I have a twelve week old female cocker. Could anyone advise me on the best feeding for her. I am currently feeding her four times a day - twice Beta Puppy along with Fruit & Fibre, and twice either potatoes or rice. She has had an anal blockage twice so I just want to ensure we do everything correctly.

Are you following your own diet or a diet recommended by the breeder? I think the first port of call would be back to the breeder. I am sure that he/she will offer you as much help and support as you need. Any reputable breeder would want you to ask them for help with one of their own pups(or even one of someone else's). Feeding 4 times a day is fine I would say, but I'm not so sure about the content!!

What do you mean by anal blockage? Do you mean an actual blockage of the bowel or anal glands? If you dog is on Beta Puppy then I would just feed that and not keep adding other bits to the diet as this could cause more problems than it solves.

I agree with Jackie - your first port of call should be your breeder. As a matter of interest, why are you feeding potato/rice? I may use these foods with chicken if one of our Cockers is a bit loose in motions, but I'm not convinced they would be at all helpful if you have a dog prone to constipation or do you mean that your puppy has had blocked anal glands? Also rice or potatoes alone are not a balanced meal & I think from your post you are giving 2 meals of just this a day - or maybe you are adding meat of some kind? I know it's often suggested that you add fibre to the diet in dogs prone to blocked anal glands so presumably this is why you are adding the Fruit & Fibre, but I'm a bit puzzled by the rice/potatoes.
It might be worth considering trying another complete puppy food - what suits one dog may not suit another & it could be that the Beta Puppy is contributing to your Cocker's problems. You could try James Wellbeloved or Arden Grange - we have fed these successfully to our Cockers & haven't had any problems with blocked anal glands. Four meals a day is fine but really it should be 4 meals of a good quality Puppy Food. If you do decide to change to another brand of food, remember to introduce the new food very gradually - sudden changes of diet can result in a very upset stomach.

Best Wishes

Jane

Hi, One of my Westies started needing his anal glands emptying quite regularly from 6 months old. Most of my dogs just need it done once or twice a year - if at all. Around the same time he started scratching quite a lot, for no apparent reason, and so I changed him on to Burns complete food, which is designed to stop toxins building up in the body - This stopped the scratching within a month or so and then I realised that he had had no trouble with his anal glands any more either. This was a year ago and I have only had to empty his glands once since!! They do a puppy food called Mini Bites which a friend of mine reared a litter of Goldens on and they were in fine fettle. Burns is a slightly lower protein than other puppy foods- and very high protein ( over 25%) does not suit some puppies/dogs. They use high quality ingredients too. Although rice and potatoes are used I believe in a BARF diet ( bones and raw food) if you are feeding a complete diet, I dont think that to add these to a commercial diet would be advisable. I have used Beta foods in the past and am not very keen on it - mostly because the dogs were'nt!! Jimmy, the dog in question was also quite "fussy" about his food and he likes the Burns, but I do have to put a little (Tablespoon) of meat in it, then he wolfs the lot! I would definately cut out the meusli, spuds and rice if he is on a complete diet.