I posted about Nala before but i was curious about something. She is about 4 and half months old . however, this is my first german shepherd puppy and i was wondering is she just smaller or something else? Its hard to really compare because growing up we had Great Danes and they grew so fast lol. I was wondering if anybody had any input? these pictures were took about a week ago
both of my dogs went through some skinny stages as they grew. Can you see all her ribs? Do her hip bones stick out? If so she can probably gain some weight. If can see a waist and her ribs feel like the back of your knuckles then your pat her, she is probably fine.
Both of my dogs grew like weeds the first six months. My boy was about 60 lbs at six months and then growth slowed down to a couple of pounds a month. He is now three and 88 lbs. My gal is now 16 months old and a total of 55 lbs. Not only is there a difference between male and female but my boy was one of a litter of 4. My gal was the smallest of a litter of 11.
So weight tells less than body type. And as my vet said, "so long as they are not loosing a lot of weight, fluctuation is normal".
a couple things to keep in mind. First, a female GSD can weigh as little as 50 lbs full grown. Second, growing slow is good.
GSD pups will grow so fast yet you won't notice because you see them every day. My husband still swears that he can't tell that Hemi has grown!
With puppies, you can't even go too much on body condition other than making sure they don't look too emaciated. Most of their growth energy goes into bone and muscle at this age. Meaning just when they start to look a healthy condition they hit another growth spurt and look like little better than walking skeletons again.
At 6 months, Hemi weighs 42 lbs. Here are a couple photos to help compare how much he's growing. First pictures on Nov 19. Last was Jan 8.
As mentioned as long as she is not losing weight I wouldn't worry too much. By looking at the pictures she looks to be doing fine. My last female was only 60 pounds and my female prior to her was 70'ish so it all depends...
She may be short, she may be small, she may also be mixed...right!? Therefore it isn't really practical to compare her to the growth rates of purebreds. If she's part kelpie for instance, then she'd likely be right on track after all
If it is any console, my previous pup was around 23lb at 16 weeks even though her mom was 60lb and dad was 100lb. She always left lots of leftover food though.
My vet told me that when he estimates weight of adult dogs he takes the 4 month weight and doubles it. Everyone I have talked to says he was right within 5 lbs.
the owner before only had her shots done at 4 weeks nothing after(which i found out the other day). I took her to the vet today and she had hookworms. Idk if this has much of an effect on her size or not but I'm glad we got it taken care of. She also received her other shots.
I would think that since hook worms can lead to poor appetite, diarrhea, and the worms cause internal bleeding where they bite in the small intestines. That an over all malnourished / anemic state could be present. Or the dog wasn't able to get the nutrients and whatnot needed for proper growth.
that would be my train of thought also. id imagine this would be reversed now that she's being treated. Kind of upsets me because there's probably no telling how long she's been sick.
Yeah, all a person can do now is to feed her quality food and see how it goes.
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