A massive study by Emily Bray of the University of Arizona has made some startling revelations about how many meals a dog should eat per day.

How often should you feed your dog? A study called the “Dog Aging Project” and relayed by the ScienceAlert site has looked into the question by studying data from more than 10,000 dogs since 2019.

She has thus peeled thousands of data on the age, size or breed of dogs. At the same time, the researchers used information on eating frequency, cognitive function and nine major categories of health problems.

Better health is dog’s?

The study showed that dogs fed once a day could be healthier. Animals have a lower likelihood of having gastrointestinal, dental, orthopedic, kidney, urinary and liver and/or pancreatic problems.

On the other hand, statistics have not shown significant effects on certain points such as cancer, neurological aspects or even heart health.

Note that feeding your dog once a day also has a positive impact on cognitive dysfunction.

“The rationale for twice-daily feeding in dogs is unclear, and our study suggests that more frequent feeding may, in fact, be suboptimal for several age-related health issues. “says the study.

Limits of the study

However, the researchers recognize a number of limitations to their study. All feeding data was self-reported by dog owners — meaning memory and interpretation errors are possible — and the study was unable to distinguish the possible influence of the restriction feeding frequency calorie.

Of course, changing an animal’s diet is not done lightly.The veterinarian is the best person to advise an owner on how often, how much and what portions to give.