# Luke weighs 54lbs at 7 months - small male?



## LookingforLuke (Feb 20, 2013)

Luke is now 7 months old. My fiancé has been saying for a while that he thinks Luke is small for his age. I keep telling him that it's better that he's small and a healthy weight instead of overweight. I just weighed Luke and he weighs exactly 54lbs at 7 months and one week. I looked at a German Shepherd breed standard growth chart that I found online and he's at the average _female_ weight for 7 months. The average male weight at 7 months is about 62lbs. 

Now, here I am I'm second guessing his size too!  I realize the numbers in the chart are just averages but what does everyone on the forum think? Is he a smaller sized male or is he going to fill out and be an average sized German Shepherd male? He came from a large size litter, he was one of twelve puppies. Could that have something to do with his size?

On a side note, we feed him 3 cups of Kirkland Chicken & Rice dog food per day. Here are some pictures I just took of Luke.


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## skier16 (Feb 21, 2013)

my 7 month old female looks really similar, if you would like I can post a picture. I do think 3 cups of food is too little though. my girl gets 5.5 cups of fromm LBP a day.....she has a very high metabolism plus runs at the dog park for a couple hours a day.


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## Courtney (Feb 12, 2010)

My boy was so gangly at the same age. His rear end looked awful to me. lol But we were active with him and really started hiking at this age with him.










Here is a few weeks ago. He's now 3 years old.


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## LookingforLuke (Feb 20, 2013)

*skier16: *Yes, please post a picture of your female! From what I've read on this forum and according to the label on the bag, 3 cups seems to be the appropriate amount for Kirkland kibble. I'm going to double check that though, thanks for the heads up. 

*Courtney:* Your boy looks great, he has really filled out now that he's full grown! If you don't mind me asking, how much does he weigh now?


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## Courtney (Feb 12, 2010)

Thank you

He weighed in recently at the vets office at 76 pounds. Which is a good weight for him. He's light on his feet. We cover a lot of ground surface when we hike.


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## skier16 (Feb 21, 2013)

LookingforLuke said:


> *skier16: *Yes, please post a picture of your female! From what I've read on this forum and according to the label on the bag, 3 cups seems to be the appropriate amount for Kirkland kibble. I'm going to double check that though, thanks for the heads up.
> 
> *Courtney:* Your boy looks great, he has really filled out now that he's full grown! If you don't mind me asking, how much does he weigh now?


my bag says mine should get less than 4 cups a day. my vet says to go by looks not guidelines because every dog is different and has different activity levels. if they are chunky feed less if they are skinny feed more.....


ill get some pics up in a bit


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Hans is about 68 pounds and 20 months.
NO one thinks he is small


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## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

Ozzy is 20mths and about 74lbs. I was thinking he was small but I noticed he started wanting more food in the last 3-4weeks... He is STILL growing apparently! The boyfriend and I noticed the other day that although he isn't getting taller or longer he is definitely filling out in the chest and back end, havent weighed him lately but i think he is over 80lbs now. He has gone days where he picks and barely eats a cup then some days we are pushing 7cups a day!!! I am told its not uncommon for GSDs to only eat when necessary, if they aren't hungry they won't eat. Presently we are very active and he eats about 5 cups a day.


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## Rangers_mom (May 16, 2013)

Ranger is 16 months and he weighs about 65 lbs. I think he is pretty small for a male GSD but the breeder purposely breeds them on the smaller side. I hope he doesn't get much bigger, but I have a feeling he will be filling out some. At 8 months he weighed 60.2 lbs. Hmmm... I just looked up that 8 month weight and it surprises me because he seems much bigger now than he was then. I wonder if I am feeding enough?


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## Neko (Dec 13, 2012)

Zeus is 58 pounds at 8 month, you guys see a million pictures of him and no one commented that he looks bad or underweight. He was below all the charts growing. 15 weeks he was around 18 pounds. Has been growing very steady, very slow. His father is 85 pounds. 

So I am wondering if my husband is right and I need to feed him more, or he is fine and will take time to fill out. Ours looks lean just like the OP's dog. The vet has not commented that we are underfeeding. 

No idea, when I increase food he gets loose poops. 

I guess not all males grow fast?


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## Gwenhwyfair (Jul 27, 2010)

I don't think it's just the males, Ilda looked like she had an awfully big head (and ears too LOL!) for her body but now that she's three she looks much more substantial.

That seems like the average for the GSDs, they seem to really come into their own around age three...

and Neko, I don't think feeding more will change how Z grows, better to have a puppy a little on the lean side then one which is too heavy or growing to fast and having joint problems....

Ilda is now around 73 pounds, she was around 48-50 at 6 months and now no one claims she is little!  If Z is 58 pounds at less then a year old, I'm sure he'll be growing and then filling out some more, you just wait!


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Harbud said:


> Ozzy is 20mths and about 74lbs. I was thinking he was small but I noticed he started wanting more food in the last 3-4weeks... He is STILL growing apparently! The boyfriend and I noticed the other day that although he isn't getting taller or longer he is definitely filling out in the chest and back end, havent weighed him lately but i think he is over 80lbs now. He has gone days where he picks and barely eats a cup then some days we are pushing 7cups a day!!! I am told its not uncommon for GSDs to only eat when necessary, if they aren't hungry they won't eat. Presently we are very active and he eats about 5 cups a day.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Interesting. 
Hans is on an eating binge, too. I attributed it to the meds he is currently taking, but now that you mentioned it...


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## Okin (Feb 27, 2013)

I have a female that weighed a couple pounds more than that at 7 months but I expect her to be aroudn 70lbs which is the top end of the female standard. She also was eating 5.5 cups of Fromm LBP at 7 months and she is slender. Athena will try to flip over her bowl to look for more food after going through it so she likes to eat! I'm guessing each food manufacturer has a different amount they expect you to feed.


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## Harbud (Aug 27, 2013)

Sunflowers said:


> Interesting.
> Hans is on an eating binge, too. I attributed it to the meds he is currently taking, but now that you mentioned it...


Yes, Ozzy has done this before. I use to get concerned that he was over eating until my trainer commented that he was looking too lean. My jaw dropped! At that point he was at his highest qty of food.. 7 cups, and I was being told to feed even more! Now 5 months later I stick to 5 cups a day plus stuffed kongs in his crate. If he still looks hungry we go outside and do some training, but he is definitely still filling out. As someone mentioned already I think they can keep growing til 36 months!


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## LookingforLuke (Feb 20, 2013)

Thank you for the input everyone! We bumped up his food from 3 heaping cups to 3-1/2 heaping cups per day. We'll see if that helps.


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## LookingforLuke (Feb 20, 2013)

I would have updated my last post if I was able to edit it but I just wanted to give a quick little update. It's been just a week since we've upped his food from 3 to 3-1/2 cups and he now weighs 57lbs. He gained 3lbs in one week which makes me believe that he was slightly underweight/skinny. We're going to keep him at the increased amount of food and see how he fills out and grows.


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