# healthy weight for standard poddle puppy



## StandardAdoration (Aug 8, 2012)

I am a little worried about the weight of my Thor. He doesn't seem to like to eat a lot, even with different types of food. I am a little worried he is underweight and I really want him to develop correctly. He was 13lbs at 13weeks, which just seems a little light to me.. you cant really tell from the pics, but if anyone has feedback on a healthy weight for his age it would be very helpful.


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## Sawyersmomma (May 28, 2012)

Aww what a sweetie! 
I'm not going to be helpful, I have no idea what's normal, but it can be a lot easier to see if they look healthy if you shave their coat. Not sure if you want to or not, but it helps see without all the fluff in the way


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

Show us a photo of her wet so we can see her shape!


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## StandardAdoration (Aug 8, 2012)

Yea the fluff makes it a little hard to tell, but i love the soft puppy fur and I am not really ready to let that lamb-like coat go yet. He doesn't look small it's more that I can feel his ribs and when he swims (which is very often) he always looks like a drowned rat lol because he is so thin, maybe this pic shows his shape a little better.
Ps. your white poodle is gorgeous! Can you recall the progression of weight gain around 3 months?


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## StandardAdoration (Aug 8, 2012)

I'll have to take a pic of him tomorrow after he follows me into the pool haha.. I have one of him swimming but not one of him wet since he looks so little.


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## jasperspoo (Feb 25, 2011)

I don't think that there is a true 'normal'. My boy is 25" and 47 lbs and the that he is a healthy weight. He is a super picky eater when he eats kibble, but even with good raw, he gains nothing. By boy is active like there is no tomorrow, and has some kind of weird metabolism, but whether he is eating kibble (won't touch it) or raw (eats like a pig) he gains nothing.

"normal' for you spoo- you'll determine it- I'd suggest offering raw meals and see if you spoo eats more and gains, if not- it's metbolism. Think about us humans... how many people do you know who can eat whatever and not gain an ounce?


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## Arcticfox (Dec 12, 2011)

My spoo puppy was around 15lbs when she was 14 weeks, and she was just slightly underweight. They are all different though, since adult standards can be anywhere upwards of 15" tall (though usually over 20"). Her "correct" weight will depend a lot on her current height, build and possibly projected adult weight. I just monitored my puppies ribs, and felt them often, and adjusted her food accordingly. I could only tell she was underweight because her ribs were really easy to feel, and once you get some padding on them the difference was obvious. 

Plus, as long as he is steadily gaining weight, and has plenty of puppy energy, I wouldn't worry too much. 

I wonder if there's anything you can do to build more food drive? Do you free feed or lay down meals?


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## TrinaBoo (Apr 3, 2012)

Abby was 10 lbs at 11 weeks or something like that. She was on the thin side too...it was just hard to get her to gain weight (She was always on the move!). Eventually, after switching her to raw and because of her age too, her body has started maturing and now she has a nice feel to her. It is most noticeable over her ribs and hips. Just give it some time. She is 17 weeks now and 20.5 lbs!!!


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## zyrcona (Jan 9, 2011)

It's normal for puppies to feel 'bony' while they're growing, and there are arguments that growing pups of larger breeds like standard poodles should be fed controlled rations as gaining weight too quickly is believed to contribute to joint problems like hip dysplasia. Poodles also naturally come with a bit of variety in how they are built, so not everyone's dog will weigh the same as yours. I wouldn't worry about it unless your vet comments that Thor is underweight.


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## StandardAdoration (Aug 8, 2012)

That was my problem, the vet said he was underweight because of his ribs, but he is gaining weight progressively. What do you mean by raw food? I feed him a combination of the purina puppy chow the breeders fed him and an all natural high protein food, he seems to like it better when I mix them. I feed him 3 times a day but sometimes it is hard to get him to eat, like I have to start with hand feeding or lay out a trail of food to his bowl to follow before he will go near his bowl to eat. I don't want him to gain too much too fast, I just worry about the boniness.. His father was 80 lbs full grown and more on the rugged muscular side while his mother was around 65lbs and a little more on the delicate thin looking side, so I figured he would be pretty big when he grows up due to his parents. I started adding a puppy calorie booster to his food for a little more, so we shall see how that works. I also started adding fish oil to his food since he swims in clorine so often (he loves the pool, I can't seem to keep him out when I am swimming lol). He seems to be eating a bit more with the additions to his food. The ribs is what I am worried about. Ps. I just realized I wrote poddle instead of poodle haha my bad guys.


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## Sawyersmomma (May 28, 2012)

StandardAdoration said:


> Ps. your white poodle is gorgeous! Can you recall the progression of weight gain around 3 months?


