# Normal weight at five months?...



## some dude (Nov 3, 2011)

I adopted a mixed breed about a month ago. We know she is part shepherd but not sure what else. We're thinking a smaller breed at this point. When we got her at 4 months she was 15.5 and obviously underweight. A few days shy of a month later, approx five months, she weighs close to 24. I've heard the rule of doubling their weight at four months. I know it's impossible to say how big she'll get, but I'm wondering how she compares to normal shepherd weight at five months. We're pretty sure she won't be as big as a purebred shepherd by any means. And if anyone has any ideas of what other breed(s) she might be or any comments about her size I'd love to hear them. 

Patsy puts us at four dogs and two cats. If I ever win the lottery I shall have the biggest dog ranch you ever seen! 









































Our gang...


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

My female weighed 50lbs at 5 months. She is now 3yo and is slightly over sized for a female as she is 26 inches tall and about 75lbs.

Your girl sure is a cutie!


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

Honestly, i think your girl is purebred. You did say she was underweight when you adopted her. Its also very possible she's on the smaller end of the breed standard. She looks to have a good body condition at this point so i really wouldnt worry so much about her weight. Just focus on feeding her a good diet and keeping at her at good body condition and leave it at that. She's a cutie. 

I'm having a really hard time seeing any other potential breeds in there. I see a blanket back black and tan GSD puppy. Especially with those ears man!!! Does she get HBO with those things?!!?! love it!


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

My 14 month old male Pan weighed 40lbs at 5 months. He's normal size (about 70lbs right now, has plenty of filling out to do).

My 8 year old female is only half an inch out of the standard and she weighs about 50lbs as an adult.


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## JulieBays (Jun 26, 2011)

I agree with Kzoppa. I can't see any breed but GSD in her. Yes, she's very small right now. Maybe she was really malnourished and can catch up. Sasha is 5 1/2 months old and weighs 53 lbs. She is on the lean side because I can see her ribs. Does she have good bowel movements?? I would just feed her on schedule a good food and see what happens.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Wow, except she seems tiny she looks all GSD to me too!

Specially in this picture..


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## JulieBays (Jun 26, 2011)

MaggieRoseLee said:


> Wow, except she seems tiny she looks all GSD to me too!
> 
> Specially in this picture..


But, MRL, if you look at this picture, there is no way that the tail is 5 months old. What I'm thinking is that this dog is about 14 weeks old at the most.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

JulieBays,

I don't think she is that young. If you look closely at the picture of her chewing on the Kong, it looks like she has adult teeth. She also looks to have her "big girl" coat rather than having mostly a "puppy coat".


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## Sulamk (Jan 30, 2011)

I would say she is pure and a lot younger than you think! Has she finished teething?


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

I have to agree. She looks like she's got her adult coat. I've also seen ADULT GSDs with scrawny puppy tails that just never bushed out. BUT if she really was malnourished, it would explain the tail being late to develope for the age. If the OP could get a clear shot of her teeth, that might settle the age thing. For now, it looks like the agreement is she's PB and smaller than expected but it happens. As long as her body condition is good and she's loved and being taken care of it.... well you get the idea. 

Whether she's older or younger, i dont think is the issue really. And without knowing her exact birthdate, we can only guesstimate with the OP. JMO.

I will admit though, after looking at the pictures again, she does look younger than 5 months. I would venture to guess she's closer to 3, maybe 4. BUT the 8 month old malinois girl i was working with saturday looks like she's more along the lines of a 4 months old mali. Her papers have her birthday otherwise she'd be labeled younger than she is at the shelter.


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## some dude (Nov 3, 2011)

*Big smile!*

I really hope you guys are right. I guess I thought GSD's were a little on the heavier side. As in female 80-90 and males a little more. But that doesn't seem to be the case. My lab, who has always been on the leaner side, is about 75lbs. I always saw a GSD weighing a bit more on average. GSD's are leaner than a lab, but my lab has always been pretty lean in comparison to other labs. 

See, I want he to get as big as possible. I love big dogs! When searching for Patsy we were actually looking for a medium size dog. That wasn't my choice, that was the "rule" my girl asked for. It's a reasonable request since we had three big dogs in a small house already. When we found her at the SPCA I knew immediately she was the one. And since her paws weren't too big comparing to her body, we assumed she wouldn't be too awful big. So golly darn shucks she's gonna be bigger than we thought!! Yay!

