Big Paws Only Dog Forums
BPO Food Forum => Food Discussion & Information => : Gill April 17, 2007, 12:38:31 PM
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Monty, 6 month old St Bernard Puppy eats about 5 cups purina large breed puppy chow a day, plus cup of cottage cheese in the evening and 4-5 milk bones throughout the day. He weighs about 82 lbs. Is he about right? He is my first large breed puppy and I want to do right by him.
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here's a link to a saint bernard growth chart. it's older, but i'll try to find a newer one. according to this, at 6 months a male saint should weigh roughly 91-lbs. have you read up on dog food? it may be worth looking into, because purina isn't the best food, and also large breed puppies can get grow too fast on puppy food, causing bone and joint problems.
http://www.acay.com.au/~dissi/sbc/weight.htm
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wow! so he may be a bit under weight. I will have him weighed properly then tomorrow. It was about 2 weeks ago that we weighed him on the bathroom scales with my son holding him!!!!!!! So it probably was not too accurate but I am concerned now I will take him to the vet and check it for sure. Thanks.
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i wouldn't be concerned too much. all puppies grow differently and as long as he's solid and not having bones sticking out everywhere he's fine. just like kids and that growth thing they have now. both my boys are about 5% on the weight and 25% on the height, but are healthy as can be.
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plus he won't poop as much or as often!
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I have a 31lb 12 1/2 week Pitbull puppy. I see that you found a St Bernard growth chart. Do you know of one for an APBT(American Pitbull)? Thank you so much! :)
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If there is one, she can probably find it. ;) I did just read that most dog's adult weight is double what they weigh at 4 mos. Giants: double their 5 month weight. I wonder how often that holds true.
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i've noticed with all the APBT's we've owned they were done growing between 6-8 months as far as height, then they just filled out. i'm looking for a chart, but it's avoiding me ha ha. also checked my APBT book to only not find one :-\ i'll keep looking though.
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Great thanks for looking. I read the same site that said they double their 4 month weight. I'm hoping to find a more precise way though because that same site said that a 100 lb dog grows 2.5 lbs a week but she was 21 lbs at 10 weeks and now 31 lbs. at 12.5 weeks so that would be almost 5 lbs a week. i know she isn't going to be 200 lbs. He he. :D Let me know if you find anything i will look too. :)
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well, i contacted a few rescues, they all said the same thing. i won't find a chart b/c there is such a size variation within the breed. :-\ PB's do grow very quickly, though, BUT they stop growing at a fairly early age, where giant breeds (like danes, saints) grow for several years. with the way your baby is growing, i would seriously look into what you're feeding. some dog foods can cause puppies to grow entirely too fast, causing bone and joint problems, which are not only painful for them, but even more painful to have to watch your baby go though.
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Great thanks for looking. I read the same site that said they double their 4 month weight. I'm hoping to find a more precise way though because that same site said that a 100 lb dog grows 2.5 lbs a week but she was 21 lbs at 10 weeks and now 31 lbs. at 12.5 weeks so that would be almost 5 lbs a week. i know she isn't going to be 200 lbs. He he. :D Let me know if you find anything i will look too. :)
I'm sure it depends on when they gain it too, for example they may gain 2.5 lbs one week, more or less the next. I don't think it's set in stone, much like children. Giant breeds typically gain 10lbs a month, and that's what mine have done. Though out of curiosity, I weighed them both again yesterday, it was 2 days shy of a week since they were weighed. My male gained almost 5 lbs in that time and my female, maybe 1 lb. So, she is obviously spacing her monthly gain out, whereas he may gain a big chunk and then little bits for the next 3 weeks. Or maybe he's just gonna chunk up this month lol. I doubt it though. ;)
I'm sure your girl is gaining it quickly now but will slow down considerably.
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Oh yeah, like Steffanie said..food is a big one. I thought you mentioned what you were feeding but looking back, I guess not. It's definitely possible she is growing too fast because of what's she's eating. That's never good. :-\
Esp because it's a female, and she should generally be smaller. Is she large overall, or kinda chunky? I'd love to see pics of her!
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I feed her Eukanuba puppy for large breeds, and i go by the bag on how much. She may be right and you i used a different scale i go to the vets in a week and a half so I will see then. I think her mom was 70 or 80 so she will probably be around there. I understand with the chart since UKC standards are 40-50lbs and same for Amstaffs but she will be bigger. Thanks though for all your help! :)
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eukanuba has a super duper high fat %. it has 34.49% :o where as the stuff we feed has a 14%. that could likely be why she's gaining weight so fast. also has a ton of fillers that put a lot of weight on (40% carbs). thought the protein and calorie count isn't too bad. this is a great article here on BPO that tells you how to understand the ingredients, etc, in your dog food.
http://www.bigpawsonly.com/index.php/topic,9742.0.html
also, if some day you want to change your food, here's the "whole dog journal" best dog food / quality list, also here on BPO.
http://www.bigpawsonly.com/index.php/topic,7435.0.html
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My online at home is messed up but I will have it back in a week or so and I will post pics! And no she looks just fine. I would say she is a little over a foot at the shoulders and she is lean and has a nice muscular tone. She looks in good health and incase you didn't see the last post she eats Eukanuba puppy for large breeds and I go by the chart. :)
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Yeah I read that most commonly they weigh between 35-55 lbs, and the original ABPT's were only 20-40 lbs. This says most that are larger than the average were bred with something else. Hmmm.. Wikipedia says females should be 35-60. Interesting
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Really it does because from what the pet shop owner said it didn't have alot of fillers and was really great! :o What do you feed your dogs? And where can I find that article? Have you heard of Innova? Please help. I want to do the best for my baby. :-[
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ours (caine) weighs 75 lbs, but that's only because he thinks he's arnald schwarzenegger (we don't do weight pulling or conditioning of any sort either). a lot of the P.B.'s i see nowadays are pretty muscular, i actually read that overly conditioning them is causing medical problems.
