Skinny Minnie

[KingLeo]

Keep him on puppy food a little longer, maybe add extra treats. Has he had a fecal test or been wormed lately? Winston loves freeze dried chicken livers.

I agree, check check may be in order as Leo got worms aged 2 years and he starteed to loose weight but over a period of about 5 months quite slowly, it was hard to notice in fact.

Good luck!

[joelypo]

My cavvy didn't fill out till well after a year! My dog groomer says barking heads is good as her dog filled out on that x

[NurseSophie89]

Lola was a little skinny minnie and a nightmare to get to eat, but since we got her spayed at the start of December she now eats like a horse and has piled the pounds on, shes now a nice healthy weight. Dont know if this would be an option for you though..

[Karlin]

as I have charlies who are known for being picky you can end up with one very fat smug cavalier sat amongst 7 empty bowls.

Yes isn't that just it! They are also devils for getting at any food source -- I had to point out to my partner Chris that one of my dogs... (LILY are you listening?!) had chewed through the bottom of the huge food bag he keeps in the utility room and she and Leo were helping themselves. Mine will lunge at any scrap of food or even rocks that could possibly be food (they leave them when they find they are not on walks, while other breeds and mixes that I walk -- Chris' GSD, my neighbours' dogs -- never even look at stuff on the road.

Labs are def another breed with a genetic predisposition to get fat -- that's why it is also rare to see fit labs and common to see pudgy labs. There are about seven breeds I think that seem to lack the 'appetite turn off switch' gene and will eat and eat. Cavalier puppies generally are very good at self regulating what they eat but once they hit around 1 that often changes. One reason this breed in particular should never be free-fed!

Neutered dogs all generally need about 20% fewer calories (or more exercise!). The metabolism slows slightly. I wish vets were clearer with people about this as there's no need for neutered dogs to gain weight at all. Also: in my experience most feeding recommendations on bags and tins of food are way, WAY over what a dog should be eating and treats like Bonios and dog biscuits are definitely ridiculously high on "recommended daily amounts." (also people forget to calculate in the daily treats and feed the full food amount that is recommended on bags or tins, which would be total daily calories if NO other treats are going to be feed). I feed about a third less than what is suggested on bags. On dog biscuits -- typical recommendation for a cavalier sized dog is 3-4 bone biscuits a DAY which for a cavalier would be twice the total amount of daily food -- just in biscuits!!! Items like Dentastix and pigs ears are really, really high in calories. A single pig ear for a cavalier is about two days' total calories so they should be given sparingly.

The last two rib advice is very helpful!

Anyway sorry, the thread has gone off on a 'too much weight' tangent...

[Karen and Ruby]

Boys do tend to stay thinner for longer! I have a skinny mini myself but it's just the way he is. And I'm glad he is lean! He burns of calories as he eats them!

[Reagan]

Thanks for everyone's responses! We know Reagan is in perfect health due to recent vet check ups, so no worries there, and thanks to everyone else for all of their encouragement of reagan being at a healthy weight!!

[mommytoClaire]

Oh good, you agree that his health is fine, so I wouldn't worry about the skinny body. My Claire is very petite and I keep her very slim. She has a nice shape, and it wouldn't take much for her to look fat.

But, I do get comments about her being 'skinny'. I just ignore them since people are just too use to seeing overweight dogs any more. I have two friends who have obese dogs and it drives me crazy. They are sooo lazy because of their extra weight and I can't imagine the issues it's putting on their hearts.

Keeping your dog slim has been a discussion here a lot.

I think most breeds of Spaniels are chow hounds. I've had several Cocker Spaniels, and I use to always say they would eat cardboard with gravy on it. I kept them slim also, and one of them people use to ask me what she was because she was slim and small boned. Sad that people are use to fat dogs.

[MadPip]

Fully agree - I often get asked if Maddie and Pippin aren't a bit skinny (only when its raining and they arent so fluffy so that you can see their true shape), but it is just that they aren't fat. Rosie at 6 months old is at the leggy skinny stage, but you can't see her ribs and she has a good appetite and plenty of energy so I'm not worried. A breed that often is overweight can often look "wrong" when they are the correct weight.