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Vet says I’m tubby

3K views 22 replies 13 participants last post by  Kaylie&Cami22 
#1 ·
Just a small little mini rant....
vet says Bonnie is to heavy ?
Saturday she’ll be 18 weeks and she’s 31.6 pounds.
But she’s still super ribby. I guess I shouldn’t have been going off of that.
She gets a lot of exercise and we’re feeding her two meals a day. She takes her nap mid day and seems to prefer two larger than three small. And we’re actually feeding her less than the RC large breed puppy food suggests. She gets 1 1/2 cup at each meal. So 3 cups all together.
Snack wise (she gets her snacks while we eat dinner) she eats Greek yogurt or her puzzles with dried chicken. And the Greek yogurt is in a kong so it’s not like it’s tons!
She also has a Himalayan cheese chew and pork chomps for her teeth but the cheese chew she barely gets any off of.

I tell the vet all this and he says more exercise (which she’s exhausted from the exercise we do I don’t think I can do more without pushing her to hard) and that we must be over filling the cup measure -_-
I’m at a loss for what to do except keep doing what I’m doing and maybe her growth will slow down?
 
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#2 ·
I was looking for something else, but found Moe's vet record from a visit at 4 1/2 months today. He was 30 lbs. Moe is not by any means a large male. He's 17 months old now and is 61 lbs. To give you a comparison my older, heavier boned Golden was 79 lbs at 2 years old. Duke, the older one is currently 71 lbs and he's honestly a little thin. They are both really muscular, get tons of exercise. I am a stickler for them not being overweight. Moe could be 65 lbs comfortably, but I'm keeping him on the smaller side due to joint concerns.

Females should be smaller then males, but I'm not sure about during the puppy stages. Maybe someone else will answer.
 
#8 ·
I wish I knew my pups siblings! Aidan is now 51lbs at 6months old. I’m not sure how big he’ll be when he’s full grown. You probably just have a big girl if you can see her ribs. Do you have any pics? It would be fun to see your baby girl! I wouldn’t worry about it if she looks lean to you!
 
#9 ·
Here's the chart for the Body Condition System that shows what an ideal figure for a dog looks like and well, I've apparently always had slightly overweight pooches in the past! With our current bitch, I've tried my best to keep her on the leaner side; the below pic was her at about 5 months old and something like 44 pounds, 19 or so inches tall.

The thing about weight is that all dogs, just as humans, can carry it differently and have it proportioned in various ways. That's why to me the chart is super helpful is showing what a pup/dog should look like ideally.
 

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#10 ·
Our eyes are accustomed to overweight dogs so it's really difficult to accurately assess weight - especially with all that GR fluff.

You want to see a defined waist tuck as shown in rtboswell's photo. You should be able to easily feel the ribs but not see them.

Allowing our dogs to be overweight is very hard on their bones, joints, kidneys and increases their risk for cancer. Keeping them lean is really in their best interest and it has the added benefit of making training quite easy because they're so food motivated. :)
 
#11 ·
It’s not the same breed, but I have an 18 week old German shepherd pup right now. I’m keeping him nice and lean, and to be honest, it’s hard to get weight on him anyway! Here is a picture of how he looks from above and from the side.

ETA: Again, not the same breed and he’s male, but he weighs 42lbs right now.
 

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#13 ·
Please do not stress about this weight thing. Bonnie is a puppy and every puppy is different. Our Rocky weighed 28 pounds at 15 weeks and 45 at 5 months. He is two years old now and 75 pounds. His is at his ideal weight. Bonnie looks perfectly fine in the picture. Also, do not stress about how much you feed her--it is important she gets sufficient nutrition to support her growth.
 
#15 ·
Hi There,
What a coincidence to come across this thread today. This morning, my husband told me he thought our 7 month old male...Bruno...is getting too chunky. At the vet last week, he weighed in at 69.9lbs...He is a very solid boy, I can feel his lower ribs, but around the barrel of his chest, he feels a bit fleshy! We feed him 2x/day ~ 3.5 to 4 cups/day. We take long walks, he chases his ball in the yard, etc...he gets a bit tired on the walks so we don't push him too hard....looking at his photos, do you think he looks chunko?
 

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#18 ·
Oh wow, he looks like what Tomo will be in another month! Tomo is also really solid and his chest is starting to get wide. I can feel his ribs and he has a bit of a tuck at his abs towards his hips. After cutting back his treats due to GI issues, though, I realized how much treats I had been giving him everyday! So I'm more strict about using his kibble for daily training, and only use treats if I'm asking him to do something more difficult (like to put on his harness or not to pull up the neighbor's nice lawn, lol).
 
#21 ·
I took a few pictures of my pup for reference- he is about the same age (18 weeks on Friday), but is a male. We are also feeding royal canine GR puppy. He has been 1C 3x per day since we brought him home at 8 weeks. The past two weeks i have started giving him a slightly overfilled cup at each meal, so he may be more like 3 1/4 per day now. No extra treats other than a little peanut butter during baths. I usually deduct training treats from his meals.

He weighs 30lbs and is pretty slim. He has fairly big bone structure (i think). We are trying to keep him on the slow growth plan, so i weight him on the same day every week. He has been gaining approximately 1.5lbs a week for the past month or so, which seems to be nice and even.

Hope that helps!
 

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