I've got to forget about what Ozzie weighs, since he'll never weigh what the rest of the mastiffs weigh at his age. It was important to me because he looked so skinny and pitiful when we took him, as proof that we were doing him some good. But now I see a bright eyed puppy with a nice shiny coat, who plays hard and sleeps well. He small, but he is getting a chunkier, heavier set look to him. He approaches people and other dogs with a wagging tail, sure that the world is his oyster. His next vet appointment is next Monday, and he'll be 14 weeks old, so we'll see where he is then. If Ozzie is an example of his breed then they are wonderful!
Ozzie is looking good... A handsome guy for sure! Don't worry about catching up with other growth charts. It's much better for him to be growing on a slow steady pace. Did you end up switching his food?
(12-21-2009 12:55 PM)JkinBlack Wrote: [ -> ]Ozzie is looking good... A handsome guy for sure! Don't worry about catching up with other growth charts. It's much better for him to be growing on a slow steady pace. Did you end up switching his food?
Don't yell at me, but I couldn't afford to toss the 104 (!) pounds of dog food that I had in the house because of my attempt at buying 'premium' food. Especially THIS month. But I have discovered that Pet Warehouse, which isn't far, is supposed to have a couple of the better brands of large breed puppy food that I've seen mentioned here, so I'll be heading there soon to restock, and will do better by both dogs. I must say though, Zoe has never looked better, and Ozzie is thriving, so it's all good so far.
(12-22-2009 06:04 AM)Gleasonsmom Wrote: [ -> ][quote='JkinBlack' pid='524' dateline='1261425305']
...I couldn't afford to toss the 104 (!) pounds of dog food that I had in the house...
You can always save it for when he's an adult and the food won't be affecting his growth. I think nutrition is the most important while they are growing. (Not that it's
not important later, but it's especially important while they are growing)
Birth, 'barely a pound'
8 weeks... 6 pounds 5 ounces
9 1/2 weeks... 8.2 pounds
11 weeks... 13.6 pounds
12 weeks... 15.8
14 weeks... 27.2
I know, I'm a slow learner. I don't think I really believed that Ozzie would get to be a 'giant', not by the little guy he was when we met him. But now I think I can see him grow daily, and I imagined his bones and what they are under-going to be growing as fast as they are growing (which is nothing compared to all your bigger 'kids'), so we got him a good, holistic, large breed puppy food. He loves to eat, play, meet people, etc. The staff at the vet's are becoming big fans of his. He got his last puppy shots today and the vet commented about him being a 'people dog'. He has always liked to lay behind my husband's recliner, and I used to be worried about him getting squashed back there because he was sort of underneath it. Ha, no worries about that now! LOL.
Awe! I'm glad he's doing well, and I'm glad to switched him over. In the long run, it will be well worth the few extra dollars.
Dogs, unlike people, can actually get pregnant several different times over the course of about a week. If Ozzie's breeder allowed the parents to mate multiple times, it's possible that he was just conceived later than the rest of the litter. That could be a potential reason for his smaller size (he's younger), but it's entirely possible that he could grow to be the same size as the rest of his littermates. It will be fun to see!
Before we got to see Ozzie I googled 'runt of the litter', just to see what I'd find. I saw some information about puppies possibly having been conceived later than the rest of the litter. It's an interesting idea, but even if he is a week younger than his chronological age, he's still a peanut compared to some of these other guys. I'm just so glad to see him looking so good.
birth, barely a pound
8 weeks... 6 pounds, 5 ounces
9 1/2 weeks... 8.2 pounds
11 weeks... 13.6 pounds
12 weeks... 15.8
14 weeks... 27.2
16 weeks... 34.5 pounds
I wish I could have seen the scale at the vets. It turned out to be lousy timing, they were busy, and he was squirmy, but that's what we came up with.
I'm so glad I found this thread! Our family purchased the runt of the litter in Sept 09. My dad purchased the largest of the litter. Their dad was 210 at last weigh in. Our baby is Oberon (means Noble Bear in German). He was 4 1/2 lbs at 7 1/2 weeks. He is now almost 5 months weighing 56lbs. His brother is now 66lbs. They have maintained this 10lb difference basically since we brought them home. They eat the same amount of food and activity is similar. Both Obie and his brother eat Purina ONE large breed puppy food. They preferred it to the Science Diet.
Obie, which is what we call him for short, is almost the same in height as his brother but leaner. If he keeps up the 10lb difference and only gets to 200lbs I think that will be okay!
I'll upload a picture as soon as I can! I can't wait to see how they grow and hear your stories!
I'm happy to hear of another runt of the litter owner also. Ozzie apparently weighed more than Obie at 8 weeks, but I can't picture him weighing 56 pounds in just over three weeks, but we'll see. Ozzie was an eating machine to start with, but I've just noticed him slowing down a little. I'm wondering if he's caught up with himself, so to speak, because he walks away from the food bowl with food left in it. For 40 years I've free fed my dogs and cats, and never had an overweight pet, so it would be convenient if I could still do that. We'll see as time goes on. The only other person I've spoken to about a runt of the litter was a guy who was laying tile at our neighbor's house. He said that he had a litter of Rotties and kept the runt, and he was a great dog, but never did grow to be 'full size'. LOL. That would be fine with us, we weren't looking for another dog, and certainly not a 200+ pound dog, but we fell for the sad looking little runt and we are glad he did. When I heard how much the breeder and her grandson carried Ozzie around and coddled him, mostly to be sure that he got enough food with 9 bigger puppies to compete with, I wondered if he'd be 'spoiled', but he isn't. He's friendly to people and other dogs, mostly calm but rough-houses with our labradoodle and also the shepherd mix next door. We walk Zoe twice a day, 1.7 miles each, and Ozzie now goes on one of those walks with us and seems to love it. That's where he meets the neighbors, who are all amazed at how fast he is growing. I'll be looking forward to pictures of Obie!
