The Springer Spaniel Diet

From personal experience I believe there are three key dietary stages that your Springer Spaniel diet should evolve through. Each are listed below and links to more detailed guides are included.

The three key stages of the Springer Diet

A Springer Puppy diet needs to ensure that enough calories and nutrients are being given to your puppy to enable its healthy growth.

An Adult Springer Diet needs to ensure that enough calories are given to compliment an active lifestyle otherwise your dog will rapidly become underweight.

A Senior Springer Spaniel Diet needs adjusting to compensate for the reduction in activity of an older dog in order that they don't become heayweights in their autumn years!! Failure to keep weight down at this age can also cause joint problems as your dog carries the excess weight.

Springer Dog Food Check out the dog food recommendations page. We have ploughed through the reviews and research to give you the best dog foods out there for your Springer Spaniel.

Overweight Springer Spaniel

A guide to managing an Overweight Springer. We are all prone to putting on a few pounds, especially Springers in their Autumn years. Here is my guide to help you manage your Springer Spaniel diet and get them back to their fighting weight.

Hypoallergenic Diets

Dog Food Scoop This is one of my favorite sites, to help you decide which is the best food to feed your Springer. It helps you decipher the language manufacturers use, and compares a whole range of dog foods on the market. Many are US based foods, but there are also some brands featured that you can get in the UK. This site is a must to help you choose the best dog food.

Upset Tummy

Springer Spaniels are very prone to Upset Tummies, its part of the nature of this pedigree breed. Therefore you should be sure that you don't make sudden changes to their diet as doing this can aggravate their digestive system. If you are making changes, do it gradually, mix the old and new diet. I have included a guide to Upset Tummies to help you manage this problem with your Springer, but if you are in any doubt contact your vet for professional advice.

Water

You must always ensure that your Springer has constant access to their water bowl all day, everyday. This water should be fresh, clean water that you change every day. You may find that if you feed your dog a dry food mix, your dog may need to drink more, therefore I recommend that you never deny your dog access to water.

As Springers can be prone to kidney infections I always monitor how much George drinks, and if for some reason the amount of water he is taking on is low, I will give him a bowl of milky water and he always drinks the lot.

Bowls

Obviously you need to have bowls to feed your Springer from. I would highly recommend the Springer bowls which are designed to keep their ears out of food. I think these are fantastic and would not be without them.

Here is a picture of what they look like, they are well worth the investment.

Treats

Springer Treats should form part of your Springer's diet. You need to ensure that they compliment the diet and are not just added calories on top of what they are normally eating. Attached is my guide to treats, to help you make the right decisions on what to spoil your Springer with; this is based on my experience of 25 years with Spaniels.

I firmly believe that a Springer with a bone is a very happy Springer indeed, as you can see from the photo of George here, and a bone can be a great addition to your Springer Spaniel diet.

BARF - Bones and Raw Food Diet

The Bones and Raw Food diet is a new food movement that aims to bring a dogs diet closer to nature, and similar to that which they would have had hundreds of years ago.

I have put together an initial guide to this diet in order to prompt any interest that you may have.

Foods to avoid

Being dogs with delicate tummies, there are certain foods to avoid giving to your Springer Spaniel. Some of these foods merely cause upset tummies for your Spaniel, whereas other food types can end up being fatal, with this in mind it is well worth taking a look at the linked guide.