Puppy Owners! When Did Your Pups Fill Out?

[krissy]

Just curious to hear from those of you with older puppies (Truman, Joey, and Lilly's moms!) when your pups started to fill out?

 

I've honestly never been concerned about Kili's weight/condition. She's thin. I totally can agree with that, however I sort of felt like this is normal for a greyhound of her age. She just turned 11 months a couple of days ago and I think she's pulling up in height a little right now. She does tend to cycle through periods of looking better conditioned and looking quite thin. But she eats well, has been having good poops recently (after all our diarrhea issues), she has the softest, shiniest coat ever, and she is ACTIVE! I mean, she's the energizer bunny. If I'm off we're hiking (which means she's running for almost 2 hours straight) and she's probably playing with another dog for over an hour in the same day. She has sport/agility classes twice a week and I usually train her at least once a day. She also most days gets at least an hour of leash walking in. I also free jog with her a couple times a week (I've been slacking the last 2 weeks with the heat wave though).

 

Her growth has really slowed down now but she is still gaining weight. I weigh her at work every couple of weeks and she's always up.

 

Right now we're in the middle of changing food from TOTW Pacific Stream Puppy to Purina Veterinary Joint Mobility which is what I'm hoping will be her adult food (I will be feeding it at the recommended intake for puppies until she's about 15-18 months though). On the TOTW she's supposed to get 2.75-3.5 cups (so I split the difference and usually feed about 3 cups). On the Purina she's supposed to get 3.5 cups. So right now with the switch over I'm feeding about 3.5 cups of a blend. The Purina is a higher protein content than most foods so I'm hoping that'll be good for keeping up with her activity. I'd also been looking into some of the performance dog foods, but most of them are also really high fat which worries me. My breeder warned me about feeding her a food too high in protein/fat as a puppy because they can push growth too fast (which I totally agree with having seen problems with Danes and other long legged puppies that are fed a small breed puppy food), but I'm wondering if maybe now that she's not growing so fast it'll be ok.

 

I guess I wasn't really worried until a bunch of GREYHOUND people (mostly show folks) were commenting that she's too skinny. I think you just went through that though Tiffany... so maybe you can reassure me since Joey is gorgeous. I don't think it helps that her coat is white... I think it exaggerates ribbiness in pictures.

 

Anyway, when did your pups fill out, what did you feed, were they super skinny as pups? As an aside, Kili is still intact so early spay lankiness is not an issue.

[Guest widowcali]

My only "puppy" is Brighid the Wonder Puppy. She is an Irish Wolfhound Mix I adopted when she was 7 weeks old. I can tell you that by the time she was about 2, she had reached her maximum height/length. But she was still such a gawky, stick thin, figure that I worried I wasn't feeding her enough. She is 4 now, and has filled out quite nicely.

[a_daerr]

Never! Truman will be 2 at the end of August, and he still looks anorexic. I get comments all the time (from greyhound people and non greyhound people alike) that he's too skinny. I've recently come to find out the Trumans breeder, Whimsey Greyhounds, purposely breeds for tall, lanky dogs whose ribs aren't sprung. And to be honest, that's the thing that really makes him look skinny/different compared to other greyhounds. He's flat as a pancake on both sides.

I want to say he looked his worst around one year. I remember that because we were looking into getting him neutered, and the vet from the adoption group said he was severely underweight (even though he was eating six cups of kibble a day with tons of mix ins). He went through one more growth spurt, then at about 18 months or so, he leveled out.

At this point, I'm not concerned. I know he's healthy, eats well, tolerates his food, and is parasite free. I'd actually rather him be on the skinny side since he's so active. It is highly annoying getting those 'too skinny' comments, though. We'll be at Grapehounds next weekend, so I'm expecting to field at least a few.

 

ETA: This is what Truman reminds me off. Flats from Spongebob.

 

Edited July 20, 2013 by a_daerr

[Guest greybookends]

Ginny is 7 and she has never completely filled out. Early spay (Ginny was spayed at 6 months) does effect the growth of the long bones. She will always be somewhat gangly.

[GreytHoundPoet]

It varies by body type, genetics, etc. Some dogs, and lines, mature faster than others. It can be hard to put a precise age on it.

 

I raised a Greyhound puppy. She was a walking rib age until she was about 16 months old. She was intact until almost 19 months old. She's a lure coursing dog so I keep her in coursing/racing condition so she's "skinnier" than most people keep their pets and show-only dogs, but she is very fit and active. She's small, about 26.5" and 52lbs. She developed nicely and filled out around 2.

 

My Ibizan pup is from slow-maturing lines. I have his half-brother here and he is a 4-year-old, very elegant male. Finn should develop similarly. Nova fully matured and filled out right around turning 4, although his growth plates and everything were done growing by 2. Finn is a year old now, eats 7-8 cups of food a day, and is following in the same paw steps thus far. However, a friend of mine's recent Ibizan litter matured more quickly and, at only a few weeks older than Finn, they all look a lot more mature and put-together.

[krissy]

Well her full littermate sister out in Alberta is 70lbs to Kili's 50lbs. Now, having said that, even if Kili was at what I would consider to be her ideal weight there is no WAY she could be 70 lbs... in fact she might not even make 60 lbs. We're going to measure the sisters tonight and see what the height difference is. She's active as all heck and I'm not super worried but I'm going to bump up her food and see if that helps any.

[Guest greybookends]

Has she been spayed? If she was spayed at a young age she will always be lanky.

[krissy]

She is intact. She will not be spayed until 18 months.

[Guest WhiteWave]

Joey is looking a little better, but he is still ribby, but he is starting to fill out now. He just turned 1 on July 15. He is tall though and long, but he is heavier than he looks, around 80lbs, but he is 30" at the shoulder.

 

Some pics from the last couple days:

 

This shows he is still ribby- it just doesn't always show in the photograph, but he was stretched out here.

 

 

Still skinny

 

[Guest greybookends]

She is intact. She will not be spayed until 18 months.

Then I can't help you. Sorry.

[greysmom]

Lilly turns 2 in September and I'm still waiting! She is the tallest, gangliest greyhound! She's all legs and about 36 inches where her collar meets her back. And she's still slab sided - very flat and unsprung. I commented in another thread that her chest is so skinny I can see her heart beating on both sides of her! She weighs only about 73 pounds (as of a month ago), but given her stature and family history (as I've been told), I would expect her to end up at around 80 lbs of mature weight. Our vet isn't concerned and says Lilly will fill out eventually.

[cleptogrey]

9 months(note the higher rear)

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2635691/sn/1060178256/name/n_a

 

 

3 yrs 10 months

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2635691/sn/1261979861/name/DSCN0037.jpg

 

i would say there was a marked difference in felix's filling out in the middle of his 2nd year. but i really think he started to look like an adult in his 3rd year.he stayed on 4 cups of kibble until receintly- now it's 3.5 at age 6.

 

for some reason i couldn't link the photo to the reply, but those are the links.

Edited July 21, 2013 by cleptogrey

[galgomum]

Lehto is 2 years and 3 months old now and is still gangly and skinny.
Thanks to his adventure with the green tomatoes he will likely never look really filled out. With 3 meals a day you can still see most of his ribs.
But he's looking a lot better now then he did for a long time.

And then there is Romeo, who at just over a year old already looks totally different and more filled out.