Thank you  But unfortunately no  I got him at 5 months so I have no idea of how his progression went. But, he's 27'' now and only 48 pounds. He's 15 months but this just explains how the weights vary so much. Most dogs his height should be at least 55 pounds


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## katbrat (May 8, 2011)

That is what Lexi weighed at thirteen weeks. The breader told us she thought she would be between 40-45 pounds full grown and she is eighteen months old and weighs 44 pounds. I will have to measure her when I get home to see how tall she is. Lexi, even with short hair doesn't look too thin.


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Here's a good site for reviewing dog foods. I've provided you a link to Purina Puppy Chow, but if you do some exploration at the site, you'll see some great information .

Purina Puppy Chow | Review and Rating

"Raw feeding" is feeding dogs the type of food for which they are biologically suited: raw meaty bones, organs, and fish as well. Most raw feeders give their dogs little or no vegetable or grain matter. 

There is a huge amount of information on the web for this style of feeding. Here are a few:
Raw Fed Dogs - Natural Prey Model Rawfeeding Diet
Skylar, Zack, and Abby on the WEB
Jane Anderson's Raw Learning Site
Raw Feeding

I have been feeling raw for, oh, fifteen years or so and am completely sold on this diet. My borzoi, a breed with an average life expectancy of 11 years, lived to 13, and that's with a congenital heart defect. My young spoo is the picture of health, and his wound from being attacked healed physically at a phenomenal rate (blew my vet away).

It's a "different" style of feeding, for sure, but worth investigating!

--Q


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## zyrcona (Jan 9, 2011)

StandardAdoration said:


> That was my problem, the vet said he was underweight because of his ribs, but he is gaining weight progressively. What do you mean by raw food? I feed him a combination of the purina puppy chow the breeders fed him and an all natural high protein food, he seems to like it better when I mix them. I feed him 3 times a day but sometimes it is hard to get him to eat, like I have to start with hand feeding or lay out a trail of food to his bowl to follow before he will go near his bowl to eat. I don't want him to gain too much too fast, I just worry about the boniness.. His father was 80 lbs full grown and more on the rugged muscular side while his mother was around 65lbs and a little more on the delicate thin looking side, so I figured he would be pretty big when he grows up due to his parents. I started adding a puppy calorie booster to his food for a little more, so we shall see how that works. I also started adding fish oil to his food since he swims in clorine so often (he loves the pool, I can't seem to keep him out when I am swimming lol). He seems to be eating a bit more with the additions to his food. The ribs is what I am worried about. Ps. I just realized I wrote poddle instead of poodle haha my bad guys.


Did the vet give you any suggestions on how to help him gain weight?

The puppy food someone else linked an analysis of does not look very nice IMHO. If he has been eating both for a while, you could perhaps switch him entirely on to the other food you are using, or start substituting a nicer wet food. Perhaps give him a fourth small meal, as a snack at bedtime.

It's lovely he can go swimming with you. Swimming sounds like a great exercise for a growing dog, as it's very gentle and won't put any stress on his joints. If he is swimming and being active a lot though, this may be why he isn't gaining weight at the rate expected, and you might want to insist he has rest time. Perhaps look to see what natural chews you can get in your area (things like hoofs and dried meats are suitable for puppies and provide some nutritional value) as chewing is a more calm activity.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

Please get your puppy off of Purina Puppy Chow. It is garbage food. I would buy a good quality kibble and supplement with rice and fatty cooked hamburger. This is what we are giving our puppy Journey. She is a big, solid girl who needs extra protein for growth. We also supplement with dried kelp.Your pup is on the light side. My pups generally weight 14 pounds at eight weeks.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

Your puppy is lucky that he has you because you cared enough to ask. Your puppy should love to eat. Find a food he loves to eat and his weight should go up. I am surprised a breeder would suggest Purina Puppy chow. 

Your puppy is trying to tell you he is not doing well on the food he is on. Purina Puppy Chow is a terrible food.  They might as well be selling you cardboard. It makes me mad that Purina does all this advertisitng and then produces this terrible food. The first two ingredients are CORN. The third ingredient is meat by products. By products are all the crap left over after all the meat is taken off (tendons, cartilage, etc), which means it isn't meat at all. The bulk of the food is corn, which dogs do not digest. What you get when feeding dogs this crap is a dog that has large poops (not enough food digested) who is usually hungry, but not well nourished. They will seem dull in comparison to a puppy fed a high quality food. 

