rotty question help please

oneBIGrotty · New member Joined: 18 Apr 2004 Posts: 3

i now have a beautiful 10wk old female rotty. last week she weighed 13lbs just a week later she is at 18lbs. huge paws. is this normal weight for her at this age? how big do u think she will weigh at her highest weight? thank u, franko. e mail here or back at
frankzwife@hotmail.com

catrastrophe · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 76

We have a rottie german shepherd cross, that weighed 11 lbs at 8 wks, and weighed 22 lbs at 11 wks. He is a male, and not full blooded, but I would think that is normal for a rottie. He weighs 73 lbs now at 7.5 months. She will be a big girl! Has your vet talked to you about using special large breed puppy food to help prevent hip problems?

elizavixen · Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 683 Location: SC

I think some of her future weight depends on that of her parents. How big were they? As far as normal weight, I would just go by how she looks. If she looks fat, that is bad. Puppies, esp large breed puppies, should be kept on the thin side (not anorexic, but normal-thin).

I can't tell you if your exact weights were normal for rottys. i have st. bernards so they are much bigger. to give you an idea, at 6 wks, my puppy was 13 lbs. he then seemed to grow about 10 lbs a month. at 6 mos now, he is 70+ lbs. I think that if she is bigger than this, that is a concern.

lanena322 · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 5:56 am Post subject:

ive heard that if you wait until she is 4 months old, then double that weight, add maybe a few pounds depending on how she looks you should get a good estimate of her adult weight.

I know Laika weighed in at 21 pounds at 8 weeks and 4 days (golden retriever) After reading these posts, I am seriously thinking about switching her over to adult food soon in order to prevent hip problems. I would switch to large breed but i also have a small dog and they like to switch bowls, so large breed is out of the question.

I guess for people the phrase is 'the grass is greener on the other side' and for dogs its 'the food is better in the other bowl' lol

elizavixen · Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 683 Location: SC

lanena322 · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 2:50 pm Post subject:

it is possible, itd just be lots of work. They were fed seperately at first, in order to avoid the fights and what not. But Nana is a very picky eater, and while Laika devours her food in about 5 minutes, Nana will still have most of her food. I was told that Large Breed puppies do good on adult food? And Nana is almost at an age where she should be eating adult food, shes almost 5 months old.

Also, i think it would be too much stress on my pay check buying 2 different types of food. Puppy Chow isnt expensive at all, but i have been told it is crappy, so we are switching brands. Yay me!

oneBIGrotty · New member Joined: 18 Apr 2004 Posts: 3

mother is 95pd pops is 115. the reason we have her on puppy food is, that is what the breeder was feeding her so we kept her on the same food. after reading some info on this and other sites. i Have deceided to change her to adult food. now i just need to find a good food that is fairly priced???? We have about 25pd bag of science diet (adult) that a friend gave to us. what do u think about this food? Also i am interested in starting my dog on olive oil for a good coat. what is a good age to start her on?? how much olive oil oppose to the food??? all feed back welcome??? thank you in advance?!?!?!

4Dogsihave · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 3:47 am Post subject:

I feed my dogs Innova, I am very pleased with this food. I understant and know what all the ingrediants are and that is important to me. It is reasonable priced compared to human grade kibble. Now compare it to whats in the grocery store and it looks steep but it has worked wonders for my doggies. Their coats are gorgous and they are much happier in my opinion. Meal time is not a fight anymore to get them to eat. I cant remember the site for the food but if you search for Innova on the net it will take you to it and has all the ingrediants and a store locater on the site.

catrastrophe · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 76

Our dogs are on Nutri-tabs(walmart brand) for their coats, and boy does it help! Keeps them so shiny and thick! We feed purina large breed puppy chow to our rottie mix, and just purina to the others. Science diet is good, but so expensive. I switched months ago, and havent seen a difference in our dogs.

elizavixen · Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 683 Location: SC

10 wks is too young to switch to adult food. I switched mine around 4-5 months and it was worked out fine.

Neither science diet or purina are good foods so don't feed those. I feed my guy california natural. I have my other dog now on nutro which isn't the best but it's the only stuff she'll eat now. don't feed iams either. innova, natural balance, calif natural, etc. are good foods.

Jamiya · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 5593

Please look into fish oil instead of olive oil for the dog's coat. Timberwolf Organics has a good wild salmon oil.

Jamiya

RottyMommy · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:33 pm Post subject:

Do not change your dog to adult food. Not for rottweilers. It si a good idea for some breeds but rottweilers are not one of them. Your best bet is to put her on a large breed puppy food. Nutro makes a great large breed puppy food. The problem with rottweilers and growing and the reason you need them on large breed puppy food is a few reasons. Number one they need the vitamins from large breed food because they get so big and you want their bones to be able to support their weight and also get some muscle to help along with that. Also if rottweilers are not fed large breed food as puppies. In some cases their brain can actually grow faster than their skull causing a disease that can change their behavior and in som cases causing aggression. I once thought this was an old wives tale till I actually found out the disease does exist and one of the rottweilers I rescued has repurcussions with behavior issues because of it. As far as how big your female will get. It usually does go by the parents. If the mother was 95 and the male was 115 those are excellent weights for a male and female rottweiler and your rotty should be about average which is 90-100 pounds for a female rottweiler. That is if she stays in good shape and doesnt get pudgy. I have two females my one is 95 pounds and is the standard of a rottweiler. Beautiful disposition, looks, and features. But she was a rescue so no shows for her. My other rescued female rottweiler weighed 130 pounds when i got her. She is now down to around 110 and still has about 5-7 pounds to lose to be at her ideal weight. So unless you have bad bloodlines or parents that were bred for size which yours obviously were not, than your female should fall in the 90-105 pound area. Good luck and congrats with your rotty.