose at the bowl. At that point, the owner knows to be on the lookout for other signs of illness, and can decide if a vet appointment is warranted. Plus, if you do visit the vet, youll be able to accurately report how long your dog has been off his food.

3. Meal manners for multi-dog households.

In homes with multiple dogs, free feeding can make it nearly impossible to monitor each individual dogs daily intake. It can also create situations where more assertive dogs are allowed to intimidate housemates into surrendering their portions. This often happens without the owners realizing. They may not intervene until the problem has persisted long enough that its noticeable due to a change in the dogs weight. The longer a dog rehearses an unwanted behavior, the more challenging it can be to modify.

When feeding multiple dogs, its wise to teach them to mind their own business when it comes to food bowls. We all deserve to eat in peace. Even when a dog doesnt seem to mind the intrusion of a visiting housemate under normal circumstances (say he responds by calmly switching to the un-manned bowl, instead), the stress of the other dog invading his territory may lead to snarky behavior especially if the intrusion occurs on a day he isnt feeling well or when there are other stressful things going on in the household.

When dogs are fed meals, its easier for the responsible humans to gently remind everyone to stay at their own bowl and not interfere with housemates. Adopting this routine also simplifies things when different dogs are on different diets.

4. Meals are more hygienic and prevent unwanted pests.

Ants are cunning little creatures. If youve never lived in a place where the very thought of a dropped morsel of food would lead to an invasion, consider yourself lucky and dont tempt the immortal insect gods! Food left in bowls is an open invitation for ants and other insects.

5. Meals can be used as valuable training opportunities for life skills.

Unfortunately, the Internet is rife with bad advice when it comes to feeding rituals for dogs. Much of it centers on the ill-conceived idea that humans must somehow assert their status over their dogs by demonstrating control over food and eating. Suggestions typically range from making sure owners eat first, while the dog watches, to ridiculous even dangerous ideas, such as spitting in a dogs food or randomly taking it away as he eats, in an attempt to communicate the idea that its really your food and youre kind enough to share it with him.

At best, such ideas are silly and unnecessary and, at worst, they can erode a dogs trust in the owners and create the very guarding problems people think they will prevent.

My goal is not to achieve status over my dog. My goal is to teach my dog how to handle himself, as a dog, in the human world. When a dog is motivated to eat a meal, I can use feeding time to help teach several valuable behaviors, such as:

Come When Called.

Coming when called is the most valuable skill any dog will learn. Its a behavior that might literally save his life. While I use several techniques to teach and maintain a strong recall behavior, simple classical conditioning is always on my list, and is something I practice during every meal.

Classical conditioning is about creating strong associations in a dogs mind. When I know a dog loves food, and is excited about mealtime, I can easily transfer some of that love and excitement onto my recall word by saying the word a split second before reaching for and feeding a bite of food.

It doesnt matter what the dog is doing at the time. He can be sitting, standing, etc. What matters is that he hears his recall word and food magically lands in his mouth no more than two seconds later. I can easily rapid-fire my way through 25 rounds of Saber, here! in about a minute, and consider this a valuable piece of our recall maintenance training.

Impulse Control.

Some dogs really love mealtime, and, as a result, quickly become over-excited, working themselves into a barking, spinning, jumping frenzy. This often prompts the owners to work faster in an effort to hurry up and deliver the food so as to quiet the chaos.

Unfortunately, delivering the bowl to an out-of-control dog rewards the out-of-control behavior! There are many ways to ask your dog to exhibit self-control in anticipation of receiving his meal, from expecting that he simply wait calmly and quietly, to requiring that he hold a formal stay. At the very least, I teach my dogs that overly excited behavior will backfire, causing me to put food away and walk out of the kitchen!

Formal Stay.

When a dog is motivated to eat, earning a bowl of food is a powerful reinforcer. After my young dogs have learned that remaining calm is the key to keeping me on-task with meal prep, I use feeding time as a prime opportunity for teaching the sit-stay.

Start small, by asking for just five seconds of self-control via a sit-stay as you hold your dogs bowl of food. If the dog breaks position including calmly lying down or standing up (since you specifically asked for a sit-stay) simply set the bowl on the counter and disengage from your dog for 30 seconds or so. Its wise to busy yourself during this time so that its easier to remain disengaged from a dog who might try and pester you as he works to figure out what just happened.

Also, theres no need to reprimand or otherwise correct the dog when he breaks position. The goal is for your dog to realize that his action (breaking position) is whats causing the dinner delay.

After 30 to 60 seconds, return to the kitchen, pick up his bowl, ask him to sit and stay and try again. Chances are good that his Ah-ha! moment will come within three tries. When hes successful, and you reach your five-second count, be sure to use a clear release word (I like, OK!) before inviting him to eat. The release word lets him know that this time, getting up wont result in you removing the bowl.

As he gets the hang of things, be sure to change up how long you ask him to stay, sometimes asking for more, sometimes surprising him with an easy, short stay, but always ending with the release word.

Prevent Guarding.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I much prefer to prevent food guarding problems than to fix them. Mealtime is the perfect opportunity to condition a dog to enjoy his owners presence while hes eating. Its easier when a dog eats at a reasonable pace, rather than inhaling his food at warp speed (which, in some dogs, is an early sign of guarding).