Most high quality foods aren't sold in the grocery store, so plan to go to a pet shop and ask for help. You want to see meat or meat meal listed in one or more of the first three spots. Choose a food with NO corn in it (corn is a filler). Meat meal is a concentrated form of meat, not by products. Meat meal is actually better to find than whole meat because whole meat has a lot of water in it.

The better foods do cost more, but remember that you do not have to feed as much food because they are highly digestable and nutritious, so the per meal cost is not that much different. Your dogs poops will be smaller. Within a few weeks you should notice a coat change, brighter eyes and a general feeling that the puppy is doing better. Some dogs do better on a food not as high of protein as the grain free ones. My dogs do better on the grain free ones. 

Read the labels and look at the ingredients. 

Here is the ingredients of my puppies food. Notice there is no corn and no wheat and the first three ingredients are meat or meat meal and there are no by-products in the food. Some people like to avoid Chicken version feeling that lamb or fish is a better protein source. I like to vary my flavors every couple of bags. Plus at dinner he gets a couple tablespoons of canned mixed in to make it tastier. With kibble there has to be something holding it all together, so with grain free you will find potato or sweet potato. With quality food with grains you will find brown rice, oatmeal, flaxseed or something like that, but no wheat (many dogs don't do well on wheat- allergies). I think either grain or grainfree (ie: potato as the binder) can be good. :
Ingredients
•	Deboned Chicken, 
•	Chicken Meal, 
•	Turkey Meal, 
•	Potato Starch, 
•	Peas, 
•	Flaxseed (source of Omega 3 and 6 Fatty Acids), 
•	Natural Chicken Flavor, 
•	Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), 
•	Dried Egg,
•	Tomato Pomace (source of Lycopene), 
•	Potatoes, 
•	Fish Oil (source of DHA-Docosahexaenoic Acid),
•	Alfalfa Meal, 
•	Whole Carrots, 
•	Whole Sweet Potatoes, 
•	Blueberries, 
•	Cranberries, 
•	Barley Grass, 
•	Dried Parsley, 
•	Dried Kelp, 
•	Taurine, 
•	Yucca Schidigera Extract, 
•	L-Carnitine, 
•	L-Lysine, 
•	Turmeric, 
•	Oil of Rosemary, 
•	Beta Carotene, 
•	Vitamin A Supplement, 
•	Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), 
•	Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), 
•	Niacin (Vitamin B3), 
•	d-Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), 
•	Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), 
•	Biotin (Vitamin B7), 
•	Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), 
•	Vitamin B12 Supplement, 
•	Calcium Ascorbate (source of Vitamin C), 
•	Vitamin D3 Supplement, 
•	Vitamin E Supplement, 
•	Iron Amino Acid Chelate, 
•	Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, 
•	Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, 
•	Copper Amino Acid Chelate, 
•	Choline Chloride, 
• Sodium Selenite, 
•	Calcium Iodate, 
•	Salt, 
•	Caramel,
•	Potassium Chloride, 
•	Dried Yeast (source of Saccharomyces cerevisiae), 
•	Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, 
•	Dried Bacillus subtilis fermentation product, 
•	Dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product

There are many choices of good dog food.  Good luck!


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

PS My standard puppy is 14/15 pounds at 11 weeks old and I can just feel his ribs. He is tall and slim (not a stocky build). Arreau, 14 pounds at 8 weeks is a lot! You do a great job fattening those guys up before sending them away to their new homes.  

13 pounds at 13 weeks seems light unless he is a small guy. How tall is he?


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## StandardAdoration (Aug 8, 2012)

The main food I use to mix the purina with is " Van Patten's natural balance, limited ingredient diets" It is the venison and sweet potato blend. I'm looking at the ingredients now and don't see any corn added in (it was definitely not a grocery store buy and wasn't cheap). Its first ingredients are the venison and sweet potatoes followed by pea protein and canola oil. I'm not going to list all the ingredients, but I tried to pick out the best food they had. Its guaranteed analysis says: 
crude protein - 20% min
crude fat - 10% min
crude fiber - 4% maximum 
moisture - 10% maximum 
calcium - 1% min
Phosphorous - .8% min
omega 3 fatty acids - .5% min
omega 6 fatty acides - 2% min 
I also add fish oil to his food since he is in Chlorine so much.... 
Does this food sound healthy to you, if not I will be pretty peeved by the amount of money I spent on it so that he would grow healthier, Maybe I should just stop mixing it with the puppy chow he grew up with.. He just seemed to eat more with the puppy chow mixed in. Maybe I will just have to scrap it and try to find another brand or flavor.. depending on whether this brand is as healthy as I thought. He Loves bones, rawhides, and pig ears.. they just don't seem to be adding weight.
I attached a pic of him wet so you can see the shape better without the fluff (though he looks kinda pouty and sad since I took him out of the water and made him stand when he wanted to swim haha). And he is 16in from front paw to shoulder, if that helps at all... I know his brother is a little over 15lbs, but I am not sure of the height. 
ps.. Thanks for the help, I thought I was feeding him well due to the type of food and ingredients, it is just that he is very thin.. I could be over-reacting and could be wrong about his weight (I know standards come in a variety of weights considered healthy), but with the larger build of his parents I guess I expected him to be heavier than this.


