Changing Eating Schedule

[Danni n Betty]

First of all, hellooo every one, aint been on here much, bit of a mental couple of months , but things seemed to of chilled out now!
Anyhow, with things changing lately, Betty and I are getting home later and later in the evening, and its messing up her meal time.
She had JWB for breccy, about 10.00ish in work, then her main meal is Nature diet with a little bit of JWB mixed in, at 6. 00 ish. I give her her main meal in the evening as I dont really want to be taking stinky meat to work with me(veggy here)
With me now not getting in til after 9.00pm, she really starving, and I think its a bit mean making her wait nearly 12 hours, so I really need to be giving her her main meal before work (nature diet with JWB) about 7.30 am, is it too early? 
What the best way to switch? Do I need to do it gradually? Ta in advance! Danni.

[CraftySam]

To be honest our meal times vary from day to day.

I don't think 7.30am is too early at all, ours are often fed before that. Are you walking her before that? I wouldn't recommend walking her straight after her meal. What I would think is that the meals should be of equal amounts.

When are you intending to feed her evening meal?

[LurcherGirl]

Same here as Sam. Meal times vary depending on my schedule for the day.

During the week, they get fed at 8 am before I go to work. They then get fed in the evening any time between 7 pm and midnight (depending whether I am going out training etc.). At week-ends, their break-fast is when I get up which is usually between 8 am and midday and evening meal again some time between 7 pm and midnight... Adult dogs are quite flexible and should be able to make it a little longer than 12 hours.   

[Danni n Betty]

Ta for the replies
Betty only has a 15/ 20 minute lead walk on week day mornings before work, so I can feed her afterwards while Im getting ready.
I think the problem is Im only giving her a small portion of her food in the morning about 1/4 of it. She got really fussy about JWB, she will only eat a small amount of it if its not mixed, fussy mare, so shes waiting along time for the rest of her allowance.
Would it be better to give her 2 equal portions of JWB and Natures Diet mixed at both meals, so shes a little fuller in the mornings, and can wait longer?

[LurcherGirl]

Our dogs get roughly 1/3 to just under half in the morning and the rest in the evening. It might be a good idea to give her a little more in the morning to make it last longer.

Vera

[CraftySam]

I think you should give her more than 1/4 of her food allowance in the morning. Mine get theirs split 50/50.
If you don't want to do that then try as Vera suggests and up it to 1/3 and see how she gets on. If you still think she's struggling to last that long then up it to 50/50.

[Joelf]

Our dogs get roughly 1/3 to just under half in the morning and the rest in the evening.

Same here; I usually feed the dogs between 6-6.30am & 6-6.30pm mornings & evenings.

[DennyK]

I know people who only feed their dog once a day and once they've adjusted to getting one large meal, it works well.

Monday to Friday, Paddy gets fed between 6 and 6.15am and his first walk is at 7.30am.  His evening meal (which is half of his daily total) is as soon as we get in - so usually 6.30pm.

Weekends, it varies more.  He'll either get fed about 7am or get walked at 7am and fed about 9am.

Out of interest, why are you feeding wet and dry food?

[Bagpuss]

Charlie doesn't get his breakfast until after his morning walk.  Sometimes this is as late as 10am.  Is this cruel?

I read that because dogs scavenge, it's okay to feed them later because in the wild they'd have to wait for their food.

I don't want to do the wrong thing.  I'm new to all of this!