# Is she underweight?



## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Hi guys,

First time poster. Just a couple of days ago we've picked up a solid black GSD from a breeder in MO. She's almost 8 weeks old but she weighs only 6lbs. From what I saw on many other websites that's about 10lbs less than average GSD weight at this age.
The vet confirmed that she has Coccidia parasite and she's being treated for it at the moment. Could the parasite be a reason she's so underweight? Will she get back on track in terms of weight? It has got us concerned as we saw many pictures/videos of GSD's her age and they are much bigger, stronger, tougher looking than our Bella. 

Any input would be greatly appreciated!


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Well...she does look a little small. Was she the runt? The parasite could be the reason she's small, failure to thrive and loss of appetite is a symptom.
Dog Parasites


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Jax, thanks for the input. There was one smller one in the litter. I'm hoping she starts gaining weight soon. The sire was 116 and the mom 109, I don't see why she'd be any smaller?


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## GsdLoverr729 (Jun 20, 2010)

I would think she is. My shepherd puppy weighed in at 15 lbs 3 ounces a week ago (at 8 weeks). The parasite probably has something to do with it. Also, she may be the runt like Jax said. She'll probably start to thrive better without the parasite. Congrats on the new pup and I hope everything ends well. She's very cute.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Are you SURE she's 8 weeks? She really doesn't look like it. Her coat looks coarse as well.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

just a thought...we bought a boxer from a backyard breeder. She was 9 weeks old and weighed 4 lbs. filled with worms, covered in bites from fleas and her littermates. The idiots never separated her to feed her. She actually stumbled and knocked her self senseless at our house. DH thought she was dead.

That scenario could be the same with your puppy, especially is she was a good deal smaller than the rest (like 1/2 the size)


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## chicagojosh (Jun 22, 2010)

so cute! im sure she'll pack on pounds without the parasites. good luck with her


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## GsdLoverr729 (Jun 20, 2010)

I have to, once again, agree with Jax. Her coat does look a bit rough. Did you see where she was being kept and bred?


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## Linzi (Mar 23, 2010)

She is very underweight,.she should be about 14 pound's at her age,.At 6 pound's she is less than half the average,.She is a beautiful pup and now she is being treated there is time for her to catch up,.If there were any other pup's in the litter i hope they are ok.Linzi


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Thank you guys, I really appreciate the responses.

Jax, I was asking myself the same question. Is she 8 weeks? I guess you never know with the breeders, maybe they've lied to us, I am not sure at this point. Other than the size and weight she looks healthy, she plays with us yet she's getting fatigued quickly and sleeps for an hour or more after that. 

At this point I'm just going to give it some time to get rid of the parasites and see how she is two weeks from now. I knew there was no better site to ask these questions than here, thanks again.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I can tell you that the size of the mom and dad are wayyyyy over standards. Did you get papers with her?

I love blacks.  She's going to be a beauty!


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Linzi said:


> She is very underweight,.she should be about 14 pound's at her age,.At 6 pound's she is less than half the average,.She is a beautiful pup and now she is being treated there is time for her to catch up,.If there were any other pup's in the litter i hope they are ok.Linzi


Linzi, I've just sent an e-mail to the breeder to inform them about the issue, hopefully they'll address it. This is ridiculous.


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Jax08 said:


> I can tell you that the size of the mom and dad are wayyyyy over standards. Did you get papers with her?
> 
> I love blacks.  She's going to be a beauty!


I did, the sire has AKC DNA# but mom has only AKC registration. Which is ok, we weren't looking for top breed just as long as it was pure. We're so excited, I wanted a GSD since I was a little boy and finally I've got one!


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## AgileGSD (Jan 17, 2006)

Size at this age is actually dependent on many factors and generally does not indicate size at maturity. Also being small isn't the same as being underweight. Puppies can be very small for their size but not be underweight. It is hard to tell from your pictures if she is underweight or not. Puppies from very large litters often tend to be smaller, especially if the breeder didn't do supplemental feeding. Orphaned puppies also are often smaller than average. And if she has had coccidia for weeks, that is going to effect size and appearance too.


