My male purebred gsd is 8 weeks old today and 10 pounds. My breeder says the part of the litter he has left is 20 pounds, but my vet says he's normal. Are the growth charts online wrong, or is he really small? He had tapeworms and roundworms, and he just got dewormed on Tuesday. Thanks.
I got him right before the breeder was going to deworm. I treated him for fleas a week ago. What is with this chart I've been seeing everywhere then? I was going to put a link, but it won't let me; please look up german shepherd growth chart. Multiple sites have the same thing. With a 20 pound 8 week average.
In a world where purebred gsd are 45lbs up to 120lbs+, those charts are no better than saying an average 12yr old human should be 5’ regardless of gender or genetics.
Like lhczth said, ignore the grown charts, and keep him lean. It is best for them to grow slow. Mine was no where near the charts. Still isn't. She is raw fed from the day I got her.
I was stressed like you. They all grow at different rates. Breeder should have wormed all of them long before you got him.
That is so true. Dena was Keefer's half sister, about a year older. We got each of them at 9 weeks old. They were within a pound of each other at that age - 18/19 pounds, and I think Dena was actually the larger of the two. She weighed several pounds more at 6 months old than he did, but at adulthood she was around 72 pounds and he was 80 pounds in his prime. She grew faster at a young age than he did, but he made up for it in the long run.
Halo was much smaller than either of them at every stage of development and ended up in the 54/55 pound range as an adult. I don't remember the interim weights of Dena and Keefer since it was such a long time ago (Keefer is 13 now!) but I know Halo only gained 8 or 9 pounds between 6 months and 18 months, which is where she remained at adulthood.
Cava was the smallest of her litter by quite a bit and as of two weeks ago, her sister still weighed 14 pounds more than her and at 10 months old already outweighs their dam, who is 68 pounds. My guess is that Cava will be under 65 pounds at maturity, and maybe closer to 60. But who knows? She could be growing slowly now and have a growth spurt later.
Ignore the chart completely. Mine (male) was 13lb at 8 weeks (20lb at 8 weeks? That's almost abnormally huge but nothing wrong with that nonetheless) and only 40ish at 6 months when he was supposed to be according to the chart around 55 and up if I'm not mistaken. Now he's 16 months and 90lb and hasn't even filled out yet.
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