Timing
They eat twice a day. I usually feed them when we get back from their morning walk, and then in the evening around 7 or 8. The timing doesn’t need to be super regimented.
Food Info
They are eating Wild Earth.
They eat these treats and these chews (size medium).
What to Give Them
For each meal Jackson gets 2 cups and Chunk gets 1 cup of Wild Earth. Jackson’s and Chunk’s food bowls have their names on them.
They can have as many treats as they want! They can have also have 1 or 2 of the Whimzees chews per day. We like to give them the chews if we’re both leaving, so they have something enjoyable to do.
In terms of water: we leave out two bowls, in case they both need to drink at the same time, and so it’s less likely that both will be empty. But neither bowl ‘belongs’ to anyone. Just keep an eye on the water bowls and add more water if they get low.
Mealtime Logistics
First I get their food bowls ready per above, then get their attention if I don’t have it already.
I tell Jackson to “Go crate!” and once he’s there “Wait.” Then I walk over to a far-ish-away spot (other side of the room, adjacent room, etc.), set down Chunk’s bowl, and let him start eating.
Then I go over to Jackson’s crate and put his bowl in there. I zip the crate closed and tell him “Ok!” to start eating.
Sometimes Chunk will get distracted from his bowl, in which case I go over, shake the food around a bit, and ask him if he wants some more. When he seems pretty disinterested, I say “all done!” and remove his bowl. You can just leave it on top of the crate if you want.
Once Chunk is done, I go over and unzip Jackson’s crate and tell him “ok” that he can come out. Sometimes once he’s free he’ll realize he wants to eat some more, so after he comes out of the crate, I’ll try shaking his bowl and asking “Do you want some more?” Once he has pretty clearly moved on, I say “all done!” and put his bowl up with Chunk’s.
If They Don’t Finish It
Jackson and Chunk are less likely to finish their food if:
They’re in unfamiliar circumstances
They’ve been fairly chill/sedentary that day
They’ve gotten a whole bunch of treats that day
This is totally fine! If it happens, you can just put a little less additional food than normal in their bowl for the next meal.
Even if they’re not really touching their food, don’t worry. This is a transitional thing that is probably likely to happen when we’re not there. Eventually at a future mealtime they will be like, “Oh, wait, I’m hungry!” So no need to try to do anything drastic. They’ll get there.
Human Food
Jackson won’t bother human food, but I don’t recommend leaving human food out at Chunk-height. He’ll leave it alone if you’re there, but if he’s unattended for a long stretch, he will go looking around to see if there’s anything interesting to eat.
Anything at, say, dining room table height is fine. But the coffee table or the window sill would not be a good place to leave food or plates/bowls/cups that smell interesting.