Food, mood & weight?

[mosa]

I feed my dogs on nuggets, can't remember the make but buy from a local farm shop. Both cockers. Both mad. My bitch is hyper and eats her food slowly. My dog again hyper wolfes his food down like its his last meal. Whining with excitement when he knows I'm going for food (greedy B) trouble is he is quite thin. I've worm them both regularly and this isnt domething thats just started its been like this for some time. my questions are.

1, is there a food that will calm them ?

That's if its food related as opposed to breed

2, should I switch them to a better quality food which may fill my dog out?

 

I threw the bag away otherwise I could have listed its content to see if its more suited to dogs that are workers , mine aren't

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated

[gazbev]

Mosa, if you think it's a food problem it probably is so I would change it.

Get a quality complete food for them you will see a huge difference,what you put in is what you get out and there is a lot of **** out there, the following thread may help.High protein will make your dog more hyper.

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/topic/252645-dry-food/

Edited September 14, 2013 by gazbev

[beeredup]

as above what percentage protein is your current food? we had this (no noise but he was wired to the moon!!) with our own dog as he was on Chapel Farm performance 24+ and dropping him on to the 20 % food he is a far more controllable dog

[fenboy]

What ever food they are on "feed by eye" if you think he is too thin then feed more , if he becomes fatter then feed less , this applies to any quality of food, but the chances are that a better food will work out just as cheap as you will need to feed less.

[mosa]

Thanks for the feedback gents. Any recommendations on a low protien dry food?

[gazbev]

Burns,berrimans,autarky, go to the thread above there are a few brands mentioned there.

Don't fall into the trap of buying stuff half the price of the premium foods because a lot of the time you have to feed them twice as much also its about the quality of the protein

[darren m]

mosa - its an interesting subject , i often wondered if it was the food too making one of my springers hyper.

i,ve tried most brands now from ukanuba to unbranded and honestly cant see a difference .

 

i,d love someone to come up with a food guarenteed not to make a springer hyper , but i just think its the breed.

 

i,ve got 3 , there all a bit different but one is so hyper ( sometimes , usually on scent or if i mistakingly show her a tennis ball ) that she just loosers the plot , you can see it in her eyes , like a switch being flicked , i have to rain her right in and try and calm her down.

 

if you look on the net under dog calmers , there are a few supplements to try , i tried one called showspec working dog calmer at around £30 a tub , but didnt make any difference

 

anyway like i said i just think its the individual dogs temprament and the best thing to do is excercise and mental stimulus.

 

if anyone as any good ideas i,d like to hear them too

 

cheers

[gazbev]

What are nuggets anyway and who makes it?

Would be interesting if you could post a photo of the analyses