We were at my son's house where the infamous teacup resides, so I had to take a new picture.
(01-17-2010 05:52 PM)Gleasonsmom Wrote: [ -> ]We were at my son's house where the infamous teacup resides, so I had to take a new picture.
LOL, love it! Not so much of a teacup mastiff anymore! LOL!
Awe! That teacup will probably fit on his head like a little hat when he's full grown.
birth, barely a pound
8 weeks... 6 pounds, 5 ounces
9 1/2 weeks... 8.2 pounds
11 weeks... 13.6 pounds
12 weeks... 15.8
14 weeks... 27.2
16 weeks... 34.5 pounds
18 weeks (plus 3 days) ... 47.5 pounds
I was so excited by this news, of his weight today, but I looked at Yogi's growth chart before I posted this, and now I'm reminded that once a pip-squeak, always a pip-squeak...
Sue
Stop looking at Yogi's chart!!
Ozzie is growing very nicely. It's MUCH better for their joints long term if they grow slower rather than faster. Yogi has actually slowed down in the last 3 weeks which is good.
Oh, I'm not rushing Ozzie, but he's been looking so BIG to me that I'll tell myself that he MUST be catching up, and then I see he is still a lot smaller than most. We have two recliners with a table between them, and the other day he was sitting in front of the table, and his head was above the level of the table so he was looking across it at me, and I had one of those shock and awe moments of seeing how big he is getting. Over the weekend we had a family reunion of sorts at my house, lots of dog lovers among them, and all day I was being told how lucky we were that that he has such a nice disposition. He loved all the attention he was getting, and then he passed out half in, half out of the doorway to the lanai, LOL. Cracked everyone up.
Hi everyone
I am glad to have found this forum :o) I last week got my little girl sadie a purebreed St. Bernard and have been researching online for hoooooours about what size she should be at 17 weeks old and I was shocked what I found a chart that said around 64 lb ! Well Sadie was the runt of her litter and she is tinny she only weighs in at 33lb ! She was feed pedigree puppy food by the breeder and I switched her to Nutro large breed puppy food ! Has anyone tryed that kind yet I am so fare pretty happy with it but i wish she would pick up her growth a little and get bigger ! I was told the parent were close to 180lb which I find hard to beleave !
Reading about Ozzie tho has given me hope that she will some day start growing too ,lol !
Melanie and Sadie
Hey Melanie, when we heard about Ozzie but weren't committed yet I googled "runt of the litter", and I didn't read anything that would scare me off of taking him. He didn't look like any of the pictures of 8 week old mastiffs that I've seen here, skinny as he was, and his coat had thin spots, just a pitiful little guy. I got caught up in his growth because I needed to see that we were doing him some good, and in just a couple of weeks he was looking like a nice healthy puppy (to my eye anyhow), and then I started wondering how big he would get and if he would catch up. Our breeder was a backyard breeder, not a professional, but she predicted that he will be about the size of my 82 pound labradoodle, and I'll bet she is right, but I think he'll be heavier. Just now he is starting to 'thicken up', his legs looks stockier and he looks heavier. But he remains quite a bit smaller. Look at the thread for Cadence, the St. Bermastiff. She was running about Ozzie's size last I heard, but we haven't heard from her in a while. Looking forward to pictures of Sadie!
Sue
[
attachment=182]Does this qualify as a new talent? Ozzie has been interested in this chair that's out on the lanai since the day we brought him home. Look what he can do now!
Hi there
Sadie is 19 weeks tomorrow and weights 37 bl she gained 5 lb this week
.
I am trying to attach some pic. if i figure out how to ,lol ! Last night we went to puppy play group she was just walking around greeting all the people and not caring much for the dogs and playing lol! She is soooooo mellow ,never seen a puppy this mellow but the vet said she is fine nothing wrong with her it's just her nature !
I keep you up to date ! Ozzie is such a cutie !!! I can't beleave how much weight he picked up that is very awesome ! How is his behaving is he very active?
Tryed to post pic but the file is to big so I will take new pic and post them later :o)
(01-30-2010 02:02 PM)midnidhtangel77 Wrote: [ -> ]Hi there
Tryed to post pic but the file is to big so I will take new pic and post them later :o)
I had that problem with pictures until I put them in Picasa 3 and emailed them to myself. Then they were magically small enough to go on here. I'd love to see pictures, seems like they are close to the same size! Ozzie is pretty active, playing with Zoe and the dog next door every day. Plus he's been going on one of our walks every day, which he loves. Usually he meets neighbors and gets lots of attention on the walk. He is a very mellow guy, not the maniac that our labradoodle can be.