Beyond Adolescence - a thread to chat about grown up dogs, cake and anything else, excluding coffee.

[SpanielsGalore]

Not going to tag everyone as I don't know who wants to join. Welcome everyone. 😁

I have had two roofers here this morning. After the initial barking at heads appearing over the ridge, the dogs have been so good. They've sat in the garden and watched them working. Greeted them every time they came into the garden and didn't once try to bolt out of the gate. I heard one of the men telling them to 'stay' as he struggled through the gate with a bucket full of water, and then telling them they were 'good dogs'.
They've just finished and as they were leaving one commented on how calm my dogs are and not like 'normal spaniels'. See. Not all working cockers are 'high on crack' and 'manic'. 😇😇😇

Beautiful weather here today. 🌞 I unexpectedly got my car back yesterday. 🥳
Off to the woods to walk the adolescent nutter until she collapses in a heap. 😂

I can only feed LK at all if I do one tin a day for him, and only buy it when there's an offer - about every two or three months LK does a discount (25% last time), and Pet Shop UK currently have a 53% off offer (though I've not looked at it so it might not cover much). Or I buy it when it's on offer at the supermarket. And it still makes me wince. But the little sod went completely off Forthglade about two days after I bought FOUR BOXES of trays, so I'm trying to keep him on a good range of flavours so he doesn't get bored and I don't get stuck with hundreds of cans of LK too 🙄

Not a clue how it's all worked out. If it were Bill, I'd be just trying to keep a low level of fat in both, balanced with what P will actually eat, and what she's likely to thrive on. Hopefully the super-low-fat diet won't have to be forever. There seems to be a vast range of advice even from reliable sources online - one I was reading suggested that long-term the diet should be 15% fat by dry matter and 15-30% protein, which (if true) will be much more manageable I should have thought. Kennel Club says 20g of fat per 1000 kcals, whatever the hell that means. Can't help noticing that a lot of the online sources Google throws up are written by pet food providers, so any AI responses are going to be dodgy as hell as well. I really do feel for you! I think we're all your cheerleaders, @SpanielsGalore x

Thank you @Bupster . I appreciate everyone's help and support.

The KC advice is very confusing. I actually have no idea how many calories my dogs eat. Does anyone? I can tell you how many grams they have per day and the protein and fat levels. Never once considered calories.
I think I need to look into wat causes pancreatitis and recommendations for that. Although annoyingly, food that is advertised as for dogs with pancreatitis is higher in fat than her current food.

Honestly. I had a dog with multiple allergies and IBD. His diet was much easier. He couldn't have anything except hypoallergenic food.

When pupsy was still quite underweight I used to calculate calories and track it all madly as the food she then ate (wet and dry) had calories per 100g listed. Can’t do that with the raw bit of her diet but I know roughly what the calorie rate is for her kibble and I still weigh everything.

So sorry to hear about P, @SpanielsGalore. Poor girlie and poor you. Really hope she picks up soon and starts ignoring you again.

FFS! Just went on the nutritionist FB page. What's all this fat percentage of wet food converting to dry matter about? Apparently Forthglade Wet at 6% fat converts to over 20% dry matter. Have I massively ballsed up?
The below food is 2% as fed and 8.5% dry matter.

www.naturediet.co.uk/product/feel-good-fish/?fbclid=IwdGRjcANFJvtjbGNrA0Um7WV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEesXX3kYwTRmeu-ksNO3o-6-Nckqp9k3jkQ_pQBnyW2JgUCm377Z545ojw0wo_aem_G_I50KRwdn1NIq_4kxrLTA

Try Bill with the Jollyes Lifestage trays @Bupster , Brie much prefers them to Forthglade, they do actually smell really good.

Not heard of Different Dog but wonder, as it's frozen, do they deliver as far north as Spaniels is...

No good asking me about calories @SpanielsGalore - wouldn't have a clue. I don't even weigh the food, I just put three or four handfuls in a bowl and that's it. Calories requires too much science for me.

