[jmiz2003]

My rottie, rosco, will be 9 weeks on Tuesday. He weighs 13.5lbs. Is that a good weight or is he under weight??

[labman]

That may be about right, but nobody can say without seeing the puppy. You shouldn't care if your puppy is above, below, or average in weight. You need to be concerned about it having good body condition. Overweight is very bad for large breed puppy's developing joints. The best thing is to evaluate it using LongLiveYourDog.com - Life Span Study - Rate Your Dog You might ask the vet to confirm you judgment. A vet is on my list of what a puppy needs at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/i...tml#post251802 You should be seeing a lot of yours over the next couple of months.

My Xanthe had her first shots 17 Oct 07. My vet will want the next 31 Oct 07. He is more proactive on shots that most.

[katieperez]

13.5? Certainly not underweight. My rottie, Abram, was only 7 lbs at 9 weeks. He was just a bit on the small side, but believe me, he's grown. Abram's now 7 months old and just shy of 70 lbs. My 6 month old female, Brandy, is a bit over 60 lbs. but looks significantly smaller because she has more a petite frame. All dogs will go through different growth spurts. Labman is right about body condition being more important than his actual weight.

[AKaeTrue]

Also, just to add to the great responses above.
I have a Rottie. She was a rescue and came from a bad back yard breeder.
He tried to make his dogs get as big as he could as fast as he could.
This was very bad for his dogs bones, joints and over all health.
Large breed dogs need to grow slowly.
When I rescued my dog she was 6 months old and the vet advised me to take her off puppy food because she had been growing too fast.
She is 5 years old now and has had problems with her legs on and off since she was 3 years old. It's heartbreaking, not to mention expensive to visit the vet all the time.
Enjoy your baby while he's a pup, because it won't last long.
He'll be big before you know it.
Ask your vet what food is best to feed.
They now have large breed puppy chow to help these dogs grow the way they are suppose to grow.
Good luck!

[labman]

Even large breed puppy chow isn't that good. You should switch to adult chow at 4 months as I say in the sticky.

[AKaeTrue]

Even large breed puppy chow isn't that good. You should switch to adult chow at 4 months as I say in the sticky.

I agree, I didn't get my dog until she was 6 months old and the vet said to feed her adult food.
She should have been taken off what ever puppy food she was being fed way before I got her because she grew too fast to soon.

[jmiz2003]

The only reason I asked about his weight was because I have been reading and most of the articals state at 3 months they should weigh an average of 30 pounds. That's what made me think, am I feeding him enough. My vet advised me to feed him when he is hungary so that's what I have been doing. His conditioning is great, he is a well perportioned dog.
So my next question is, when should I take him off puppy food?

[katieperez]

30 lbs at 3 months sounds about right. Maybe even a little high. Remember though, he could be 20 lbs at 3 months and be perfectly healthy, then hit a growth spurt again later. He will grow quickly. As far as feeding, stick with what the bag of food recommends for his age/weight. Being that he's so young, you may want to split up how much he's supposed to get in a day into 2 or 3 meals if your not already. My pups are 6 and 7 months old and I still split their meals into 2. Breakfast and dinner. Just be sure not to overfeed him. As labman said earlier, 4 months is good to switch to adult chow.

[labman]

As I already said, switch to adult chow at 4 months. Since you already reported he is in good condition, I see no reason for anybody to bring up the recommendations on the package. They are only a range meant to cover many different cases. Stick to what you are feeding, slowly increasing it to keep him in the ideal body condition. At 3 months you can cut him back to 2 meals a day, and one at 6 months. That is straight out of my manual and is based on a program with experience with thousands of large breeds. Their vets have access to far better data than the average vet.

I am not sure I like that idea of feeding a dog when it is hungry. I hope he doesn't tell Lab owners that.

[jmiz2003]

Right now I am spliting his food into 3 meals a day. I do not agree with feeding when hungary either. Thank you for all the advice!

[labman]

As far as Labs always being hungry, this is a picture I took of my Zeke a couple of hours before his dinner time. I forgot to put it in my last post.