Overweight cocker

[Glendon]

Hi, I am new to this forum, so please forgive me if I am asking a silly question. My cocker bitch (spayed) seems to just look at food and gain weight. I carefully weigh her (and her food) every week and she is fairly steady at the moment but she seems to be hungry all the time. Can I bulk her feed with raw vegetables and/or pasta? If yes can anyone advise what veg would be best? Thank you in advance.
P.S. My little lady is the first cocker I have had and she is my pride and joy. 

[ollie nathan's mum]

A very warm welcome to you, my Ollie has weight problems, I give him veg either raw or cooked..it does help. I would avoid pasta as there are to many calories in it.

[Jane57]

I would avoid pasta, good veg are sweet potato,  butternut squash,  carrots, peas, green beans etc, you could add these for bulk but little calories. The sweet potato might have more calories
 if adding too much so would limit it.

[JennyBee]

The advice I got from my own vet with my last cocker is that they can have as much veg as they want . He would have eaten anything put in front of him . Definitely would leave out the pasta.

Brodie likes sweet corn (just a small amount as it makes for interesting poos!), green beans, carrots (she eats a lot of those), peas, and a little broccoli. She eats about a carrot a day, it's great for keeping her teeth clean xx

[linda c]

Hello and welcome. You will find that once a bitch is spayed they tend to put on weight and always seem hungry
I used to do the same as you're doing with my girls, weigh them and their food to keep the weight right.
Any vegetables will help bulk up the food without the weight gain, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, whatever you've got going spare. Raw carrots are a good treat as JennyBee has said, very good for keeping their teeth clean.

Don't give too much cabbage or sprouts as you may get some undesirable smells 

[Wenco18]

Hi there, I have the same problem with Lottie.    She has Fat Dog Slim kibble from Barking Heads, with a small amount of Natures Harvest wet food.
She loves all veg which helps and I was told green beans are especially good as they fill them up easily 

[Wenco18]

Hi, I am new to this forum, so please forgive me if I am asking a silly question. My cocker bitch (spayed) seems to just look at food and gain weight. I carefully weigh her (and her food) every week and she is fairly steady at the moment but she seems to be hungry all the time. Can I bulk her feed with raw vegetables and/or pasta? If yes can anyone advise what veg would be best? Thank you in advance.
P.S. My little lady is the first cocker I have had and she is my pride and joy. 

Pictures of your little lady and her name are a must 

[Toofast]

Hi,
I have the working cockers and only feed raw! I find that when not working 8oz of raw per day is plenty per dog, chicken carcasus /wings are included as  food value not an extra. I have an old lady who is 13.5 years, she has been spayed,  and at this age is not as active as the others,  her daily amount is 6oz raw and is still in good condition.
All of our girls love vegetables both cooked and raw, they also love their fruit too.
Never use pasta or rice!

[Sheryl]

As far as Im aware, bitches don't put weight on because they are spayed, they put it on because their metabolism slows down after the spay. If you carry on feeding the normal amount, with a slower metabolism, the end result has to be weight gain. I cut down the girls food after their spay. Never had any problems

[Emilyoliver]

My bitch is spayed and she's been on a 'light' kibble as an adult and has never been overweight.  The other question is how much exercise your dog gets.  Could you increase that perhaps? As with us, more exercise means burning of more calories and so reduces weight gain.

[elaine.e]

Hello and welcome to COL

If you add raw vegetables to her meals to bulk them out they will be easier to digest and she will get some nutrition from them if you blitz them in the blender first. You could do a major blitzing session once a week or so then freeze into small portions for daily use. Don't use onions (toxic) or raw potato and don't use too many sugary vegetables such as carrots and parsnips. Maybe use a whole carrot as a treat every so often.

Pasta is likely to put weight on and it's made from wheat, something which some dogs are very sensitive too.

I don't know what you feed her at the moment, but have you considered changing her feed and upping her exercise?

Does she like Kongs? If you're feeding kibble you could put some of her daily ration in a Kong which will make her work for it a bit and might make her feel more satisfied as it will keep her occupied for a while.

[Glendon]

Thank you all so much for taking the time and trouble to answer.
I will take some pictures of Misty and post them as soon as I can.
Again a heartfelt thanks to you all.