P was underweight when raw fed, but I just increased the percentage of body weight I fed and added loads of extras. It was the reason I switched to dry food really, so I could monitor her intake more.

I know my dogs need about 1100 calories a day. I worked it all out when trying to decide on the mix of wet to dry food.

I find raw alone easy to judge portions for as there are loads of raw food calculators. When I added raw to her kibble I had to do a bit of maths but I reckon it’s about right now at roughly 60:40 raw/kibble. But really I go on how much exercise she’s doing and how she's looking, as well as keeping up with what's in season as now we should be getting some venison hearts soon.

Found an explanation for converting wet food fat to dry matter.
My 6% fat tinned food converts to 30%. 😱 How are you supposed to know these things? So I've just fed her almost three times the amount she normally has.

Oh hell. It's all so bloody confusing. I'm sorry 😞I hope she's okay and won't be sick again.

@SpanielsGalore Im so sorry you’re having a rough time with P and trying to find her some suitable food. Reading all these exchanges between you all, it really is a minefield isn’t it? Just the sheer amount of thought that needs to go in to it and sneaky manufacturers changing levels of protein etc without telling you @LandSharksAnonymous

I really hope P recovers soon!

Still feeding Pablo 4 times a day, but then I don’t think that’s a huge surprise to any of you seeing as he is still only 5 months old! The calibra seems to be suiting him really well (I went for the large breed one in the end @CoubousAndTourmaIet as an adult weight predictor I found estimated he would weigh about 33kgs and the cut off is 30kgs) I maybe increased the amount of wet food I was adding a little too quickly as there was some wind and loose stools yesterday 🤦‍♀️
When I first brought him home, I wondered how long it would take me to get used to picking up his poo without gagging but now I literally rate it 😂 “that’s a good one you’ve done pupper, nice and firm and a good colour”
I say far too many things out loud on account of living alone so I hope my neighbours haven’t heard me.

Hope everyone else is all good and having a nice weekend. I did in fact bake another cake yesterday and did a few bits of DIY around the house.

When I worked that out for someone, I went on ratio of RDA. I have never noticed the amount of calores being listed before. Fortunately I just checked before ranting about it. 😂

P seems alright this morning, which makes me wonder if her dip last night was because she was digesting the fatty food she ate. (I have no idea if pancreatitis works like that.)
This morning she has had N's senior food, which is still too high in fat but the best I can do for now.
Last night I ordered a big bag of the extortionately priced Green Pantry food. Hopefully it won't take too long to arrive.

@VanGoSunflowers But have you taken any photos of 💩 yet? 😂
I talk to mine all the time. But my neighbour talks to them too, so I think I'm safe.
Is it another chocolate cake?

@SpanielsGalore yes, another chocolate cake so that’s now £20 per cake - as you say I need to make several more to make it worthwhile 😂
Haven’t progressed to taking pictures of his poos yet 😂 if I ever do, I promise I won’t post them on here 😂

@VanGoSunflowers it’s very cheeky! Tbh I’m more frustrated by the confusion and dishonesty between meat and protein - lots of foods claim to be ‘X % protein’ but even with the maths done to get the accurate percentage once you take in water content, they don’t actually mean ‘protein’ but ‘meat protein’ which is slightly different.

I’m not sure what’s worse tbh, trying to find good quality dog food or trying to pack a child’s lunch for school that the school won’t say is ‘unhealthy.’ DDs school has just declared that ‘frubes’ have too much sugar!!! They’ve also banned chocolate and apparently are talking about white bread!!

@LandSharksAnonymous Oh for the good old days of a ham sandwich, a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar. 😂

@SpanielsGalore yep!!! I mean It makes no difference as DDs just now have the chocolate in the car on the way to school…I probably shouldn’t admit to being such a ‘carless’ parent, but they’re very slim and healthy and I would be quite the hypocrite to say no chocolate to them and then gorge on cake myself!

