Night eating

Question
Our 11 year old poodle recently started eating her whole bowl of hard food, about 1 cup, at night while everyone is sleeping. This has been going on for the last 3 weeks and not sure if this is a problem. Our 17 year old cat passed away about 6 weeks ago and not sure if this has anything to do with it. The dog and cat were only together for about a year, due to a marriage. Let me know if this is normal behavior. Thanks.

Answer
Hello Sandra,
I would not think that this would be a problem for your dog.  I know my own dogs eat their food at night every night, rather than during the day.  
The only concern that I would have is that once she eats, that she doesn't need to potty afterwards.  My boys can come and go outside (fenced area) as they please, so if they eat then need to potty, they can go out and do it.  
If she eats at night, then needs to go potty, I would hate for you to have to get up and let her out to potty around midnight or later.  
If you are fine with it and there doesn't seem to be any problems, I would let her continue to eat at night.  
If you are still concerned about it, take her food up at around 9pm and then make sure she has pottied before bedtime.  Then put the food back out in the morning.  

I hope this helps you some.  If you have other questions for me about this, or other Poodle questions in general, please feel free to ask me.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim