Is Hannah a midget?

[juliefurry]

Hannah is a little over 6 months and stands at about 18 and a 1/2 inches tall. She's probably right around 30-35 pounds. I was wondering if maybe she is a midget. Her siblings from her litter are a lot bigger than her. She just seems so fragile and dainty next to her gigantic brothers and sisters. Her one sister is almost 21 inches tall and she's almost 50 pounds! I thought I was feeding her correct (she eats 4 and a 1/2 cups of kibble per day and probably half a can of canned food). Am I starving her and that is why she is not at the size her siblings are? Her siblings (who were kept by the breeder 2 females and 1 male) are fed free choice and have food available to them at all times. Is that why they are growing faster than her? Should I be worried she is so much smaller than the others? Will she catch up with them in size and weight?

 

[Zoom]

Holy crap, that's a lot of food for a dog that only weighs 35 pounds tops. Follow the feeding instructions on the bag, you don't want to overfeed a puppy! I think you just ended up with the runt of the litter. Enjoy!

 

[juliefurry]

That's what she eats I tried feeding her 2 cups (mixed with a quarter can of food) twice a day and she just acted like she was SO hungry that we gave her a little more at each feeding. If anything she seems skinny. You think I'm overfeeding her? I'll cut down her meals some than.

 

[Manchesters]

Feed What She Wants

That's what she eats I tried feeding her 2 cups (mixed with a quarter can of food) twice a day and she just acted like she was SO hungry that we gave her a little more at each feeding. If anything she seems skinny. You think I'm overfeeding her? I'll cut down her meals some than.

Feed her as much as she will eat twice a day, or maybe 3 times a day. 4 1/2 cups a day is not enough. Try 3 cups plus 1/4 can of food twice or three times a day.

 

[juliefurry]

Ok so feed her more. I just checked the package of food and it's a food made for all ages of dog and I was told to feed her twice as much as an adult would eat so yeah it would have to be more than 4 cups. I just switched her to the food she is on now so I am trying to adjust their meals appropriately.

 

[juliefurry]

oh for goodness sake! Now maybe it didn't say feed twice as much as an adult dog. My husband checked the bag and feeding instructions (not me...sorry) and that is what he said. Well he dumped the bag in our airtight container and took it out to the trash. Now I'll have to check in out tomorrow morning because it's too dark out behind the garage and I may be an adult but it's SCARY behind the garage at night! There's racoon's and spiders and god knows what else.

 

[bubbatd]

Have you done a worm check lately ???

 

[Manchesters]

Puppy Chow

Ok so feed her more. I just checked the package of food and it's a food made for all ages of dog and I was told to feed her twice as much as an adult would eat so yeah it would have to be more than 4 cups. I just switched her to the food she is on now so I am trying to adjust their meals appropriately.

Put her on Puppy Chow and the canned meat. That is per Old Dog, lol.

 

[juliefurry]

She gets Eagle Pack now, just the regular formula for all stages of life. We just started them on it fully (this will be their first FULL bag of it without the puppy formula mixed in). She gets chicken soup for the puppy lover's soul mixed in with her kibble. My husband decided he would save money one day when I sent him out to get her new cans of food and came back with ALPO! I almost chucked the cans at his head I was so mad!

 

[Mordy]

"cups" are an arbitrary measurement. some foods have 280 kcal per cup, others over 600, so that is definitely not a deciding factor to determine how much to feed a dog.

see here:
http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9206

i'd definitely not put any dog on a poor quality food like puppy chow, that stuff is just plain nasty.

if your dog is in good shape and doesn't appear emaciated, i wouldn't worry. in the long term slow, even growth is so much healthier than causing a puppy to develop at the fastest possible potential.

i'll also post this link again for your information, not sure if you saw it in any of the other similar threads.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/12.12.02/dog-diet.html

 

[juliefurry]

oh so she should probably live longer than her brothers and sisters than by not gorging herself like they do. They don't get as good of a food as she does either though. I think they are on Pedigree.

 

[Manchesters]

How Many Litters.....