To buy yourself some time with an enthusiastic eater, try spreading his kibble onto a cookie sheet, adding a large obstacle to his bowl (a small, upside down terra cotta pot works well) to create a kibble moat of sorts, or try one of the commercially available bowls designed to slow a dog down by making it harder to inhale large mouthfuls at a time.

As the dog is eating, stand a few feet away and toss several pieces of a high-value treat on the floor near the bowl. He might not even notice at first, and thats fine. You want to be far enough away so as not to disturb the dog.

Repeat this process during every meal. If theres room, sometimes walk by, dropping the treat as you pass the dog. Dont say anything. Just toss or drop the high-value treat. Eventually, he will realize that the good stuff is coming from you, and youll likely see him pause, in eager anticipation of the treat, as you walk by.

The idea is to build a positive association with a human near the dog and his food. We want our dogs to want us nearby when theyre eating our presence becomes a predictor of good things. As he eagerly looks to you for the treat, sometimes ask him to sit and hand him the treat, then release him back to his bowl of food.

This method works well to prevent food-bowl guarding, or help reverse mild cases when caught early. If your dog is growling or snapping, or has already bitten somebody in proximity of his bowl, please consult a qualified, positive-reinforcement trainer before attempting to modify the behavior on your own.

Say Bye-bye! to the buffet

A little tough love is often all thats needed to transform a dog accustomed to grazing throughout the day into a dog who readily eats meals when they are offered. To begin, make sure you have a solid idea of how much food your dog actually needs. Remember that whats printed on the dog food bag is only a guide and is usually significantly more than most dogs need. Plus, it doesnt take into consideration the calories consumed throughout the day via training treats and special chews. Your dogs individual metabolism will also greatly affect how much food he needs. For example, my previous dogs included a 30-pound Whippet and a small, 40-pound Golden Retriever who ate the same amount of food thanks to the Whippets fast metabolism.

Once youve decided on a quantity, split it into as many portions as you plan to feed meals. In general, puppies should be fed three (or even four) times per day until they are about 4 months old, at which time they can be fed twice a day. Most adult dogs seem to do best on two meals per day, but some people find that their dogs do better on one meal a day.

When its time for a meal, present the food and set a timer for five minutes. Your dog now has five minutes to eat his meal. If he eats a bite or two and walks away, thats his choice, but youll pick up the bowl at the five-minute mark, and he wont be offered food again until the next meal. (The only exception here is for young puppies or underweight dogs, in which case I will offer food again in an hour but only for five minutes. You want the dog to understand that the buffet has closed and he needs to eats when food is offered, or it will disappear.) You can usually safely store what wasnt eaten after only five minutes, but wet food should be refrigerated or thrown away.

When the adult dog chooses to walk away from the food bowl, he has effectively made the choice to skip a meal. That is his choice. If you have a second dog who is an eager eater, try letting your picky dog watch the eager eater happily eat his left-overs! (Then cut back on the eager eaters next meal so as not to over-feed him.)

When dealing with a picky eater, its tempting to try hand feeding or augmenting the food with table scraps or other toppers, but that can actually encourage pickiness. A little warm water can often jump-start a picky eater by enhancing the smell, and its OK to decide on a healthy additive such as a little plain yogurt, but you dont want to keep changing things up in an attempt to entice your dog to eat. Now is when you need to be strong in your commitment to some necessary tough love. No healthy dog will starve himself when you are offering food at regular intervals.

While a healthy dog wont starve himself, some take longer than others to understand the new game plan and decide to eat when you offer a meal. The longest Ive seen it take is three days. Yes, three days! Thankfully the owner hung in there, resisting the temptation to offer training treats and other snacks throughout the day (or caving in all together), and we were all excited to see the dog finally choose to eat dinner on that third day and all offered meals that followed. Her dog wasnt being stubborn when he walked away from an offered meal he was just getting used to the new routine. Just like any new behavior, learning to eat at a specific time, when the dog is used to free feeding, can take time.

After youve gained your dogs cooperation when it comes to meals versus free feeding, how you fine-tune the feeding routine is up to you. Some people stick with the five-minute mark, allowing the dog to come and go from the bowl as he pleases, but only for a set amount of time.

I prefer that my dog stays on-task when at the bowl, so if something catches his attention and he leaves the kitchen, I pick up the bowl right then. So, as long as youve established a willingness to eat when a meal is presented, we see no harm in making minor adjustments to fit your lifestyle with your dogs.

If you find that your dog isnt consistently finishing a portion, you might be offering more food than he needs. Remember to factor in training treats or portions of kibble that are delivered throughout the day. Try reducing his meal portion by 25 percent and see what happens. If he mows through a meal and seems like hes starving, its wise to observe for a couple of weeks to see if hes losing weight in which case, maybe he needs more food, or a different food or if the hunger is all in his head.

With a little patience and persistence, your dog should soon understand that his buffet lifestyle has ended, and youll both begin to enjoy the benefits of daily meals.

Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Los Angeles.