Checking Claymore's Weight

[Guest FloridaGirl]

Claymore is happy, healthy, and on two even cups of grain free duck kibble a day (1 cup am and 1 cup pm). The rescue sent me home with directions to feed him SIX cups a day, and I soon trimmed that down and he's eating and happy and energetic. However, I know that we want to keep them as trim as possible for the sake of their pointy frames. His racing weight is stated at 71 lbs, and when I got him he was 79 (probably the 6 cups a day???). We go on regular brisk walks and like I mentioned he's now on 2 cups daily, and he looks fabulous and pointy as ever... but I can't seem to get him down below 76-77lbs. No matter how much activity we do he's always around that weight. I read somewhere that about 5 or so lbs over racing weight is ok as pet weight, but I'd like to get your opinions - here's a pic I just snapped. To me he looks trim, you can see his little backbone bumps, and you can see his side muscles (his muscles stick out more than his ribs). Do you think he's lookin' good? (Sorry for the bad quality-cell phone and post-walk panting)

 

[Robin1017]

He looks great to me. Robin raced at 74 and was 78 for the first 8 or so years with very little variation or effort on my part....until he turned 10 or so and things started shifting. It seems like you may have found the weight his body wants to be.

[Guest Celestrina]

Six cups? That's nuts!

[Hubcitypam]

You can't really go strictly by racing weight as some kennels run dogs VERY lean and some run them a bit heavier. Plus, five pounds on a 55 pound girl is way different than 5 pounds on a 78 pound boy.

 

Mine have sort of leveled themselves out - usually around 5% over their race weight, but then again that depends on how lean or heavy they raced.

Six cups a gay is insane. Even my Harley who raced at 84 and levelled out at 92 only got 4 1/2 cups - this was before grain free designer food. I'm sure some are going to tell you he needs to lose some, but if you're happy and he's happy I wouldn't lose sleep over a couple of pounds.

[Guest FloridaGirl]

Six cups? That's nuts!

 

I know! He was at the point where he was refusing to eat it all. I kept trying to clarify with the adoption folks, like "Do you mean 3 cups a day, not 3 in the morning and 3 at night?" and they were just like "No, 6 cups a day." I was like HORSES EAT LESS. So I eventually started to lessen it to see what all he'd eat, and he's eating his 2 cups a day very happily and still pooping normally.

 

Thanks for the comments, all. He is a very happy, healthy, energetic lad.

[Guest CatsandGreys]

I honestly don't go off of weight alone with sighthounds. I have no idea what Aiden weighs right now and I dont really care. I look more at his physical condition. Weight includes more than just fat. A more active dog might weigh more because they have more muscle. He looks pretty good to me from this angle. And Aiden's kennel wieght was 69 lbs and I'm sure he weighs more now because he was never conditioned to race properly and was 18 months when I got him. He never raced. He has better muscle tone now!

 

You could always post more pics!

 

Just to be sure

 

A great example of muscle is Schnit

 

http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?d=schnit&sex=&color=&birthyear=&birthland=

 

This dog is 90lbs. His pet weight is less because of his insane muscle tone!

[OwnedBySummer]

Here's a link you may find useful.

http://greyhoundcrossroads.com/index.php?page=weight

[XTRAWLD]

Race weight is also muscle weight, which changes when they retire obviously. From my experience a few pounds over race weight is fair, and really the truest judge is being able to see the last rib (technically the last two). I can't see those in your photo (photo quality and being a black dog, not blaming any chub!) However, according to that photo, Claymore looks like he's at a really comfortable weight.

[Guest Johberry]

I used to worry about our boy's weight, too. His racing weight was listed as 71 lbs but he came to us very lean at 66/67 lbs and was difficult to put weight on. Now that he's put on a few pounds and is maintaining well on a raw diet, I don't fret as much. I don't go by ribs as some dogs are more barrel-chested than others meaning they will always show ribs even if overweight. I go by looks as in hip bone and spine visibility as well as tuck and don't weigh our boy anymore. From your photo, Claymore looks good.

[turbotaina]

It's funny - my first greyhound raced at 71, but looked best at about 78lbs. He was raced very thin. He was also barely 2, so he filled out some as he matured. He would occasionally pork up to 80-81 (when he would steal bagels), but we'd bring him back down so that his hip points were again visible (and that's what I mostly go by - Turbo was very ribby and even at his high weight, all his ribs were visible, but his hips were not). My two current guys are below their racing weight. Heyokha raced at 76 but he's now at 73 (he's recently recovered from a life-threatening surgery, but he only needs another pound or two - he doesn't look overly thin); Crow raced as high as 78, but he weighs between 69 and 71 now (depending on the scale) and looks perfectly healthy.

[Remolacha]

As the others have said, go by how he looks, don't stress over scale weight. He looks fine, if he is acting happy and healthy, don't worry Some of my dogs have gained easily, and I had to really watch their food, others seemingly could eat anything and not gain, just like people!

[Guest AngelPup]

He looks great to me (happy & healthy). I'd worry less about the amount of food and how much he weighs and focus on how he looks, feels, and is behaving. Every dog is different--some smaller ones require more food and some large dogs don't require that much.

 

You should see the last two to three ribs and feel all of them. Looks and sounds like he's getting enough.