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## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

I would say she does look quite small, but that doesn't mean to overfeed her to try to "catch up" to what weight you think she should be. AvaLaRue is a member on here and her pup was very small when she got her, but she slowly has been gaining weight and is a nice sized pup. Once she gets over the worms, she will most likely start gaining weight at a good rate like a normal little puppy and by the time she is a year, I'm sure whatever harm was done by the parasites, or being from a large litter, will be all in the past.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

She doesn't look bad but does not look eight weeks. Like if someone handed me that pup just based on the pic I would not think it was terribly ill, just guess the age much younger. I'm seeing SO many puppies these days who are supposedly 7, 8, 9 weeks etc. and IMO there's just no way some of them are the age claimed. I would verify this with the breeder. It is not fair if they lied about the dog's age. It's important to know so that you have the dog on the right schedule for vaccinations and immunities.

To me there aren't really "runts", the puppies are healthy or they have some medical or neglect problem. The "runt" in Nikon's litter was born with a heart problem which is why she never grew. One the problem was determined, she was given to a family who loved and cared for her until she passed. There will be slight range in size and weight among a litter but the smallest puppy should not be a huge outlier unless it has a medical problem or was not properly cared for.


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

Don't pay attention to that stupid weight chart 
According to it, Jax was 10lbs underweight as well. The vet said his coat was dull and he probably had worms. I've treated him with Strongid about 5 times now... never saw a worm, his adult fur came in super shiny and he's 50lbs at 5 months now.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Are you 100% certain of her age? Do you have registration papers showing a whelping date for the litter? I think she looks like she could be younger than 8 weeks too, but if not she's a little on the small size, but does not look skinny in those pictures. 

When I got Halo at 10 weeks old she was around 14 pounds. I got a copy of the 9 week vet checkup report for her and two of her brothers, and both of the boys were in the 15/16 pound range - she was 11-1/2 pounds. So at 8 weeks old she wouldn't have been all that much bigger than Bella. 

She's now over a year and a half old, and pretty much smack in the middle of the standard for an adult female. As others have mentioned, the parents of your pup are way oversized.


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## AgileGSD (Jan 17, 2006)

Liesje said:


> She doesn't look bad but does not look eight weeks. Like if someone handed me that pup just based on the pic I would not think it was terribly ill, just guess the age much younger. I'm seeing SO many puppies these days who are supposedly 7, 8, 9 weeks etc. and IMO there's just no way some of them are the age claimed.


 It really isn't fair to accuse someone of lying about the age of their puppies because they seem small. I just picked up a litter of Belgians from friends of mine and if I didn't know, I would think they were younger than what they are. The whole litter was smaller than usual and just didn't seem to be 8 weeks old. And there was a "runt" who was extremely tiny from birth on, although he's catching up now. There were 11 puppies in the litter, the mother is a smaller Belgian (21 1/2" tall and maybe 35lbs), had to have a c-section and the puppies were almost entirely handraised. Once I got them and put them on raw food, they started catching up quickly as far as size goes.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

While she looks small to me...all my puppies have been on the large side. I remember seeing a petite little girl come out to training once. Nice black Czech import, super confident and TINY. She was just a little thing. How did the others in the litter look? Maybe the pups in those lines just start out really small. I know another female GSD that is an awesome SchH dog...but maybe 50lbs. She's just a petite thing. 

If you pup is coming from oversized parents I will admit surprise that she looks that delicate. But she doesn't look skinny/sickly to me in the pictures you've posted...just small.


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## VChurch (Jun 14, 2010)

My puppy was about the same....at eight weeks she was 7 pounds (well 6# 14 ounces to be more exact); and now a week later she is 9 pounds (8# 15 ounces) -- a little more than 2 pounds of weight gain in less than a week. She had the same worms your's does, so I think you'll start to see weight gain as soon as those get sorted out.
And that chart that says at TWO months she should be 16 pounds -- doesn't mean 8 weeks old. They literally mean two months old (so if she was born May 2...July 2, I think that's what it means at least), I think 2 months is actually 9.333 weeks old or something close to this, which means my puppy is underweight by about 6-7 pounds right now. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this though..