"cups" are an arbitrary measurement. some foods have 280 kcal per cup, others over 600, so that is definitely not a deciding factor to determine how much to feed a dog.

see here:
http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9206

i'd definitely not put any dog on a poor quality food like puppy chow, that stuff is just plain nasty.

if your dog is in good shape and doesn't appear emaciated, i wouldn't worry. in the long term slow, even growth is so much healthier than causing a puppy to develop at the fastest possible potential.

i'll also post this link again for your information, not sure if you saw it in any of the other similar threads.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/12.12.02/dog-diet.html

And I assume you automatically ASSume Puppy Chow=Purina? The brand Julie is feeding does not make a Puppy Chow=version??? Many of us breeders advocate keeping a puppy on puppy formula for a year with the medium to large sized breeds.

I am curious however upon what you base your denegration of some of the more popular breeds. Having very limited experience with actually feeding these foods to dogs and have actually see results, you seem to base your expert opinion on reports written by others???

 

[Manchesters]

Oh Mordy............

"cups" are an arbitrary measurement. some foods have 280 kcal per cup, others over 600, so that is definitely not a deciding factor to determine how much to feed a dog.

see here:
http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9206

i'd definitely not put any dog on a poor quality food like puppy chow, that stuff is just plain nasty.

if your dog is in good shape and doesn't appear emaciated, i wouldn't worry. in the long term slow, even growth is so much healthier than causing a puppy to develop at the fastest possible potential.

i'll also post this link again for your information, not sure if you saw it in any of the other similar threads.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/12.12.02/dog-diet.html

Lookie here, Mordy.........

Seventy years after a classic Cornell nutritional study showed that cutting rations dramatically prolongs rats' lives, nutrition scientists have come up with even more evidence of the benefit of slender diets: A recently completed 14-year study found that dogs forced to eat 25 percent less than their littermates of the same balanced diet lived significantly longer and suffered fewer canine diseases.

In an age of increasing incidence of obesity among Americans, "maybe it's time we watched what the rats and the dogs are eating," advises George Lust, a Cornell professor of veterinary medicine and a collaborator in the experiment with dogs, sponsored by the Nestlé Purina Pet Care Co.

Oh my goodness.....sporsored by Purina......the makers of poison for dogs!!!!!!!

Plus it has been know for years that dogs fasted every third day live 1/3 longer according to studies. But puppies should not be deprived of food for whatever reason. You did note the article said that puppies WERE FORCED TO EAT LESS. One limited study does not scientific fact make!

Anyway......I would love to hear what any breeders have to contribute.

 

[juliefurry]

Have you done a worm check lately ???

yeah she had a worm check I would say a month ago (if you call that lately). Mack had gotten worms and so we had them all get checked out for worms and then they all got shots too (I'm guessing to prevent worms).

 

[Debi]

just regarding her size....when I got Addie, my neighbor got her sister. Well....seems her sis is sooooo much larger. (they are husky mix...have no idea what dad was in that mix) I also remember the males being huge little guys! I felt like maybe poor Addie wasn't eating properly....but she was, and doing just fine......she is just the little gal in the litter.

 

[Athe]

Keep in mind, a pup will only grow as large as they are genetically predisposed to grow. No matter how much you feed she will not get any bigger (maybe fatter) than she is genetically coded to do. Even a dog not getting proper nutrition will grow as large as they are genetically programmed to do. Of course, if the pup was starving to death then that would affect the growth.
I have seen many litters produce a runt of some of the pups do not get as big as the others. Don't compare with the other pups in the litter, just keep your pup healthy and happy and don't over due the feeding.

 

[Adrienne]

What are her other littermates eating Julie? It could be that because she is eating a "premium" food that she is growing more appropriately. If she is meant to be a large breed dog then DO NOT feed her puppy food, too much growing is done on puppy foods and the joints will suffer. Stick with your Eagle Pack and she'll grow at a nice even rate.

 

[gaddylovesdogs]

Labs are supposed to weigh between 55-70 lbs.. Mayberry is healthy at 63 lbs., and nice and short like a lab is supposed to be. There are way too many people out there that are breeding labs to be huge giants. There are so many of them because labs are so popular right now.

 

[becca_4321]

Andrienne, you are saying large breed puppies shouldnt eat puppy food? Do you think that would hold true on a chow?

 

[Adrienne]

Unless it is specialy designed for large breed pups. Regular puppy food is to high in levels of calcium and phosphorus (I believe that is the two that cause the issue), making the dog grow a lot faster than it should which can lead to joint issues. A chow would be in that range of medium-large breed so I wouldn't feed a regular puppy food. I perfer to stick to an all life stages kind of food like Canidae or Innova that way I don't have to get three different foods for three different ages/types of dogs!