My daughter has recently bought an Italian Greyhound X puppy who is on 3 meals a day, the same as his breeder was giving him and we are feeding the same food.  At what age should she consider him going down to 2 meals a day?  Obviously not yet as he is only 3 months old.  This probably sounds a silly question to ask but it's been many years since either of us have had a puppy and we just can't remember what we've done in the past.

Round about six months. Just start to increase the morning and evening meals and reduce the lunchtime one, I usually end up giving a couple of dog biscuits for a while. You may find his appetite will dictate exactly when.

With most dogs around 6 months as Jodi has said, however sighthound puppies can be notoriously difficult to get weight on so I keep them on 3 meals as long as they look like they need it. My 4 month old silken pup should really be on 3 meals but looks so much better on 4 so is staying in 4 for the moment.

My gosh at 3 months mine were still on 5 meals a day....

There is not set rules, it is how the dog looks but I wouldn't even consider dropping a 3 month old to 2 meals for at least another 6 months. My 16 month old still has a small breakfast & 2 other main meals.

I'd agree that by 6 months, the lunch meal could be safely dropped - and giving a couple of biscuits then to replace any looking for the meal, is a good idea.   Something we used to do too.   Best could be to ask the breeder although as this is a mix, it may be that this was a one-off litter so the breeder doesn't KNOW.    I can't imagine the It.Grey will need that much food in any case!   Far from it being difficult to get weight on my Whippet, she has put on too much in recent years and as a result, much as she still has the 2 meals a day (daily amount split into two) she's had since being a puppy, hardly has anything for breakfast!

> Far from it being difficult to get weight on my Whippet, she has put on too much in recent years

I did say sighthound PUPPIES are notoriously difficult to keep weight on I have one who was anorexic as a pup but as an adult (who is spayed) is on a constant diet.

> I can't imagine the It.Grey will need that much food in any case

The size of the dog doesn't matter, it's stomach is in proportion, just because it's small doesn't mean it can eat all the food it needs in 2 goes - it's stomach will be tiny too

Mind you it does I suppose also depend what the cross is, a Iggy x whippet would need several small meals for longer than an iggy x lab

Thank you everyone for your help.  As I said, at the moment the pup is on 3 meals a day and we had no intention of reducing to two for a while yet.  He doesn't seem to settle to eat much at breakfast (far too excited about the family having got up!), lunch is variable but his evening meal is the one he really eats well.  I wouldn't want him to skip breakfast in favour of lunch but we'll see how things are going by the time he's 6 months.  By the way, prior to getting this little IG, my daughter had a whippet who was a real piggywig and keeping his weight up was never an issue.

Iggy xlab !!! The mind boggles lol I know it's a joke

> I did say sighthound PUPPIES are notoriously difficult to keep weight on

'K.  I didn't read it right

My Whippet is spayed too.   I have noticed with her however, that she doesn't always finish her breakfast, but tucks into her second meal - and always has tended to be like that.   Different animals to Bassets!!!

When I was a child we had a dog who was a whippet cross lab. That's what happens when fences aren't secure

Resulting dog looked like an rspca advert, lab feet and head, whippet body. Nice enough dog but rather daft and stupid. I think our family paid the vets mortgage by ourselves for about 2 years...

Ideally 6 months but my pup stopped eating his lunch meal at around 3.5 months no matter how hard we tried adjustingg amounts etc so he just went to two. He gets a small snack at lunch in its place.

I always go to 2 meals at 14-16wks.