Has anyone tried the DNA test? If they're reputable we might try one on her. We'd like to try it on another dog of ours (shepherd mix) as well. 



KZoppa said:


> Just focus on feeding her a good diet and keeping at her at good body condition and leave it at that. She's a cutie.
> 
> Especially with those ears man!!! Does she get HBO with those things?!!?! love it!


Ha! My buddy wondered if she'd pick up NFL Sunday Ticket. I just don't know where to stick the coax cable.  

We feed Kirkland from Costco. We went through all kinds of foods with our other dogs and have found this to be the best and a fair price. So we feed her the puppy version. She seems to be adapting to that fairly well. She's had the runs a bit here and there but I chalk that up to over active puppy stomach. We had a small bag of Iams for the first couple of weeks before we switched. So that contributed to her bowel movements also. For the transition period she pooped a LOT. In the last week or so she's been on a more normal schedule and consistent for the most part. 

She does have her adult teeth in now. She's been to the vet twice. On her first initial checkup on Oct 8 the vet mentioned her adult teeth starting to come in. On our visit two weeks later he pointed out how her teeth and come in quite a bit. They're definitely showing more and she has a little bit of a smile! Here's her teeth today...









I really hope the SPCA didn't have the right information and she's younger than we thought. I want another big dog!!


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Her adult eye teeth aren't fully in. She could be 5 months.
There is no 'normal' weight.
Abby weighed about 42 at five months. At 2+ years she is just under 70.
I saw a 5 month old male yesterday that weighs 62 and he is not fat, 
just over-sized. His 'parents' are way over standard.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

I would agree that she's right about 5 months. Mine have most of their adult teeth right at around 5 months and closer to 6 months for the canines (the "fangs") to come in. 

She's a cutie.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Here are my puppy's growth stats for that age, I have the teething update in there too:
_7/21 Karlo is 50.5# at 20 weeks, 22" high and 25" long. He grew in length in the last two weeks and lost most of his baby teeth. Still has the canines, though. Only gained a couple #'s in 2 weeks. Today he had the rabies vax, vet said he could gain a couple #'s? I think he looks fine!
7/30 Karlo 21 [email protected]#
8/04 Karlo 5 months (22 weeks) 56# and 23". Only 1# gain in a week. Teething heavily...
8/13 Karlo 23 weeks~59# and 23". Only two top canines left for his baby teeth, his other canines are in next to them...
8/21 Karlo 24 weeks 62.5# 23" All baby teeth are GONE!!! Prelim hips/elbows done this week, look good_.
I wouldn't worry about weight, all pups are different.


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## some dude (Nov 3, 2011)

I just measured her and hopefully I got accurate results. 

Approx 17 1/2" tall and 20" long. 

Does the length of her hair seem a bit short to anyone for a purebred? 

My girl isn't convinced she is purebred. Mostly due to size, but the shorter coat as well.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

IMHO she's definitely not purebred. She's the size of an average 3 month old GSD.


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## some dude (Nov 3, 2011)

Patsy is now 8.5 months and weighs about 39-40lbs. Her height is about 21" and her length is about 23". I believe that is on the smaller side, am I right? 

These were taken at about 8 months. Does she still look purebred to anyone? She definitely acts GSD in a lot of ways. She's such a great dog.


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## Dakotasmom23 (Jan 11, 2012)

First, she is really super cute and looks like she has great focus. Imho, I do not think she's a purebred. My GSD is 4 months old exactly and weighs 40lbs--I think that's pretty typical. Its really a crap-shoot in picking what breeds could be mixed in there, but yeah, definitely lots of shepherd. As far as the DNA tests go, we did one on one of our shelter dogs. They had him listed as a yellow lab/white german shepherd mix. Guess what I really got? A 110lb Great Pyrenees/Akbash mix... My sister is a vet so we got a discount on the blood test, but you can do a saliva test if you want. Wisdom Panel is the name of the company we used.


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## ollie_leyna (Oct 21, 2011)

She's adorable! Such a cute little peanut  She clearly has a lot of shepherd but I bet the small breed would be hard to pinpoint. Maybe she's part min pin??


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## ASSHEPHERD (Sep 6, 2017)

Where's the picture???


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