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## petitpie (Nov 16, 2011)

**** Van Patten is supposed to be a good food. Purina, not so much.......


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

He looks like a typical poodle shape to me and is a really pretty puppy!  Is your vet familiar with standard poodles? They are usually lighter than other breeds for their size and don't bulk up much until over a year old and some remain with a slim build. He sure is cute. He is your puppy and you know him best. I am sorry the vet made you feel he was too skinny. He looks okay in the pictures. 

Van Patten is good food. It isn't as high of protein as others for the same price although it has great ingredients (btw: I just copy/pasted the ingredients above from the website). Some dogs get loose stools with too high of protein. I like to shoot for mid 20%. 

You could look on the dog food advisor and go for a 4 star food that is within your budget. They are a nice balance between cost and nutrition. If you belong to Cost Co you can get better dog foods that don't cost a lot, like their Kirkland brand is a 4star. Heck they even have a 5 star level grain free called Natures Domain in a huge bag for around $32 as well as their regular brand food. I would use it but it is fish based and I don't like the fishy smell of the dog breath. LOL. Most 5 star foods are expensive, but a dog needs good food just like a person does. 

Dry Dog Food Reviews | Dog Food Advisor

Another trick to getting them to eat more is to add just a couple tablespoons of canned and add warm water and let it sit a moment. Mix it all in and it makes a gravy and they usually scarf it up. One can lasts quite a while. I am trying to get more weight on my puppy, too, because he is growing so fast. I do the canned thing and he eats very well now.

I am always shocked at how little dog is under all that fluff, too. When I gave my puppy a bath, he looked like a scrawny rat. Good luck with your cute boy! Like I said, he doesn't look too skinny to me.


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## petitpie (Nov 16, 2011)

I am very surprised to see in my post that PF or internet will not allow the name **** to be typed??? I see the name as I type here! No, asterisks...... 

Would the rest of you please try to type the first name and comment.


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## Kellogs12 (Jul 27, 2012)

I believe Oscar was about 13 lbs at 8 weeks. It's really difficult, I think, to say what is "normal". Dogs, like people, come in all shapes and sizes and as long as your boy is eating healthy food, and seems active, happy and alert, I would not be too concerned. If, on the other hand, he is lethargic, and doesn't appear healthy, then I would be concerned. FWIW, Oscar does not love to eat his kibble. He eats Nutrilife, now mixed with Nature's Variety wet food, or Ziwi Peak. I am trying to make a switch to Merrick as it is more readily available and he seems to like it better. Anyhow, he's a skinny guy, but he's active, coat is glossy, and he's very happy and full of energy. I am constantly stressing, though, that he doesn't eat enough :afraid:

Best, 
Kell


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## Ellyisme (Jul 17, 2012)

Here is Hibbert's weight progression as long as I've had him so far. Currently, I take him to the vet about every 3 weeks. His parents were also very large standards, so I would expect this to be higher than Thor.

16 weeks 22.4 lbs
19 weeks 28.3 lbs
20 weeks 29.9 lbs (even with a bacterial infection causing a lot of diarrhea)
22 weeks 32.9 lbs


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## sammy66 (Oct 26, 2011)

I have 2 Spos, a 3yr old, and a 12 week old. They are both thin, you can usually feel ribs. 

Sophie's mom was regular sized and about 50 pounds, dad was a little smaller and 45 pounds.

Her weights were
11 weeks - 14.55
12 weeks - 16.53
16 weeks - 29.54
48 weeks - 37.25
We work very hard to keep her around 40 pounds, she is a fussy eater, so it is a challenge.

Joy's Mom is about 55 pounds and Dad is 65(ish) 

10 Weeks - 13.88
12 weeks - 17.85

Both are considered healthy by the vet. In fact, I asked the vet specifically, as I was concerned and she stumbled through good, very good, to excellent condition.


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## Jcjshelton (Jun 16, 2013)

My spoo is only 10.5lbs at 11 weeks...she doesn't look thin to me at all, but she sounds very light compared to all your spoos at that age. I am taking her to the vet next week. I am feeding her the recommended amount from the bag, maybe I need to feed her more?


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