Took my Cavalier to the vets for her wormer tab and a general check over etc, and i did think she was looking a little on the plump side, and after a general chat i infact said to my vet that i thought she needed to loose a bit of weight. He discussed getting her to a certain weight etc and that was that, everything else is fine and she's great. I use complete dry food and always have, my question is should i feed her twice a day, measure the dry food recommended allowance on the bag and feed her twice, or what do other people do. I want to help her slowly loose a bit of weight. I have just moved her onto Eukanbu to give that a try because i have tried a couple of foods and to put it as nice as possible i wasnt happy with her poo.

Many people say that Burns is good for weight reduction.
I would also drop down to one meal a day as splitting it into two can add just that little extra which all adds up. I know when I tried splitting my little tubby girls food to make 2 meals I thought that each meal looked so tiny I would add a little bit more...slippery slope :-)

I use Royal Canin light for my little chubber.

thanks for that, would you then feed the one meal in the morning, mid day or evening. (those sad eyes looking at me !) and to put it nice, do you have any probs the other end with the royal canin light ? In fact they sell that in my vets and was actually looking at the royal canin while i was waiting to go in and see the vet. Thanks

> (those sad eyes looking at me !)

Tell me about it ;-)  If you cant steel yourself against that 'look' then you've got no hope.

I feed mine around 5 ish in the evening.

> do you have any probs the other end with the royal canin light

No, all are great on RC but I do feed lots of other stuff to all the rest so they are very used to change. I have been winning quite a bit of RC recently ( they are very generous sponsors of breed shows) and am using it up....no Light though :-( I have to buy that.

Our first Cavalier was prone to go overweight(down to my Dad "treating" him) He lost weight by feeding him twice a day once in the morning & once in the evening. I reduced the actual portion size & he was given raw veggies as treats.

The current Cavaliers are all the right weight for their size & Loukar(the middle one & biggest in size not fatness)can tend to be a little porky, but since putting him on a maintenance diet(slightly reduced portion)& restricting his treats to lo cal(or as we call them fat dog biccies)treats. Joedee the oldest reached 7 kgs when he was 2 years old & on the same diet some 6 1/2 years later still weighs 7 kgs & can eat anything he likes & never puts any weight on.

I think my cavalier has put a bit more than she needs on due to the fact that when my children see her bowl empty they feel sorry for her and put more biscuits in the bowl, so obviously later on in the night off she trotted and crunched them !
I like the idea of feeding her twice a day, more for myself as i dont think i could bear to just feed her once and her looking at me. Someone said that a raw carrot to chew on is a good treat, and i have given her a couple and she seems to chew on them ok. Told the kids not to give her any food that she begs for, or she's terrible for jumping up and grabbing it out of my youngest boys hand as he dangles it there ! I shall have to restrict her diet, i think maybe to twice a day and as you say raw veg for treats. Difficult when i have a 6 month old aswell, but her bowl is in her crate so i will just have to make sure they dont eat eachothers food and watch what she is actually tucking into. For a female my vet said that i should aim for her to be 7 kg, do you think that is about right ? I kow it all depends on the individual dog etc, but shes a petite cavalier i would say

Depends on her actual size-Joedee looks like a puppy compared to Loukar & Kaycee who I lost last year was in-between them for size & weight. Loukar would be skeletal @ 7 kgs. I would go by feel rather than weight. When you can feel her ribs & she has a nice "waist" she will be the right weight for her size.

Everyone used to think Joedee was a puppy when I showed him, most show dogs seem to be on the bigger size. I don't think there are ever many entries in the under 8 kgs classes at Breed Club shows ;-)

Thanks, yes i know what you mean about when she gets a waist, thats the look i want for her and feel she will be right at that weight whatever it is. The vet said aim for 7kg, saying that my scales are the same as the vets because i weighed her when i came home, so i can keep an eye on what her actual weight is. When i took her when i first got her at 10 weeks, the vet said that she is going to be a petite version ! So dont want her to be a pork. I'll keep looking for that nice waistline !!

> my question is should i feed her twice a day, measure the dry food recommended allowance on the bag and feed her twice,

I like twice a day - it suits my two, but I can see how one meal might suit you best.  Your girl may well be horrified though and that makes it harder for you.

With regard to portion management I don't feed what's on the bag.  Sometimes those allowances are too high (or too low!).  Whatever you have her on at the moment I'd recommend weighing it for accuracy - when you guestimate you can easily be adrift by up to 20g per meal and that can make a huge difference to your dogs end weight.  In order to manage the 'extra few biscuits' challenge just weigh her daily portions in advance.  I still weigh mine each day and use the chinese takeaway boxes to store their meals in.  Saves me faffing about in the morning when I'm trying to do other jobs as well.

If you weigh in advance you can take everything from that allowance - her 2 meals per day, a few extra's whilst she's walking with you, some to sling in an activity feeder - whatever takes your fancy (and hers).  If you have some left over at the end of the day she can have supper too!!

One thing to remember about poo if that if you feed too much, you get large quantities of 'wet' output.  That might indicate you have an issue with her portions rather than the quality of food you are feeding?  It also obviously depends on body type, exercise, size, age etc.  I feed Arden Grange and have a 6yo of 13kg on 150g per day and a 20 month 27kg dog on 480g per day - I don't think either of them correlate to the recommended feeding amounts!  I can shift or add weight to my youngest if I change only 5g per meal for a week.  Good luck

> I don't think there are ever many entries in the under 8 kgs classes at Breed Club shows ;-)

Hi MM,
There were exactly the same number of bitches in the under 18 lbs class as in Limit bitch. I think there are a lot of 'toy' spaniel bitches around at the moment, not quite so many dogs though.

> the same number of bitches in the under 18 lbs class as in Limit bitch.

Omitted ..........At the Cavalier Club Championship show this year at Malvern.

I meant to put under 18lbs Dog Classes ;-)

> under 18lbs Dog Classes

Ah..a whole other ball game there People keep asking if my young male is a 'girl'... :-)

Well thanks for all the advice on the feeding. Decided i was going to feed her twice a day, and wouldn't you know weighed out the food this morning and put it in the bowl and as of yet which is 6pm she hasn't eaten anything !!! She must know, bless her.