question abt my dog

[chilled]

hi all

just wondering if my dog the right weight for his age i know hes a cross breed and thats makes it hard to find his size he should be.

hes a rhodesian ridgeback x boxer abt 15 months old now,
he weights abt 4 stone 4, so abt 26.7kg. i can still see his ribs and his spine,

he has 2 tins of meat a day and will sometimes eat biscuits 150grams (as he wont eat biscuits hes too fussy)

has anyone got a rhodesian ridgeback or boxer and can remember there weight at 15 months???

 

[Bailey+Ralph]

I don't have either of those Breeds.
Bailey here in my pic (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) is 15 months and weighs 20kg, he eats 3x384g Tins a day if that helps.

 

[suzanne118]

do u have a picture of your dog???

 

[chilled]

i have put a picture of him in public profile
camera aint that good.

 

[Bailey+Ralph]

You could upload a pic and post it here if you go to www.photobucket.com
It is very easy to do.

 

[LabBreeder]

From the pic he kind of looks greyhoundish. I wouldn't say he's too thin. Has he had a vet visit since your weight concerns came up?

 

[Bailey+Ralph]

I think that if a 20Kg dog is needing 1152g of food a day, then if this dog is Rhod x Boxer and weighs that amount, then surely he would need to eat more than Bailey to Maintain his weight?

 

[LabBreeder]

lmao. Sorry, I don't do kg and stones. If you go to oz and lbs I might be more helpful.

 

[Bailey+Ralph]

Ok Bailey is 45 pounds and the OP's dog is around 60 pounds

 

[LabBreeder]

Bailey is a Staff @45 lbs. and OP's dog is a boxer x rhodesian ridgeback. Well, a full grown boxer weighs 60 - 70 and a full grown RR weighs 80 - 90. I'd say at 15 months, since he looks more RR than boxer he should probably weigh about 10 lbs more. IMO

 

[Bailey+Ralph]

Bailey is a Staff @45 lbs. and OP's dog is a boxer x rhodesian ridgeback. Well, a full grown boxer weighs 60 - 70 and a full grown RR weighs 80 - 90. I'd say at 15 months, since he looks more RR than boxer he should probably weigh about 10 lbs more. IMO

Exactly and to Maintain that weight he should eat more per day than Bailey does.
I told the OP how much Bailey eats and his weight to give him a general guide to work with.


I just looked at the guide on the Food and the OP's dog should be having (based on weight) around 3.5-4 Tins a day (depending on how much exercise he had ETC).

Or half that amount mixed with half the daily requirement of complete dried food for a dog of that weight.

 

[LabBreeder]

Feed him what he's supposed to be eating and he'll be the weight he's supposed to be.

 

[doberkim]

ok, like i said in the last post -
you cant tell how much a dog should weigh just based on breed - you need to look at the dog.

you also cannot say that based on what the bag says, the dog is eating what it should or should not eat. or based on weight -

i know 40 lb dogs (about 20 kgs) that eat as much as my 85 lb male (about 40 kgs), i know `120 lb dogs (about 60 kgs) that eat as muhc as my 66 lb female (30 kgs).


what you need to look at is THAT dog and how it looks, and adjust the food from there.

from your shot, the dog looks a tad thing, but its hard to say (if he does have greyhound in him, then it could be fine) - i can see 2-3 ribs, which i am fine with, but i can also see some of the backbone, which i tend to not want to see. i dont see hip bones though, so its not like he is emaciated. he may need 4-5 more lbs (2-3 kgs) on him - if you are concerned, i would go see your vet.

 

[Bailey+Ralph]

ok, like i said in the last post -
you cant tell how much a dog should weigh just based on breed - you need to look at the dog.

you also cannot say that based on what the bag says, the dog is eating what it should or should not eat. or based on weight -

i know 40 lb dogs (about 20 kgs) that eat as much as my 85 lb male (about 40 kgs), i know `120 lb dogs (about 60 kgs) that eat as muhc as my 66 lb female (30 kgs).


what you need to look at is THAT dog and how it looks, and adjust the food from there.

from your shot, the dog looks a tad thing, but its hard to say (if he does have greyhound in him, then it could be fine) - i can see 2-3 ribs, which i am fine with, but i can also see some of the backbone, which i tend to not want to see. i dont see hip bones though, so its not like he is emaciated. he may need 4-5 more lbs (2-3 kgs) on him - if you are concerned, i would go see your vet.

So you only know if they are over-eating if they gain too much weight?
What i mean is that Bailey would eat more if i let him, but then i don't know unless i let him that he wouldn't become overweight (does that question make sense to you? b/c i am confusing myself here )

I always thought that you should use the Feeding guides a Baseline and then use your own judgement from there?

IE: Bailey has about 1/2 a tin more a day than on the guide b/c he seems to maintain better weight and be happier for the little extra food(but he would eat more if it was offered).

I think that it is hard to know exactly how much to feed b/c they can't tell us like humans can if they are hungry and most dogs would eat and eat if the food was there for the offering.

 

[LabBreeder]

in a round about way, you agree with us! just not about "breed specific" weights. it was just a guesstimate on our part considering the pic and the breed mix vs food consumption.

 

[smkie]

you should be able to see a waist on your dog, and not rolls of fat..at the other end you should not see sharp hipbones or ribs defined, even in a very thin breed like my pointer. You can up his calories in a number of ways but i leave that info up to the pros. If you post in the nutrition section Mordy should be able to give you a good idea of what is what on the food dept. There is also a lot of already posted good nutrition information.

All dogs matabolize their food differently. My old female labrador has to be on a strict diet or she does nothing but gain where as Vic is taller, eats less and it is all i can do to keep his calories on him. I don't ever advise a set amount other then a baseline. After that i look at how my dog looks, if she is too fat, i cut her back, if he is too thin i try to get him to eat more, if he won't i add certain nutrients to entice him to eat and help him be healthier.