I just hate those round puppy feeding dishes with the raised center. After a while the puppies move around the dish and they look like a pinwheel. Any other ideas for feeding a large litter?

Several round puppy dishes. I use one for 3 or 4 pups. If you have 12 pups, use 4. Then they don't have to compete so hard for food. Also, be sure to fill them enough so there is leftover food. If all the food is finished, then the pups are still hungry, and will compete harder next time. Puppies who get all they want are very calm eaters.

Thank you breeder that was really helpful. I'm going to pick up a couple more dishes tomorrow and I increased their food amount their last 2 meals (since I read your response). It seems no matter how much I feed them they will put it away and lick the dish and floor clean. Their belly's are huge but no diarrhea yet though. I don't think there will ever be leftover food with these pups. Their weights are the same for their age as my last litter so I don't think I've been underfeeding them. We'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully no diarrhea.

I had a litter that no matter how much I fed they wanted more. They were nice plump pups but had to cut back a bit since their stool was getting very soft. Depending on the size of the litter, I give the pups their own bowls or, as the above poster stated, split the pups up into groups of 2 or 3 per bowl.

You can also scatter dry food around a clean area so they have to hunt for it and they end up eating it more slowly.

I think they are too young for dry food, I don't want them to choke.

I think this litter is like yours. I bought 2 of the extra large, 15" sized puppy saucers today and the spacing is much better but they are still eating like they are famished. No diarrhea at all but their bellies are really plump and they are still getting milk from mom also. No worms and they have been wormed 2x's already.

The 15" saucers are nice but a pain to clean because they are so big. I like that they are deeper. Too many pups to do individual bowls but if need be I can add the 2 11" saucers that I have.

Thanks everyone for helping out!

A good friend of mine with Goldens has a kind of a neat feeder. It's a length (not sure how long, perhaps 2 ft or so) of plastic eaves-trough with the cap type ends that you can buy for them on either end. I'm not sure if they used a glue or a caulking to seal it or not. The pups all just line up like a little trough. I think there's a little cradle underneath it at each end, to keep it from tipping over.

This idea is pretty good. I've thought about trough feeding and wondered why there isn't a feeder available like this for puppies. I've raised chickens and ducks this way but the feeders you get for them are galvanized, not good for puppies. With birds you raise the feeder to the height of their backs as they grow and this helps to eliminate wasting of food. My puppies make a mess by stepping in the saucers and even though they do clean most of it up, still a bit of a mess. I'm going to make a non-slip platform for their saucers to raise them up to see if it helps but I haven't done it yet.

Num Num, your riser for the flying saucer dish sounds good too. I do find that for the first week or so after I start feeding them, they lay in it and spread out in the food, and just basically make a real mess. But after a week or so, they're all bigger and better at eating, in fact, much more assertive eaters and after that, I don't find too many problems with them. When you make your riser, you'll have to post a picture of it. :)

Linda, what age do you start feeding them solids? Mine are still spreading out in the dishes and they have been eating solids for 2 weeks. If they kept their feet and bodies out of the dishes I would be happy. Maybe I'll try the regular saucers again. Regular saucer=11" Large saucer=15"