Baby Huey

[Dances With Empties]

At the vet yesterday to book an appointment. Put the pup on the scale; just over 32 lbs. at 13 weeks!!! I've kept him on a strict diet, he's not fat by any means, but he seems huge to me for this age. I don't want him to grow too quickly as I know it can complicate things down the road. His food intake & quantity is good, roughly 4 cups a day in two servings. Had him on an adult meat kibble for about a week, but at the advice of the vet switch him back to puppy kibble.
Is this a normal size for a male at this age?

[Tappy4me]

Rufus is just shy of 30lbs at 14 wks. He is really skinny. Also wondering if that's normal for his age.

[Koekeishiya]

I got Chewy when he was 9 weeks old, and he was barely 11 pounds. I took him to the vet after 6 days (earliest appointment for the lady that was recommended) and he was at 13.30 pounds. He weighs even more now, but I wont know for sure how much until next week when he has his next check up.

BUT when I got Chewy he was very malnourished, and is currently being treated for Coccidia and Hook worm. All skin and bones.

He is growing very fast now that he is getting healthier, has tons of loose skin for growing so I am expecting a growth spurt soon, and his paws and getting bigger. Do you have a picture?

When I met with my vet for the first time we talked about a feed plan for him to get more in his diet. She said to me 'a fat puppy is fine, a fat dog is not'

[johninny]

on his 4-month birthday yesterday, Tracer weighed 34 lb. at 3 month birthday [ 13 weeks? ], he was 24 lb.
[ at 10 weeks he was 13.8 lb.]
it sounds like you are going to have a big one. i am guessing that Tracer will be the biggest DS i will have or have ever had - at 80 lb maybe
until recently, i let him determine the quantity of food he got. he got more until there were leftovers that the others would then take [ except the leftovers from his one daily, super-high-nutrient meal would be saved for him to finish later]. it is pretty hard to over-feed a DS puppy as long as the quality going in them is good; they burn off so much and grow so fast that i find puppy-feeding guides [ and quantity guides for younger DS ] simply do not fulfill their needs. on the self-regulation, i suspect it works better in dogs/puppies that have not experienced deprivation, especially w/r/t speed of eating, but i really have not found a reliable correlation with histories of plenty vs. deprivation. Saki who fended for himself out in the wild on multiple occasions [ once for 3 weeks ] eats slowly and carefully. same for TD who was a stray [ but may not have faced deprivation], who all his life would only eat as much as he needed/wanted and was always a very muscular lean.

[Dances With Empties]

Like I said before, he's not fat just proportionally large for 13 weeks. I'll try and post a current pic of him later tonight if I get a chance. I've seen G.S.D. pups his age & they usually aren't this big at this age. With no experience with this particular breed I wondered if he was growing too fast? Size isn't an issue for me, but health definitely is. I don't want to stress his joints or hips inadvertently.
Being a pup, he doesn't realize his size or strength of his bite & have put off socializing him with smaller kids right now until we get it under control. And he is a biter!!!

[johninny]

oh, i hope you didn't think that i was implying he was too big. was trying to relate that it is unlikely you are over-feeding him. but you bring up a point on which i have read little and thus know little re a growth rate that is too fast for his health. but if he is not fat, what can one do about it? underfeed him? it seems to me the best thing to do in this circumstance is to make sure his is getting ALL the nutrients [ as opposed to just food mass ] he needs to assure that the new body that is forming so fast has a really good foundation. i am a big believer in supplements in any case, but like with humans, the quality and completeness of early nutrition seems to make a big difference in physical and mental well-being.
do any of the really smart people here on the forum have cautionary insights on growth rates?

[Dances With Empties]

Here's some pics from tonight. Didn't think to put something beside him for comparison. Like a beer can or something... LOL!

[johninny]

he is really beautiful. love the way his coat color seems to change from body to neck to ears. re discussion above, he just looks very very healthy to me.

[Dances With Empties]

Update: Just had him to the vet yesterday. 16 weeks & 40 lbs. No fat to be found on this guy...

[Ramy]

As a vet, I can tell you a little about over-feeding puppies. About the time I started vet school, before I knew any better, I let a border collie pup self regulate. He was an absolute butterball. Yes, I know, BC's aren't supposed to have problems with being over-weight either. But this guy was an absolute pig and a bottomless pit. I ended up having to have OCD surgery done on him while I was in vet school because of it. His weight was an issue his entire life, he just did not have the typical BC metabolism.
Puppies should be lean. The pictures of this guy show the ideal body condition. You can see the back of his ribs, and I can tell you can easily palpate individual ribs. If you start finding a layer of fat over the ribs, you need to reduce the calories to the level that keeps them on the thin side. You won't reduce the adult size, just slow down how quickly he gets there. It's the fast growth with excessive calories (meaning enough to be putting on a fat layer) that contributes to cartilage and bone defects like OCD. Some people recommend using adult food in large pups to moderate the calorie intake, in an attempt to slow them down a little.
Looks like this will be a very large dog

[Dances With Empties]

Thank You for the advice. This guy is of the same fitness now, (will be 6 months Dec. 4th), & is at the 60lbs. mark. I feed him twice daily aprox. 2 cups a feeding. I cannot over state the fact that this guy has no fat!
With his large frame, I suspect by maturity he will be over 100 lbs.

It's a good thing he's a big suck!

[Ramy]

Sounds like a Draft Shepherd rather than a Dutch Shepherd
Recent pictures?