Too small?

CrazyStella · #1 1st November 2011, 01:12 PM

Hello all...
Thank you all for a wealth of information! My now 9 month old female boxer Stella has always been on the small and skinny side. Until very recently you could see all of her ribs, now you still can see most but not as dramatically as before. I am feeding her TOTW, she is eating about 4 cups a day. However, she just seems SO small to me! I weighed her today, she is 43.6 lbs at 9 months. She is 30" nose to rump. The woman I got her from and the vet both think she is full boxer, however I am concerned because she is so small... she looks much too small to be 9 months. We met a 5 month old boxer at the dog park today who was the same size as her! I know some dogs are more petite than others, do you think this is the case here? Or is there something I'm not doing? How much longer will she continue to grow? Thanks!

ruca girl · #2 1st November 2011, 02:32 PM

My Ruca is the same age and same weight. I just took her in to the vet for a check up and he said everything looks great and that she seems perfectly healthy, but just made a comment that my girl is going to be a petite one.

Ruca's dad weighs 95 pounds...he is a BIG boy. When I first brought Ruca home she was really small but had very big feet. Everybody kept warning me about what a big dog I was going to have. Even the vet commented on how big her paws were. Turns out the size of her paws were deceiving as here we are 7 months later and she seems like a midget compared to other boxer puppies at the park. I like that she ended up being petite. I'm only 5'-2" myself, so we match : )

CrazyCharlie · #3 1st November 2011, 02:51 PM

hehe. Well I wouldn't be concerned, all dogs grow at different rates and some stay smaller than others. I would say 43/44 lbs isn't bad at all. Charlie didn't stop growing until he was about a year and a half then he started growing out and he just stopped at about 2 1/2 he is 3 now. lol.

If you are concerned she isn't full boxer you can always get a DNA test done. And remember females are typically smaller than males.

CrazyStella · #4 2nd November 2011, 07:27 PM

Thank you both! I feel much better now. I read somewhere a while back that dogs are 90% of adult weight at 9 months so I was worried she wasn't really going to grow anymore. Thanks again!

mavvy · #5 9th November 2011, 01:35 AM

My female is 9 years old and her ideal weight is around 45 lbs. (she's a little overweight right now due to a thyroid problem but we're working on that). I am constantly being asked what she is mixed with by people when we are out for walks. She is all boxer, just small.

Sansal · #6 9th November 2011, 06:00 AM

My girl is a little over two years and maybe 50 pounds. Just recently she filled out a bit more. It's possible that your girl will be on the small side but she definitely still has some growing and filling out to do.

Caney Creek · #7 9th November 2011, 07:16 AM

I'd say that she's simply going to be a small boxer, nothing wrong with that.

Also wanted to comment on the amount of food you're feeding. TOTW is a pretty rich food and 4 cups of TOTW is a TON of food for a dog her size. When Caney was eating TOTW she only got 3 cups per day (maybe even slightly less than that) and she weighs 63 lbs. I understand that you were concerned about her being underweight but when they're doing so much growing it's very hard to keep weight on them no matter how much you feed, even if you overfeed it often doesn't make much difference in a growing pup. Where it will make a difference is when she finally stops growing -- if you're still overfeeding her at that point she will very quickly become overweight.

Keep that in mind as she gets a little older!