Not sure if I have posted this in the correct topic so feel free to move me :D

I know the cocker weight is around 28-32 lbs., but can anyone tell me if a small cocker should weigh the same?? My pup is only 14 or so inches and she is on a low calorie food as I have been told by several people that she is too plump. I know on my last thread different reccomendations were made., i.e., taking her off the puppy food, which I did and put her onto the Junior as she found the adult food a bit too big (pedigree chum dry). It still made no difference to her weight, and she was only getting a handful of food twice a day, with one treat at lunchtime.

So after several conversations with different people she is now on the Nurtolite packed/tinned food. I was told only to give her 1/2 packet a day (which I found quite drastic) so she gets a third of a packet twice a day. I was also told not to put mixer with the food as it does not work as well as if it was fed separately, so they get a handful of mixer at lunchtime. The lady who advised me apparently used to work with a nutritionist...I'm now very confused as what I should be doing.

Sorry for the long post, so basically I'm asking two questions now !! :D

Many thanks

Natasha

Hi Natasha

A smallish Cocker bitch probably should not weigh 28lb (unless she is particularly big-boned!) & I would say the ideal weight for a 14" bitch would be more in the region of 25lb. I'm afraid I haven't heard of Nurtolite though it sounds quite similar to Naturediet - not too sure about the advice re feeding mixer separately. If it's a complete food, then there's no need for extra mixer but as I don't know this food, I can't really comment. This may be a silly question but how much exercise does your bitch get? It may be that you need to up the exercise as well as carrying on with the lower calorie food before you see any results.

Jane

Jane

I think Natasha might have meant Nutro-Lite, one from the Nutro range?

Pam n co

Ah, makes sense now :-) If it is Nutro Lite, then it is a complete food Natasha, so you don't need to give any mixer at all!

Jane

Hi Jane and Pam

I got the food completely wrong, can you tell I've had a hard w/end :D

Jane you are right it is Naturediet, she gets walked every other day for half an hour (I'm afraid of doing too much with her) but maybe I'm not doing enough.

Do you think she should be exercised every day for half an hour ?? Or is every other day for half an hour enough??

Sorry for all the questions !! :D

Natasha

Natasha

Thanks for clarifying the food type. As Jane says - it is a complete so shouldn't need anything adding as long as she's eating it all. How old is she? If I recall she is about 10 months now or I could be way of beam here - if I'm about right, she should easily cope with half an hour a day building up to whatever you want by about 12 months. If she is younger than say six months, she'll get enough running around the house and garden - six to eight/nine months gradually build up starting with about 10/15 minutes each day. Steady walking on the lead will be enough for her - when she's about 12 months old she should be ready for some fun - free running in a field or on a beach - they love it:D but not so keen on the coming back bit;) This is all just a rough guide as it also depends on your dog of course.

hth

Pam n co

Hi Pam

Yes you are not far off her age, she is 11 mnths now, I just felt awful giving her a 3rd of a packet of this food as she was literally screaming when she heard me get it ready for her tea. :D Goodness knows what the neighbours must have thought :D Maybe it was probably because she was getting too much dried food in the first place.. She doesn't look for food during the day (she says as India tried to pinch one of my new potatoes tonight :D)., so I suppose she can't be that hungry..

I usually get my other half to take her for a run to burn some energy off...I wouldn't dream of letting her off the lead...I'd be trying to catch her for months on end..returning to her owner is not something she finds appealing !!

A confused Natasha :D :D

Hi Natasha

There would be no harm in taking India out twice a day now, she has done all the growing she is going to do so now you would be building muscle and getting rid of any excess weight with the exercise :)

Douglas goes out nearly twice every day but only for about 30 or so minutes he would go on for ages but I'm trying to put weight on him :D ;)

Sebastian and Bart on the other hand go morning and evening for 30 minutes then another 45 to 60 mins. All free running and swimming as well now though, but I'm going to start road walking with all these blessed grass darts and seeds around :D

HTH

Derryn & The Boys .......

HI Derryn

It's difficult to know how much to do or not sometimes isn't it. India took me for a half hour walk tonight !!:D I'm going to take her out every night now and see if that helps. We do mostly road work anyway, as running on the grass doens't help us when it comes to showing !!

Not long to Paington...you getting excited?? Going to be a busy week for me as when we come back I'm moving Percy (my horse) to his new yard and Biddy (my other horse) is going to graze with the girlies until he goes to the UK..

I can't walk twice a day at the minute as I'm up at 6am to the stables and then have to be in work for 8am., so I wll have to make do with once a day..

How's Douglas' weight doing??

Natasha