Automatic Feeder

[mahendra_suri]

Having multiple Basenjis is always a joy around feeding time. I found out about 10 years back my Basenjis will eat less if they have a large, bottomless bowl. When I had 2 Basenjis, my female would gobble up the male's food and then protect her dish. The dominate one got all the food. I tried an experiment, I filled a 3 gallon bowl up with kibble and never let it empty. The first 3 or 4 days my female gobbled up all the kibble. After that my female lost interest and my male startted gobbling up all the food. He could no longer eat after the 2nd day.

When they became accostomed to the food supply, they just ignored the dish. Three gallons would last 2-3 weeks for both of them.

.Eventually, I would get a new sack of dog food (Science Diet Fat Boy Food) and just toss it on the floor. When they got hungry, they would "evisorate" the sack and eat. My roommate got sick of tracking smashed kibble into his room and suggested I get an auto-feeder.

Moses, my oldest male, studied this new device and wanted to see how it worked. So he folded up his front paw like a ladel and proceeded to fling kibble about the front room. At the appropriate emptiness more food dropped down. As a good scientist, Moses proceeded to empty the second load. And the 3rd…. and the 4th.

Once he was satisfied with the results, he inhaled a mouthful of kibble and ran out to the backyard.

[JazzysMom]

I found out about 10 years back my Basenjis will eat less if they have a >>large, bottomless bowl.

Each of our dogs get a set amount of food in their bowl twice a day. There's no problem with over-eating because the amt of food is controlled by me.

Our B used to gobble her food and then run to try to get our other dogs' food. So we fed them in separate rooms for a while, and worked on telling her to "leave it" when she went toward the other other dog's area.
Now she doesn't even try to get the other dog's food, and doesn't even gobble hers anymore. They are fed in full sight of one another. She has caught on that her bowl is her bowl, and Gypsy's bowl is Gypsy's bowl. Sometimes she even waits until Gypsy is finished before she'll even start her meal.

She also used to get really edgy at any "snack"times, almost to a panic that Gypsy got something that she was going to miss out on. I always give the older {non-B} dog her "cookie" first, and Jazz has to sit patiently. She knows now that if Gypsy is getting something, then her turn is next, and she's very calm and patient about that too.

[jys1011]

That's an interesting experiment. They will get the point that they don't need to gaurd their resources if it's no longer an endangered resource