Anka's Weight

[joella]

A little while back, I had posted about the amount to feed Anka. A few people, looking at the picture I posted, said she looked a little on the thin side. At that time, she was 6 months old, and about 50 pounds. Weighed her today (hubby stepped on the scale by himself, and then stepped on holding Anka) and she's at about 60 pounds. She's now almost 7 months old. Is this a normal/healthy growth rate? People who come over have been commenting that she's getting bigger. I'll try to get a good picture of her "waistline" and post it here.

[erdog3]

It is hard as she is only a puppy still, so I am going on what my puppies weights are now. I know Tess one of Wally's and Sophies weighs in at 29kg at the moment and she is 8 months old.
Converted 29kg = 66lb aprx.

[joella]

Some pictures I just took 10 minutes ago, hopefully these are good angles to judge her frame/weight:

[joella]

For comparison, here is the picture I originally posted. This was taken 3 weeks ago:

[erdog3]

Looking a bit better, I would still go another couple of pounds though. You just want to be able to see the last rib, and feel the last couple. If you can still visibly see more than one or two ribs she is till a tad underweight.
Keep up the good work. I know it is so hard to keep a lab at prime weight, the breed has altered over the years for the standard.
Just go by the rib test, for Anka's otimum size.

[joella]

I should mention that her back end has shot up a couple of inches too, so I'm sure some of the increase in weight is due to the increase in height. Right?

[erdog3]

Joella, feed her what she will eat. At lib more or less at the moment. It is almost impossible to overfeed a growing Lab. Regardless of what everyone else may say. I have been breeding them for 7 years. I made one mistake with Sophie, when she was about 2 years old and she became overweight, but I got her back to norm. she has never been over again and neither have any of my others.
While they are growing...feed, feed, feed, or you will alter her actual growth rate if you don't give enough.
They are a very big boned dog. Their chest frame enormous. Their back legs a intensely muscled, to enable swimming. Their tail, commonly called an otter tail very strong and hard boned.
Anka needs the nurishment and nutrition NOW if she is going to make optimum size.
It is easy to cut back if feeding to much, but not so easy to add on later if she is undersize, if you understand what I am saying.
So till she gets to the age of 14 months she will just keep growing, up, out, everywhere.
If her back end is up then her front end will grow to that size too. Lots of growing to do yet. You can't overfeed her at the moment.
On an average I would give mine at least 5 cups of biscuits a day.
A puppy I have normally given up to 7 cups a day. Just to keep up with their growing.

[erdog3]

In a nutshell, sorry, cause I am probably rambling, What I have done with mine is to feed them what they want to a certain age, normally around 14 months.
If they look a little on the plump side, it won't hurt, cause they will have another growing spurt and the plump will dissappear till the next spurt.
They have plenty of body weight to keep up with the growing.
When they have finished growing, then even out the food to keep them in optimum weight range.

[joella]

Thanks Ellierat. I do feed her as much as she'll eat, and also lots of treats, so I guess I'm doing all that I can to keep her weight up! I've been mixing more wet food with her dry at each meal, and increased the amount of dry food at each meal. She usually eats about 1/2 to 2/3 of it, and then finishes the rest later. Usually, she finishes it about an hour or two before I give her night time meal. She usually eats 1/2 to 2/3 of THAT meal, and then finishes it during the night while we're sleeping.

[erdog3]

Yep, she looks better, post another pic in a couple of weeks time, I will soon let you know if she is heading the other way, but I doubt it.
Mine are on adult food, no snacks in the daytime, they get: Sophie and Ellie..4 cups dry food. Wally...5 cups dry food.
Sometimes they will get some table leftovers and gravy, but not everynight.
They also go through about 4 x 700g tins of food a week. I will open 1 tin and share it between the 3, every other night or so.
Keep up the good work Joella, you are getting there with her, she is a lovely looking princess.