hi, im new here

:? new to the site but im just wonderin if anyone has advise for me. brought our female 15 month old Darcy to the vet for her checkup and the vet was very concerned about her weight ( which is about 5kgs). he suggested to try out plenty of food types and come back in a few weeks to see if she has gained any weight. Im not sure what food to try her with. At the moment she has dried Bakers puppy food & occassional treats. She is a fussy grubber & only eats maybe once a day when shes hungry. any advise would be appreciated.

Bakers is a pretty mediocre quality food. If you are in the UK or Ireland, try something like Royal Canin for small breeds, Burns, James Wellbeloved. Butchers tripe in tins is loved by most dogs. I always mix dry food with homecooked (recipes in the Library section, Caring for your Cavalier) or at least give some bioled chicken, lightly cooked beef, etc. Plain dried food is a pretty dreary existence for a dog, like spending your like eating fortified cornflakes.

If in the US, there's a list of excellent foods here:

http://www.roycroftcavaliers.com/manualfeeding.htm

I really would recommend the tinned Butchers tripe for fussy dogs. Izzy used to be very very fussy and it was one of the few things he'd eat with any interest. The original or with chicken varieties are best, as they aren't bolstered up with indigestible vegetables.

I WOULDN'T WORRY

KAYLA IS 1YEAR 7MONTHS 25 DAYS OLD AND WEIGHTS 5KGS AND SHE IS A BEAUTY

Jen, if someone's VET feels this dog is underweight than this will be based on the size and build of the dog and is an informed medical opinion. Every dog is different and this size and weight is clearly a concern to someone with medical training. Kayla's weight is not relevant to this particular situation -- not least because she is actually undersized and below breed standard -- making her a dangerous point of comparison for most people's dogs. A dog at the top of breed standard weight would be seriously malnourished at Kayla's healthy weight. Please be cautious in offering advice of this sort that would could actually endanger a dog further rather than help.

5 kg is low on the weight scale. Typical weight is 13-18 lbs (I believe that is 6-8 kg). If your vet is telling you she is underweight I would go with what they are saying. Many vets will not consider an overweight Cavalier overweight. But, if they are saying she is underweight you need to pay attention to that. Definitely ask for advice in getting her weight up.

Also, typical doesn't mean anything!! Shelby is 19 lbs (8.6 kb) and Jake is 24 lbs (10.8 kg). Shelby could stand to lose 1 to 1.5 lbs but Jake is just perfect the way he is. You can feel his ribs but not see them and he doesn't have loose flesh. You can bunch of Shelby's skin at her neck and tail, an indication that she has extra weight. I am super conscious of the weight issues with Cavaliers (keeping their weight down) and am working on getting 1.5 lbs off of Shelby.

hi susan. when you feed her, do you leave her food down all day, when she doesn't eat it--do you leave it there so she can eat it when she's ready?
If so, you could try just leaving the food down for 10-15 minutes then picking it up, then put it down again in a few hours and do the same thing, and then whether she eats or not, pick it up again and put it away. then put it back a few hours later. I don't know if that will help her gain weight but it has helped fussy eaters develop better appetites and better appreciation of their food. I don't know if you're doing this already or not but if not, you could try it. For it to work, you have to keep doing it even if she doesn't eat at all, for a few days if necessary. But usually they don't wait that long to start eating.

How does she look to you? Is her butt bony? are her ribs fairly prominent? When i met my first cavalier, i thought she might have cancer, she looked so thin, and i urged my daughter, the owner, to take her to the vet right away. My daughter took her and the vet said she was fine, that this breed is supposed to be trim. I took my Zack to a vet during a time when he was sick and the vet said he was underweight, by looking at him, not his actual weight, but every other vet i saw, which totalled about 4, said his weight was fine.

Apparently not all vets know about how thin cavaliers normally are unless they are overweight. I've heard that before. I certainly thought the dog was alarmingly thin when i saw my first one, but her vet said she was fine.

Your vet may be very familiar with cavaliers and drawing the right conclusion. I just want to point out that vets who are not familiar with them sometimes think they are too thin when they are normal and healthy. If you question this, maybe you can get a second opinion if you can get a referral to a vet in your area who is known to be familiar with cavaliers, if yours isn't. However, i'm in the US where cavaliers are far less common than where you are, and i would think your vet is probably familiar with the breed and knows what he's talking about.

thanks for the help

hi guys, many thanks for the helpful advice. the vet did say that he doesnt see too many cavaliers in his practise but that he felt along her spine and was concerned as he could feel her bones and he also thought her waist was a bit small. Personally, i had read so much information on keeping her weight down that i thought she was doing ok, and assumed she still had some growing and filling out to do. At the moment, yes, her food is down all day. i had tried just putting it down for 15 mins or so but she literally would go for days on end without eating and i was so concerned that she wasnt getting any food i resorted to leaving it down all the time. For now i really just want to focus on getting some weight on her in the healthiest way. have had no luck in the past few days getting her to eat any new food types but will keep you all posted on her progress.

Since Darcy is underweight and under the vet's care, I would follow the vet's instructions (and Karlin's suggestions). Hopefully she will gain the weight she needs to be a healthy girl. We're crossing all our fingers and paws :xfngr: :xfngr: that she'll like one of the kibbles Karlin named and the Butchers tripe! Sending hugs across the ocean for little Darcy. :hug:

Hi Susan,

I hope your little one puts on a bit of weight soon, it is a worry when they are underweight and won't eat I had the same with Charlie when he first came here.

Barbara is right about the Butchers Tripe, James, my vet recommended it to me for Charlie and you should see the happy dance he does at mealtimes now :lol: He wolfs his food down, licks the dish clean and really enjoys it - he's also now at a healthy weight :flwr:

Incidentally, it's not just the tripe based meals but all the Butchers food that they usually like. My eldest baby, Maxx has never eaten food out of a tin - he'd just eye it up and down suspiciously as if I was feeding him poison or something and then flatly refuse to eat it.

However, if given half a chance, he'd have Charlie's dinner from under his nose - must be something in that food taht attracts them - it's all good and natural food though :flwr:

Let us know how she gets on? And, good luck :flwr:

Susan be sure your vet knows if she isn;t eating for days on end as that is quite worrying and could indicate some other issue behind the appetite loss.

There's also a recipe in the Caring for your Cavalier section for Satin Balls -- this is an old breeder recipe for putting weight on dogs, for example after pregnancy or for ill dogs. It can also be used as a regular mixer in daily feeding or as a raw diet (wth restraint in portion size). Why not try feeding those? You could cook it if you feel uncomfortable with raw.

http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1523

This butchers tin of tripe... stupid question... do you buy it in the butchers or the supermarket??
Dougal came with a compimentary bag of tripe and he loves it But we weren't sure you could get it over here.

I think butcher's is a brand name, Cecily. I have vague memories of giving it to the first Holly. I think at that time (nearly 20 years ago :yikes ) it came in little chunks in gravy, but maybe I'm getting it confused with something else. And I've the raw tripe mixes in the frozen section of Pets at Home, not to mention dried tripe sticks in ASDA. Which incidentally, my pair loved!

Butchers Tripe is in tins in the pet food section of the supermarket or pet shop The tripe versions of it stink but the others aren't too bad :lol:

Here you go.... http://www.butcherspetcare.com/ Have a look at their site and you'll see the different flavours