Hi all,

Our Ckc puppy is just coming up to 6 months and we've had her on Royal Canin junior (at the breeders recommendation) since we got her.

She absolutely hoovers it so I've never really considered changing but there's a few points that I'm hoping a change of food could now help with. She seems to have slightly dry, itchy skin, she's constantly hungry (just a cavalier thing?) and she never relaxes or sleeps unless we put her in her crate, it's just full on until she's reminded she's tired basically.

If anyone has any suggestions either homemade or shop bought I'd be very grateful!

Thanks

How many times a day are you feeding? How much are you feeding ...more than it recommends or less?

She's fed 3 times a day and pretty much exactly what it recommends. She also gets chicken with training but not much

maybe feed some veg so shes full but not getting to fat?

If her skin isn't good at such a young age, I would change food as it clearly isn't suiting her. Personally I would go for something like Nature Diet which is wet food and contains a lot more meat alongside rice and vegetables. (My own Cavalier was also on RC when I got him and I switched to Nature Diet.) Being hungry though -well apart from the lines of Cavaliers that don't want to eat at all, yes it is a Cavalier thing for sure. One of mine once nearly ate himself to death and had to have his stomach pumped at the vets! This is why you see so many overweight Cavaliers so beware.  Oh and when I used Royal Canin in the past I found it made my dogs hungrier than before and it put the weight on too much, so although it clearly suits some dogs, it didn't suit mine at all.

Some commercial foods with additives etc can also make dogs hyper, although the worst offender for that is known to be Baker's.

Thanks for the comments. It's good to know that Cavaliers are greedy as a rule anyway, I was beginning to think we had an especially gluttonous one

I think we'll try switching foods for a while to see how she gets on. She's certainly not against veg (or anything else for that matter) so that may help to bulk it out too.

She seems to suddenly crash out in the evenings and I've never been sure how much of that was just being a puppy or whether her food was giving her the equivalent of a sugar rush

I used to love RC food and raised my litters on it but to be honest, I can't see past a raw meat diet now.  In fact, my next litter is being raised on raw meat with a little bit of fish for dogs( incase new owners don't like the idea of raw).
I think the more meat content, the better but a lot of the complete foods have been shown to have high sugar, hence the crash and bad teeth.  My old bitch recently had 3 teeth removed after being fed a complete biscuit diet her entire life.  My vet tells me the biscuit is GOOD for her teeth! HA! Well, now she's on raw with bones, she's never smelled better or teeth whiter.  OH, and my little ones itchy, fungusy skin thing has cleared up without the need for any more Maleseb from the vet.

I've never even considered changing foods until now because my pup absolutely loves the Royal Canin. She also absolutely loves eating leaves, the occasional pebble and anything else that's on the floor too so who knows

I've heard a fair bit about a raw diet but I'd love to hear how it works for people here.  I'm concerned about which meats/fish to give her, how much, do you mix veg, biscuits in as well for a varied diet etc?  I'm slightly concerned about upsetting her stomach and/or poisoning her so any advice would be great.

She's also never once slept or laid down on her own, only ever when we put her in her crate so I'm thinking more and more that it can't just be her personality alone that keeps her running around constantly before bombing out in the evening.

Oh and Cracar, anything to help with the smell would be great :)

Another one here for raw food.  I changed my pup over when she was 6 months once I heard about raw feeding and read a bit about it.  I just thought it sounded more like what a dog's digestive system was designed to deal with.  She was doing fine on the Royal Canin - but I wanted to try her on raw.  I just went 'cold turkey' and switched her over.  I wouldn't go back.  My philosophy is to feed approx. 60% of the diet as raw meaty bones, a dollop of veg and sometimes leftovers.

Advantages are:  nice breath, clean teeth, no farting, very small & hard poos which don't smell bad, cheaper (even though I often buy from the supermarket)

The key disadvantages are that it require a little bit more thought (but honestly, once you get used to it - not much at all).  It's tricky if you kennel your dog - I don't.  But if I did I would firstly try to find one that would feed raw (eg; To the manor bourne), or just have them feed kibble & reckon it's not for a long period of time.  Also it takes up freezer space.  Depending on where you live you may need to freeze the meat and fish before you feed it in order to kill any parasites.  I wouldn't worry about poisoning your dog - I did it once with some pre-cooked chicken.  I think it was probably salmonella - mostly a dogs' body can deal with quite high loads of this (very acidic stomach) - but this one was just too far gone.  After about an hour she threw it all back up again in several goes - but wasn't too worried and I fed her supper as usual without any ill effects.

Here is what I feed my 25kg 3 year old entire HPR:

Breakfast:  2 raw chicken wings - or one wing and one whole raw egg, a dollop of natural yoghurt or cottage cheese, and a dollop of pureed veg.

Supper:  150g - 200g of meat (depending on her activity level) - the main thing here is to find as big a variety as possible:  turkey necks (from Landywoods), tripe or beef (in chunks from Pets at Home), chicken wings or legs or thighs (value range - from supermarket), whole raw egg, fish heads, sheeps head (got a 1/2 one from Crufts), offal (not heart - counts as meat - kidney & liver) + a dollop of cottage cheese or yoghurt + a dollop of raw veg.  In general I judge what to give her based on what she might catch in the wild (apart of course from the thai curry below!!!) - so I do feed drum sticks as I reckon a dog could easily catch a hen and eat its legs - also the intensively farmed birds probably don't have very strong bones.

Often mid-morning I give her a bone - sometimes a recreational one (ie; too big to eat) - and sometimes one which gets eaten entirely!  Sometimes I think it will only be recreational, but she devours it.  I don't get too hung up about perfectly balancing each meal - nor do I feed supplements.  I just give her as wide a range of foods (including our left over red hot Thai curry!) and trust her body to take what it needs.  I get a lot of complements on how well she looks, how shiny her coat is & how white her teeth are.  If I do decide to breed from her I will probably make an even bigger effort to give her a wide variety of foods.

If she gets too fat, I feed her less or exercise her more & vice versa.

One thing I would avoid doing is feeding is a mix of raw and kibble in the same meal as they have such different digestion rates.

another one for raw here - I swopped over about 15 months ago and haven't looked back.  If you are facebook there are quite a few raw feeding groups on there that are very good where you can ask any question you can think of.

Yep another raw one here . I have thee dogs, different breeds from toy to large. The middle dog now a year old  I changed over within 2 weeks of having her at 10 weeks approx the other two were about 6 months  now 3 years and 4 years old. mainly because I still knew little and have got more confident as time has progressed.
I feed raw meaty bones which is basically all meat fish and bones. The only time I add veg is if I have some over from our meal as none of mine will eat raw. I occasionally add egg, yoghurt , cottage cheese, baked beans. I feel dogs are carnivores and therefore dont need but may like fruit veg and other carbs. Like others I dont worry too much about how much but am guided by how the dog looks just like ourselves too much and we get fat too little and we get thin. Same rules apply. When they are full grown the approx food per day to work from is 2% of body weight of meat and bone/fish get a good variation of all parts and types of the animal and fish and stand back and wach you dog thank you well most do :)
I would recommend you read the dogs dinner by ann ridyard she also has a good raw feeding site

Sorry all, I thought I'd already thanked everyone for the comments - It's very much appreciated.

We've now switched her over to Natures Diet as she refuses to eat Royal Canin anymore, not sure why but she just turns her nose up now....A familiar Cavalier trait with most things.  We may move onto more homemade alternatives at some point but for now she seems a fair bit more relaxed and certainly less greedy which is very interesting. She now naps and settles more readily during the day, I guess the wet food makes her more comfortably full (or contains more favourable additives).