Feeding advice

[Kerry Veitch]

Hi do you think summer my cavalier is under weight she a year old she does eat mum I was thinking about moving her from dry food to tin food to see if that help what' people advice on that please i added 2 picture of her thanks kerry

 

[JoanneF]

It's hard to tell from the pictures but the chart in this link should help.

Google Image Result for https://i.imgur.com/S7US4fk.png

You should be able to feel her ribs but mot see them clearly, looking down from above you should see a narrowing of her waist, and looking from sideways her tummy should tuck in.

Most dog food guides are, in my experience, generous and health wise a lean dog is better than an overweight one. But if you do think she is underweight, why not feed her a little more of her current food? Or add a supplementary snack like tinned fish or eggs? With both wet and dry there are big variations in quality, what is she eating at the moment?

 

[Kerry Veitch]

She on dry food called
Harringtons Adult Dog Food

 

[JoanneF]

Well, it's not a bad food although there are better quality ones out there. If you are interested in changing, have a look at www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

It is an independent dog food comparison website which scores all types of foods (dry, raw, wet) on a scale of 0 to 5. You can set filters for your dog's weight, age etc and choose to view only the foods scoring, say, 4 and above. Then you can show them listed according to daily feeding cost so you can see what gives you best value for money.

Is her worming up to date?

 

[leashedForLife]

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It's hard to see her body-condition from the photos provided - can U take 2 more?

One from ABOVE looking directly down at her, with her head away from U, tail nearest,
& the 2nd from the side, with the camera held level with the middle of her chest, & her entire body, nose to tail, in the photo.

She's definitely not emaciated, & as Joanne said, lean is much-better than fat in terms of health.
- terry

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[hollysh]

As long as you are feeding her to the guidelines recommended, you seem to be doing everything from your end. Do you give her treats as well during the day?
I'm a dog sitter and have looked after a cavalier spaniel for a year now (several days a week while owners in work, plus when she goes away). He gets a scoop of dried food and 37g of wet food, twice a day, plus 2 treats (chicken strips). I think the dried food tends to come with a scoop, either that or she bought one. But it definitely has the guideline amounts on packet.
Another point to make, if your cavalier is anything like mine she runs a lot. He can run for miles chasing birds and dogs down the beach, so they burn off their calories quickly, like a young child would when they pass the baby phase and start running around.

 

[leashedForLife]

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BTW, is the puppy hers?
If she had a litter some months back, she can be drawn-down by 1st carrying the pups & literally building them in utero, then whelping & breastfeeding for a couple of months. // Most dams are back to their former condition by 3-mos post-whelp, when the pups are no longer nursing & they've been using all the calories they eat for themselves for a few weeks.

the trick is that if the dam was only 6-MO when she was in heat & bred, she's a pup having pups - her own body takes 2nd-priority, & all the energy that might be given to finishing her own growth, instead goes to the developing litter & the "costs" of pregnancy - making an amniotic sac for each fetus, producing more blood to circulate, making placentae to exchange nutrients & remove waste, yadda-yadda.
It puts an underage bitch way-behind the developmental curve. // She'll be playing catch-up, for a while.

- terry

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[Mad Murphy]

Just to say, I started to think Murphy was a bit of a skinny wretch when some people mentioned how thin he was. But when I asked my vet he said the real problem was that 99% of other dogs of his breed are overweight..

If you are used to seeing chubby dogs a healthy dog will look thin by comparison.