That being said, I find it ironic that the school that’s banning frubes does fish and chips on a Friday - at a whopping 1400 calories a portion (and these are 11-18 year olds).

I’m really glad Ps feeling a bit better this morning! Is chicken and rice a possibility? Not sure about the fat content, but it’s got to be decent protein? Does N know you’re giving her food away to her younger, irritating housemate?😂

@LandSharksAnonymous I am assuming there must be at least some regulation surrounding dog food!! I was reading your brilliant posts on the other thread about puppy food and promptly went to go and check the kibble I am feeding P to make sure it stacks up! That poster was very rude to you.

Thats ridiculous about the lunch box rules!! I have a pretty fussy eater in DS so it’d be a nightmare if his school was like that - although he has a hot school meal every day so I don’t have to worry about it! I mean, I can understand them banning nuts or other known allergens but yoghurt and white bread?? Come on! DS has Frubes every morning and a glass of strawberry milkshake because it’s the only way I can get some protein and calcium in to him! I often joke about the start difference between DS’ eating habits and Pablo’s 😂

@SpanielsGalore thats exactly what my lunches were growing up! White bread is not the devil - common sense just try not to have like ten slices a day of it 😂

It used to drive me mad that the advice with chews/treats/training allowances is to adjust food accordingly with no information on how you begin to work it out.

Once they're adult sized it's much easier to go on looks (although given the number of overweight dogs about and what people think is normal I question the wisdom of that) but as growing puppies it's really hard to tell.

I was actually chatting with someone in the coffee shop queue about it, when I explained that my dog wasn't getting a pup cup even though she was being a very good girl as she'd just been fed a load of treats in the pet shop. A pup cup can be 100 calories, less than 10% of what mine needs in a day so fine for an occasional treat but I see them given to much smaller dogs where they could be a third or more of what they need per day.

I've never calorie counted for dogs or humans.
With dogs I start with the RDA and then go by if they look fat or thin and adjust accordingly. Unfortunately I am not so disciplined with my own diet.

@VanGoSunflowers You must be the same age as my children. 😂 We were such bad parents back in the day.

@LandSharksAnonymous I think you have my dogs mixed up again. Which one looks to be the irritating one to you?

I was mixing lots of food trying to get the damn dog to eat so the recommended daily allowance wasn't very helpful on its own. So I got the recommended daily allowance and converted that to calories so I could make up that amount from a mix of different sources.

Now it's helpful to roughly know as if I need to feed something different I know how to calculate what they need. Especially as both of mine need more than what the bag says, the little one more so than the older.

It's one of the reasons I was put off butternut box when I researched initially, everyone I know who fed it had to give more than the recommended amount and it's expensive enough in the beginning (plus the two dogs I know who were fed it ate their own 💩!)

I've got paranoia, especially after that thread yesterday. I've never thought about calories, it's all just handfuls and they self regulate. They've all been on the lighter side for their breed. We also don't do many treats.

So, the Calibra food measures up, so does Essential, even the cheaper Jollyes Lifestage is okay, but the MW isn't so great. This morning I added a handful of Calibra Junior to her MW and ended up spending 5 minutes picking out every piece of Calibra, because apparently that is only to be eaten at lunch or dinner not breakfast. Milady has standards 🙄

Might replace Millies breakfasts with a different flavour of Essential.

Now mine are older, and i have a bit more experience we don't do exact measurements, just a scoop of dry each meal with little pup having a slightly fuller scoop plus whatever wet they're having. But it was useful to me to do the calculations just to ensure we weren't miles off.

This morning went back to bed after feeding them and little pup barked to let me know I hadn't clipped the lid of the food box back down. She could have her head in there if she wanted, having a second breakfast but instead she always barks to let me know 😂 I do wonder what goes through their head sometimes.

Another day of getting my clothing choices for dog walking totally wrong! This time of year is so awkward

Me too. Ended up sweltering!