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Really it does because from what the pet shop owner said it didn't have alot of fillers and was really great! :o What do you feed your dogs? And where can I find that article? Have you heard of Innova? Please help. I want to do the best for my baby. :-[
pet shop owners don't know a lot about food ha ha. neither do most vets, as they spend very little time studying nutrition and more time studying medicine. usually you have to do your own studies to figure it out, unfortunately. we feed innova, it's great. it has very few fillers, and good protein sources, etc. makes them have great skin / coat and they're not fat, but very solid dogs. to see the article, all you have to do is click the links, or copy and paste them. if you mean the one about too much muscles, tell me and i'll look the link up for you.
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I have tried to post 2 things and its not working.
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you can e-mail me if you're having problems with the site, and i can e-mail you the links. schelmischekit ty at hotmail dot com. sometimes the site gets overloaded and causes problems because of high demand :-\ ::)
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I can't seem to get my posts to actually post, sorry.
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I guess he's only like 10 lbs over what that says for males, not bad.
And most people that work at the pet stores don't seem to know crap. I'm certain there are some that do, but I know alot of them aren't educated in the area of nutrition. I know a ton of people on here feed Innova and love it. Mine eat Canidae and are doing excellent on that too. The fat in that is low too, as well as containing none of the nasty stuff you don't want.
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I can't seem to get my posts to actually post, sorry.
if you're having problems, i always hit preview instead of post ha ha, that or i hit tab and enter and it goes to preview
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Sorry guys i tried to write back a couple times but it wouldn't post. I wanted to know what you feed your dogs Stephanie. I was told that this was a great food and the pet store owners feed there dogs. I want to do the best for my dog and I don't want to pay top dollar for a food that isn't doing her the best! Of course when i weighed her it was at home so maybe i was a little off. I take her to the vet in a week so I will see then how her weight gain is. But she is not overweight looking. She is about a foot tall at the shoulders and lean looking.
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glad to see you back! we feed innova here at the house
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Hey wow that didn't post till after I signed off. weird!! Anyways since I talked to you I decided to switch as well to Innova. She loves it and we went to the vet yesterday and she was 31 lbs so I must have been off a little. So she gained right about 2.5 lbs per week. So I am not worried I think she will be around 80 or 90 lbs. Thanks so much for your help though. ;D
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About her being to muscular. she wont she will be big anyways. she isn't show quality because of her size but thats how i like them. Big and tall I really don't like all the overly muscled dogs. Her mom was probably 70-80 lbs but she wasn't really muscular.
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Yeah I read that most commonly they weigh between 35-55 lbs, and the original ABPT's were only 20-40 lbs. This says most that are larger than the average were bred with something else. Hmmm.. Wikipedia says females should be 35-60. Interesting
I know show quality dogs are smaller but its like the chow where you got the wrinkly small show quality chows and then you have then you have one like my moms who is a little taller and a smoother prettier face. Its selective breeding. generally when people who aren't gonna show pits they are betweent 50 to 70 for females. I was amazed actually the first time I saw a show quality pitbull at how small he was, because I had always known them to be bigger. ??? That of course was before i began study the breed. :)
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LMAO i was the same way. i was like "........ you said he's 3?" ha ha personally, i like the larger variations on breeds.
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Staph I was wondering do any of your dogs get sick of their food? Justice seems to get sick of anything I give her. She loved the innova at first and now she seems not to care. It was the same way with the eukanuba. Do you have any suggestions?
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staph... not sure i like that name lol sounds too much towards "staph infection". anywho, yes. we switch "toppings" off every week. canned food, tuna, a little canola oil, etc. we also add a little peanut butter sometimes, BUT this is because our dane (long story short, we rescued him and he has lots of issues) freaks out and has a hard time holding his weight. it's no different than if you were fed a PB+J sand. every single meal, you'd get sick of them fast!
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staph... not sure i like that name lol sounds too much towards "staph infection". anywho, yes. we switch "toppings" off every week. canned food, tuna, a little canola oil, etc. we also add a little peanut butter sometimes, BUT this is because our dane (long story short, we rescued him and he has lots of issues) freaks out and has a hard time holding his weight. it's no different than if you were fed a PB+J sand. every single meal, you'd get sick of them fast!
I'm Soo sorry!! I meant Steph, but I looked back and I think it's Steff, right? So that makes alot of since.. I've heard that feeding dogs a raw egg once in a while is good for their skin and coat. Do you know if it's true?
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lmao np. true, BUT, i've found it really upsets tummys easily. you can add omega 3 to their food (salmon oil is the BEST, but canola oil or "fish oil" also helps it). you can buy it at drug stores and maybe wal mart, for fairly cheap. i got a 240 (i think) count for $10.
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lmao np. true, BUT, i've found it really upsets tummys easily. you can add omega 3 to their food (salmon oil is the BEST, but canola oil or "fish oil" also helps it). you can buy it at drug stores and maybe wal mart, for fairly cheap. i got a 240 (i think) count for $10.
Thanks so much for your help! :D