And my puppy's parents weren't quite as large as yours...65-85ish. So she's only expected to be about 65 pounds full grown.


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Thank you all for your input, I have just started coming to this website and I already like what I'm seeing, I really appreciate all of the responses, all of them have been very helpful. 

I guess the bottom line at this point is to just wait and see how she will develop within the next two weeks. We could see a major difference in her behavior yesterday, she had a lot more energy, she was a little more confident and what's most important slept all night! 

The vet asked us to completely abbandon the food we've been giving her and we've purchased Hill's Prescription food to help with the healing of the intestants. She doesn't seem to be the biggest fan of the food but she eats it, which is good I guess. The stools are still loose but they've turned color to brown from weird green/creamy color. 

I'll report back with some new pictures in a couple of weeks.


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## VChurch (Jun 14, 2010)

Jacek said:


> Thank you all for your input, I have just started coming to this website and I already like what I'm seeing, I really appreciate all of the responses, all of them have been very helpful.
> 
> I guess the bottom line at this point is to just wait and see how she will develop within the next two weeks. We could see a major difference in her behavior yesterday, she had a lot more energy, she was a little more confident and what's most important slept all night!
> 
> ...


Exactly how it went for us (last week though). Except our vet put the puppy on wet food until her poop got more solid, and then we've mixed it and gotten her back on dry food (she's on Solid Gold Wolf Cub).

But my mom noticed the same thing (since i'm not in town), that 1 day after putting her on meds for the worms she had a TON more energy and it was actually interesting that prior to her being on the meds my adult dog wouldn't play with her, and after she started feeling better he started playing with her, and she also started sleeping better/longer at night

And like I said, she gained a little over 2 pounds since her vet visit last Wednesday...and she is 9 weeks, 1 day old.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

VChurch said:


> And that chart that says at TWO months she should be 16 pounds -- doesn't mean 8 weeks old. They literally mean two months old (so if she was born May 2...July 2, I think that's what it means at least), I think 2 months is actually 9.333 weeks old or something close to this, which means my puppy is underweight by about 6-7 pounds right now. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this though.


That would be correct, except that of course the weights listed are _averages_, so that doesn't mean that a smaller puppy is underweight, that just means that there are bigger puppies out there to balance it all out.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

In my opinion, from what I can see in the picture, the puppy *does not* look underweight for her size. *She does look undersized for her age.* Either her age is wrong, she is naturally small, or the parasite infection has caused her not to grow.

That's the thing when you have a living being...you'll just have to wait and see.  Jax was always below the average until she got to about 1 1/2y. Then she had one last growth spurt and now she's 25" tall and 68#, which is slightly over standard.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Jax08 said:


> In my opinion, from what I can see in the picture, the puppy *does not* look underweight for her size. *She does look undersized for her age.* Either her age is wrong, she is naturally small, or the parasite infection has caused her not to grow.


That was exactly my thoughts too.


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## Courtney (Feb 12, 2010)

Jax's Mom said:


> Don't pay attention to that stupid weight chart
> According to it, Jax was 10lbs underweight as well. The vet said his coat was dull and he probably had worms. I've treated him with Strongid about 5 times now... never saw a worm, his adult fur came in super shiny and he's 50lbs at 5 months now.


 
I agree about that size chart. My boy was 10 pounds at 8 weeks & way under according to that weight chart. We want him to grow slow and steady.

She is adorable-love the all black coat. Sounds like you are taking good care of her!


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Well, 4 weeks later she is growing!! She's still small for her age versus the pups in our obedience class but I guess we're not concerned.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

She's a cutie. 

Don't worry overmuch about it. 

Check out the food section, Science Diet is not generally approved of here. Short term to get over the worms, then you might want to go onto something that gives you better ingredients/quality for the money you're spending.

I have had two litters out of Jenna and Gispo. 

the first had ten puppies in it and I fed them Canidae. They were all rather small. But they have been growing away. Their owners seem pleased at their weights. Two of the girls at eight weeks were much smaller than the other two. The biggest, Lavender, went first; then the next person wanted either Violet or Fern. Then the two small ones, Rosie went to her new home and I kept the purple puppy, Violet, and called her Joy. 

