Hi all,

Our girl was spayed in January and has put on around 3 kg since. She is constantly hungry, even catching her on the kitchen table eating the cat food. She is currently on Wainwrights grain free, half wet half dry. Any advice or information on what she should be eating and in what quantity to keep her weight healthy?

She should be around 14kg but is currently at 16.5kg and is looking podgy. She is excersised daily 1 hour off lead and 30 mins on lead so I don't think that's the problem. Any advice greatly received from a very confused owner

That's an awfull lot of weight to put on in such a very short time!

My only suggestion for you would be that you will have to cut down on whatever you are feeding her. Is she having any treats or is someone else giving her treats!

My 5 cockers healthy weights vary from between 10.5 kg to 12.5, I never allow them to get heavy, it is as simple as cutting down on the amount being given, hungry or not!

Take no notice of the guideline amounts, they always recommend too much. You must use your own common sense on the amount you give her and give her a lot less.

What might help with the hunger is to give her a variety of raw vegetables chopped up small or liquidised and add to her meal.
Whole carrots, broccoli stalks, sprout stalks fruit and all sorts of the vegetable range can be used as treats. Ours love it all.

I fed my last two GR bitches on Burns, which I now understand has a reputation for enabling dogs to lose weight which was handy (didn't know this at the time). As they kept telling me they were starving death I added chopped carrot to their meals which took them time to chomp up and made them think they had more. Like 'wait ok' I gave broccoli stalks as a treat and any other other suitable veg.
Does she eat quickly? I wonder if slowing her down when eating might convince her she is getting lots of food. Because my current GR is inclined to inhale food, I put her food into a 'Green' feeder or in a Kong Wobbler. The Wobbler takes her quite a while to empty and the time spent ferreting around for each piece of kibble makes her use her brain as well.

I'll have a look at tools to slow down how fast she eats. She does inhale her food, and then licks the bowl for a good half an hour. I'll try carrots/ broccoli stalks to bulk it out a little bit. Might sound odd but I never thought of giving her veg. Do you boil them first and let to cool or just put in raw? Thanks for these ideas. I know Cockers can range significantly in weight. When Frankie was 13kg (due to severe illness and diarrhoea) she looked like a rescue dog. At 14kg she looks healthy, can see her hips and feel her ribs.

I've always given it raw, nice and crunchy and useful for helping to keep teeth clean

Raw carrots and broccoli stalks and sprout stalks too. (good for the teeth)  and cauliflower stalk, swede, turnip, parsnip. Ours eat the lot!

I don't think the speed that she eats will make much difference to her weight but if she is getting less it will make it seem to last a lot longer if a slow feeder is used.

I had one of my girls spayed (for health reasons) many years ago, I had to be sooo strict on the amount of food that she was given I felt really mean! Topping her up with raw vege helped stop the hunger pangs,
Their stomachs shrink after a while and she became used to this very small amount of dinner.

Well she ate the lot last night! Hopefully she'll feel less hungry as I'm giving her a lot less kibble, topped up with veg. How many times a day do you feed? Have always fed her twice but friends say theirs only get fed at night?

I only feed once a day as that is all my lot expect.

I feed twice a day.

I feed adults twice a day - 1/3 ish in the morning and the rest in the evening.  It helps stop hunger pukes.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm now giving her a far smaller portion in the morning, followed by a slightly bigger one (bulked out with raw veg) in the evening. Don't think I'll buy a green feeder as the raw veg alone meant that she spent a lot longer eating, and... Haven't caught her stealing the cat food yesterday!

What a good girl.  My piggy has hollow legs nothing fills her up and she is dieting since spaying in September :(

What a good girl.  My piggy has hollow legs nothing fills her up and she is dieting since spaying in September :(

I think it's so hard because we love them and want them to be happy, but in a way it's kinder to be slightly crueler with the food. Now the task is also to control what others feed her I.e leftovers & human food!!