How Much Food Should a Springer Spaniel Eat?

An English Springer Spaniel is well known for its playful, energetic personality and needs a lot of exercise to stay healthy. To keep up with this active lifestyle, your Springer needs all the nutrition a great dog diet offers.

But how much food should your dog actually eat?

How much food you feed your English Springer will depend on quite a few factors such as their activity level, age, and weight.

Getting this wrong can lead to your dog not maintaining a healthy weight or having nutritional deficiencies that can impact its health.

If you have a new Springer Spaniel puppy at home or are just looking to make sure you are feeding your adult Springer the right amount of food, this is the article for you.

How Much Food Does a Springer Spaniel Need a Day?

A healthy adult English Springer Spaniel will need between 2-3 cups of food per day. The exact amount of food your Springer will need will be determined by a wide range of factors that we will get into just now.

Puppies

English Springer Spaniel puppies still need quite a lot of food as they are growing quite a lot, but not as much as adults do.

As every Springer Spaniel puppy will grow at their own rate and for this reason its not possible to offer an exact number of cups you should feed your Springer pup. It is best to consult the packaging of your dog's food for feeding guidelines.

Generally speaking, it will be between one cup and two and a half cups of puppy food a day.

This food should have their food split into four meals a day until they are around three months old and then two meals a day until they are six months old and then at one year they move to the adult English Springer Spaniels diet.

Switching to adult dog food: A Springer puppy should move to adult food around one year old. Before this stick to food designed for puppies, it will help ensure they develop into a well-rounded dog.

Senior Dogs

Just like puppies, senior Springer Spaniels dietary requirements are a little different from adults. As they are a bit less active normal dog food will result in your dog becoming overweight.

For older dogs, you will want to still feed the amount of food an adult Springer Spaniel gets but switch to food specifically created for seniors.

If you were to just reduce the amount of food it may mean they are not getting the right amount of nutrients to stay healthy.

Switching to senior dog food: Consider making the switch to senior dog food when your English Springer Spaniel is around eight years old.

Activity Level

How active your English Springer Spaniel is will play a role in the amount of food your dog needs.

English Springer Spaniel is a very active dog breed and will need around two hours a day to remain healthy.

Some still use Springer Spaniels as hunting dogs or have very active lifestyles that mean far more than the two hours of exercise. In these cases, your dog may need more food as they are burning so much off.

If your dog has a more sedentary life and only goes for shorter walks you may find that they can become overweight.

There is quite a large difference in the daily calorie needs of an active English Springer Spaniel and an inactive one.

• Active: 1353 calories a day
• Inactive: 989 calories a day

Can the Type of Food I Feed my Dog Impact This?

Yes, the style of diet you choose to feed your English Springer Spaniel will have an impact on how much you should feed your dog.

Your options are:

• Dry food
• Wet food
• Raw diet

Personally, I opt for kibble for feeding my Spaniel as it ticks all of the nutritional boxes a dog food needs to, if you buy high-quality food, of course.

There are benefits to other options too though such as the raw food diet that is a bit more natural. We have an in-depth guide on raw food diets if you are interested in learning more about that option.

In terms of the amount of food, you should read the packaging for accurate information as it will vary from one food to another.

When Should I Feed my Springer Spaniel?

It is possible to only feed an adult Springer Spaniel one meal a day, however, most owners choose to feed their dog twice a day split apart by 12 hours.

This gives your dog something to look forward to and can make it easier for your Springer to digest their food. We choose to feed at 8 am and 8 pm but you can just find times that work in with your own schedule.

How can I Tell if my Springer is Overweight?

As already discussed there are a few ways to tell how much to feed your Springer Spaniel by looking at their weight, age, and how active your dog is.

But how can you assess your dog's current weight/health?

Luckily this is really easy to work out. Simply take your hand and run it down your dog's side and feel for their ribs. You want to be able to feel your Springer's ribs and a little layer of fat above. If the layer of fat feels too thick or the ribs are visible at a glance your dog is the wrong weight.

You can also check your Springer Spaniels spine in the same way.

What Should I do About It?

If your dog appears to be at a healthy weight then keep doing what you are doing, great work!

Otherwise, there may be some action required to get your Springer Spaniel back on track. Let's look at what that would look like:

Overweight: If your Springer is carrying a bit too much weight you'll want to make sure their food portions are right, exercise is on point, and consider switching to low-calorie dog food for a while.

Underweight: If your dog is underweight check your feeding enough for their age, weight, and activity level. You may want to see your vet to ensure nothing is wrong.

Springer Spaniel Feeding Tips

If you've made it this far you are pretty much a pro when it comes to feeding your Springer Spaniel the right amount of food. But I've still got a few tips for you pet parents.

Slow Their Feeding Down

Spaniels love to scoff down their food at 100 miles per hour as if they have never seen food before. It's a common trait that any Springer owner is sure to have seen before.

But gulping down their food this quickly can cause problems with your dog swallowing air along with their food that with the food expands in your dog's stomach. This can cause your dog to be sick or become bloated which can be painful or uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, you can't just sit your Springer Spaniel down and explain the importance of eating their food slowly, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything you can do about it.

Hand Feeding: If your Springer is a particularly bad eater you may want to feed your dog slowly by hand. This enables you to control the pace your dog eats. You could even gamify it a little.

Slow-Feeding Dog Bowls: A more hands-off approach is to buy your dog a slow-feeding bowl to eat from. Unlike a standard dog bowl, this slows the speed your dog can eat by having a maze-like structure inside for the kibble to fall into.

These bowls are pretty cheap to buy and will help you quickly address this.

Watch How Much your Dog Eats

Try to keep an eye on how much you are feeding your English Springer Spaniel. It can be very easy to over or underfeed your dog, even if using a cup. If you are just dipping the cup into the food make sure it's not overfilled or underfilled but just filled exactly to the top.

While very innocent this is a very common cause of overfeeding a dog.

Cut Down on Treats

We all love to give our dogs a treat or two.

I mean, come on, how cute is a Springer Spaniel looking up at you with those big eyes looking for a little food from the counter? How can you say no?

I personally struggle with this a lot from time to time. But you should try to stay strong and feed your dog fewer scraps of food and dog treats between meal times.

Even dental sticks with their clever marketing have a whopping 72 calories per stick that isn't probably not being taken into account with your Springer Spaniels daily food intake.

This is not to say all dog treats are bad, just that they are best had in moderation. A couple of dog biscuits here and there can add up quickly!

Limit Feeding Time

When you put food down for your English Springer Spaniel give your dog 15 minutes to have their meal if they don't eat it take it away.

Your dog might be holding out for something a little nicer that you are eating or could just not be hungry. (unlikely with a Springer Spaniel but it can happen)

Wait a little while and offer it again, they'll probably take it quickly the second time round not wanting to lose out on a meal.

Why is my Springer Spaniel Always Hungry?

Springer Spaniels are very food motivated. No matter where it is or even if they have just had their dinner you can be sure a Springer will be looking for some.

I would say that this behaviour is pretty natural for a Springer Spaniel. I'd be more concerned if your dog was not interested in food.

If your dog does appear to have an increased appetite more than usual it could be a sign of a health problem such as tumours or diabetes. Book an appointment with your vet straight away if you suspect this.

Conclusion

Now you know how much to feed your English Springer Spaniel at every stage of their life and how to get your dog back on track if their weight is a little off.

There are many ways to make sure your dog's diet is spot on and make sure your Springer Spaniel is getting the right level of nutrition.

Hopefully, those tips on feeding your Springer Spaniel and ensuring you have a healthy dog will help you keep your canine companion in great shape for many years to come.