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. 2022 Jun;44(3):1779-1790.
doi: 10.1007/s11357-022-00575-7. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Once-daily feeding is associated with better health in companion dogs: results from the Dog Aging Project

Emily E Bray  1   2 , Zihan Zheng  3 , M Katherine Tolbert  4 , Brianah M McCoy  5 ; Dog Aging Project Consortium; Matt Kaeberlein  6 , Kathleen F Kerr  3
Collaborators, Affiliations

Once-daily feeding is associated with better health in companion dogs: results from the Dog Aging Project

Emily E Bray et al. Geroscience. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

A variety of diets have been studied for possible anti-aging effects. In particular, studies of intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding in laboratory rodents have found evidence of beneficial health outcomes. Companion dogs represent a unique opportunity to study diet in a large mammal that shares human environments. The Dog Aging Project has been collecting data on thousands of companion dogs of all different ages, sizes, and breeds since 2019. We leveraged this diverse cross-sectional dataset to investigate associations between feeding frequency and cognitive function (n = 10,474) as well as nine broad categories of health conditions (n = 24,238). Controlling for sex, age, breed, and other potential confounders, we found that dogs fed once daily rather than more frequently had lower mean scores on a cognitive dysfunction scale, and lower odds of having gastrointestinal, dental, orthopedic, kidney/urinary, and liver/pancreas disorders. Therefore, we find that once-daily feeding is associated with better health in multiple domains. Future research with longitudinal data can provide stronger evidence for a possible causal effect of feeding frequency on health in companion dogs.

Keywords: Canine; Canine cognitive dysfunction; Feeding frequency; Healthy aging; Time-restricted feeding.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scatterplot of CSLB Scores vs. age with superimposed trend lines. Darker points represent dogs fed once daily and other points represent dogs fed more frequently. Trend lines were constructed separately for the two groups using natural splines. Dogs fed once daily have slightly lower mean CSLB score at all ages (6 ≤ age < 18 years)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Summary of results for analysis of health conditions. Circles represent point estimates of adjusted odds ratios, with darker circles indicating statistically significant results. Bars represent 95% confidence intervals. Odds ratios less than 1 indicate lower odds of the outcome among dogs fed once daily; odds ratios greater than 1 indicate higher odds of the outcome among dogs fed once daily
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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