Well following on from my introduction to little dogface..
Any of you use Royal Canin food? I'm a little confused by the feeding guide. The little chart on the package looks like below. Is it assuming i know what will be the adult weight? How could I know that? I wouldn't know that until he becomes an adult and I stick him on the scales.
So for our 3 month old I either feed 176 / 200 / 246g per day split into 3 or 4 meals.
Am I totally reading it wrong? Over complicating it?
Don't worry, he's not starving, we've had dog before and not measured to the gram
Go to your local vets and get a free measuring beaker, which will have different scales, breeds, weights etc. printed on it.
If you haven't got a vets already, you're going to need one, anyway.
I forgot he's a cocker - my 13yr. old English cocker has been 12 kg for all his life - he's a few 100g heavier at last vets visit as he walks a bit less, now.
I doubt there's too much difference between English and American - well, when it comes to cockers, at least.
Yup we registered with a vet already, same one his mum went to and gave him first injections etc.. And we have the feeding cup, given by the pet store we bought the food from.
If he's a 12kg adult it'll be quite different from our last dog, an almost 30kg working springer.
With the caveat that it has been over 20 years since I had a puppy of my own, and the pups that I have more recently cared for via rescue came in very poor condition:
I prefer to err on the side of not over stressing a small puppy's digestive system.
Since you can't know adult weight, and assuming your pup is not overly-large for his breed - I would probably start with the lower end of the range estimate for his breed. So feed the smaller amount or even less, say 3/4 of that, split into the number of feeds per day. If the pup finishes all the food at each setting, then think about increasing. If the pup leaves food at each meal, decrease by the amount left.
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What does the breeder recommend?
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BTW, If you are reward training - and it's never too soon to start training - remember to calculate the food given as rewards in the daily portion.
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I don't put much faith in manufacturer's recommended feeding amounts, but rather go by my judgement of the dog's physical condition, feel of the body.
If I fed the HooverHounds the recommended amount they would be balloons on legs. As adults they get less than half the amount recommended, topped up with steamed veggies. Puddle the Poodle, on the other hand, gets 1.5 times the recommended amount, and is still a skinny minnie.
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But puppies are certainly not my forte, so please get advice from someone more experienced than me. (Calling Papa Goose...)
Wow. Fed the little guy the prescribed amount 50g of food. He hoovered it up and is yelping for more and trying to climb up on the worktop!
If only the two children would eat their dinner so well :-/
I have always weighed the dog food. It is really important that Basset Hounds are not overweight (this could be said about any dog) and a veterinarian years ago gave me the calculation for feeding and that was based on grams, as were the instructions on the package.
The plastic cup was not precise enough for me and feeding a different food to each dog was too confusing. So I started weighing the food and this is just the simplest method for me.
I can't help you with the Royal Canin brand (aside from confirming that it's talking about the expected weight as an adult, which is based on breed averages), as we use Orijen (highly recommended!), but I do have some general tips on the feeding.
You can go to Fressnapf or Qualipet or something, get one of their free measuring cups. The levels won't be right, as each food has a different density, but weigh out the correct amount of food once, mark it with a permanent marker, and use that from then on.
We always fed less than the recommended amount. As a puppy, you know you're going to be giving him snacks, and you really do need to take that into consideration. Labs, at least (don't know about cockers) are very easy to overfeed, as they'll inhale anything vaguely food-like regardless of how much they've already eaten.
Feeding less becomes particularly important if you have him, um, made into an "it". I think we feed less than 2/3 of the recommended portion now, maybe even closer to a half, but I'd have to check to be sure (and, to be clear, that still includes some extra with the treat-based training).
Also, watch for allergies when he's a puppy. Ours spent a lot of time scratching himself as we moved around foods... eventually found out that he had very minor allergies to things like beef and cow's milk, which are in an awful lot of foods.
Good luck and enjoy!
Just taken my 6 mths. old cat to have his bits lopped off, and the vet said he's probably been getting too much food - and he'll need even less, after today.
I genuinely believed he was on a starvation diet.
It's the same with the dogs - the vet (a different one) is always saying not too much. With our little Jack, he says we should be able to see her ribs, easily ...... and she eats next to nothing - through choice.
I think the majority of pet owners, are always conscious that their pets might not get enough, so (even with the best intentions) probably over compensate with portions - and more of a problem, the reward, or general snacky bits, in-between meals.
Is there a "norm" here on chopping the bits off? Back in the UK it's expected and encouraged unless you plan to breed.
Same here? Same health reasons cited?
More or less ...... although, we never did with our cocker, partly under advice of the vet - apparently castrated cockers can be prone to balloon out in later years, and as he had a traceable pedigree, we were unsure whether we would use him as a 'donor'.
However, with hindsight, we probably should have, due to excessive peeing and marking, and general excitability, especially around females - humans, not dogs . He has a real (metaphorical) 'hard-on' for the missus and is a complete whimpering, whining pita, when she's around - much more than for a normal loyal, friendly and 'happy-to-see-you' dog ...... and much worse, now, as he's getting older (13).
Ahhaa well we'll wait and see.. We have the pedigree line but no plans in that department.. He's only 3 months old and has already tried to hump the neighbours bitch right enough.