I went to classes with the owner of Fern. By the end of the second set, Joy was larger than Fern. At twelve months, she is 57 pounds, but she is not fully filled out yet. I expect her to weigh in between 65 and 75 when she is done. 

the second litter, I fed a different food and there was only 7 puppies. The puppies are HUGE. Mind this is the same sire and dam. the females at five months are 44 and 46 pounds, one of the owners of the males just told me he was 52 pounds. They are not fat. 

It worries me a little bit because it may be true that food can increase their rate of growth. Ideally you want a pup that grows slowly, for joint health, etc. 

Or maybe the larger litter were smaller in general at birth and grew slower just because of the size of the litter. Hard to say really. 

The good news is that your puppy looks good, and will grow. What she tops out at is anybodies guess. Let us hope she does not reach the size of her dam as that is over-sized.


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## VChurch (Jun 14, 2010)

Jacek said:


> Well, 4 weeks later she is growing!! She's still small for her age versus the pups in our obedience class but I guess we're not concerned.


I think our dogs are about the same age (give or take a week); and mine is SMALL for her age too....she's 13 weeks in both of these pictures and only about 16 pounds; she looks healthy for her size, just small for her age according to the "average size chart"
Both pictures were taken on Wednesday, and Sobacca is about 50 pounds, although he looks huge laying down like that. lol


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## gsd_bella (Aug 6, 2006)

Both of your pups look great, nice healthy weight too  

I'd much rather a nice slow steady growth than have them growing too quickly. In a couple of months time you'll look back on these pics and wonder where the little puppy went! :laugh:


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## PupperLove (Apr 10, 2010)

Personally I think she's a little younger than 8 weeks old. The picture in my avatar is of my pup at 7.5 weeks old. I would say she is probably approaching 7 weeks or so; her paws and ears look very dainty yet. That sounds underweight as well, but im sure the parasite has alot to do with it. From my understanding they have digestive troubles from coccidia which would keep her from absorbing the calories she needs. Im sure her genetics will play out and get her to where she is destined to be weight-wise. She sure is ADORABLE! I can't wait to see more pictures of her


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## GROVEBEAUTY (Oct 23, 2008)

She looks rough coated to me. Has she been wormed? The fact that she is tired after play also worries me. I think she is underweight for her age. My puppies are much heavier by that time. The parasites are a cause. Has she had her heart checked? A dog with a heart murmur will have trouble gaining and be smaller and lighter weight. I would want a full work-up on a puppy that presents this scenario to me.


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## Anja1Blue (Feb 27, 2008)

Our Anja is only 61 lbs (she is 9 years old.) 100% W German working line dog, petite by today's standards, but in actual fact very close to the original size of a GSD female way back when. (They were never meant to be very large.) We didn't own her as a puppy, but would guess she was probably on the small side. Don't worry, your little beauty will grow up just fine (though I agree with getting her off her current food. I feed raw, but if you are going to keep her on kibble switch to a better brand - there are a zillion suggestions on this Forum, look at the puppy section...) Bella is just plain adorable - a real cutie. Remember, good things come in small packages!
________________________________________________
Susan

Anja SchH3 GSD
Conor GSD
Blue BH WH T1 GSD - waiting at the Bridge


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## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Thank you all for the kind words, we love her very much, practically can't live without her now. She sure is catching up, we've switched her to Taste of the Wild and she is looking much better every day.


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## Lesley1905 (Aug 25, 2010)

Jax's mom,

I agree with you! Brody seemed to be alot smaller also when we got him. He was only 8 lbs at 8 weeks. Everyone was telling me he was small, but I think it's just like humans...everyone grows at a different rate.


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## Dexter (Jul 25, 2010)

i would ask for a refound of the half of the price u paid from the seller also


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## paulag1955 (Jun 29, 2010)

When we got Shasta at 8 weeks, she had coccidia and giardia and she weighed about 8-ish pounds, which I thought was pretty darn small. 6 pounds is tiny.


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