Is she small?

In our vet clinic there are 3 vets in there, and two of them have seen Bella multiple times since we've got her. They've both said she's a perfect weight, size, condition, etc.

The vet that did her surgery on Wednesday saw her for a pre-surgical visit to give her a once-over. This vet specializes in dental surgery, which is why he was doing the operation as we had a few teeth extractions as well as the spay. He seemed very surprised at her size and said "wow, she's really small" and checked her chart for her exact age. He said he would have guessed her to be a 3.5 to 4 month old puppy, when she's actually almost 6 months.

She weighs just about 8.5lbs now, and he said her form is good, her weight is fine, but she's just really 'small' for her age.

Her mom was really tiny, but dad was a decent size (though quite leggy).

I'm not concerned, and she's in perfect health, but I can't help but wonder if she's going to be a tiny adult like her mother, or if she has a growth spurt or two to go yet. At 6 months, how much growing does she have to do in lbs?

:flwr:

Maddy is very similar. At 41/2 months she is 5.5 pounds.
Very tiny.
I'm thinking she will be 10-12 pounds as an adult.
Pam

Arthur is our tiny one...he is 10 lbs at 8 months. I guessing he won't be more than 14 lbs when he is full grown, maybe less.

Standard can wieght is 13-18 lbs and should be proportioned well to height....

Arthur is a really narrow dog. Comparing his rib cage to that of my near two year old (17-18 lbs) there is a significant difference. Our vet pointed this out and said for us to expect him to be a much smaller dog than Duncan

I swear though, what he may "lack" in weight he makes up for in heart and tounge

As long as they're healthy, I don't think their size matters.

Our Charley was a big boy....26 lbs but very long and tall. He was never obese but did lose his waist a bit at one point.

Mary Alice is much smaller, very muscular and compact.

I must say I'm amazed at how little we all feed the Cavvies...we never measured food for our Charley and he ate everything!! lol

When the rescue lady told me to feed Mary Alice 1/3c twice a day, I was shocked! :shock:

Now, I know that's normal!!

She may get a bit larger due to her spay than she would have otherwise -- maybe an extra inch or so and a little extra solidity. But 8.5lbs at 6 months wouldn't be worryingly small. I think Jaspar was around that size at 4 months or so, and he is around 16.5 to 17 lbs as an adult at 3.

She still has 6 months of growing left to reach most of her final adult size. I'd say she will be just around or maybe just below breed standard.

Food amounts really vary! Lily only gets 1/3rd cup ONCE a day! Plus a few treats (I usually give her half a Bonio small dog biscuit at night, and maybe odds and ends during the day, fruit/veg or a Greenie).

Gracie is around 5 pounds at 13 weeks. Her mom was 13 pounds; dad was 17. I, too, think that Gracie will probably be much closer to the 13 pound range (if not below). However, she is in good health and seems well proportioned.

She also eats 1/3 cup twice a day plus treats.

my 2 are fully grown i think (theyre 1 year 2 months)..and theyre are 12 lbs approx...monty is a bit less..
i dont think her size is alarmingly small...i agree..she'll probably fill out more when she gets spayed

how many pups in her litter? the more pups there are the smaller each is (or so ive heard)

Nisha, there were 4 pups in the litter. Mom was pretty tiny though, I'm not sure she could have handled more than that

Based on all of yours, I don't think she's inordinately small at all. I think maybe that particular vet hasn't seen a lot of Cavs to compare. He just gave me one more thing to obsess about for a few days :lol:

Here's my petite girl, taken just now



She's in dire need of a bath since her surgery last Wednesday. Does anyone know if it's safe to bath her yet? I forgot to ask the vet when we were there last night for her post-op check. Her tummy stitches are from the inside (and disolvable) but the incision looks quite healed.. and she has 2 little stitches on her rear leg from where the dewclaw was removed.. and that looks good.

glad everything went ok...four pups is pretty average i think so i guess thats not it...maybe it was the mum...but youre right she looks fine for her age...sorry not sure about the bath thing...someone else will have to give you that answer

They're just like people, sometimes they're just small. As long as they're healthy, size won't matter. There was a woman at the St. Paul dog show last weekend who had a girl in Open Bitch that she said weighed 11 pounds and was I think almost 3 years old. I was a little surprised she was showing her, because she was under the breed standard, but that was one happy, healthy girl.

BTW, in my experience, birth size doesn't mean a thing as far as the size they will be as an adult. Even the smallest within a litter will usually grow up to be the same size as the littermates.

One of the many things we look at is the size of the dam and sire when we are breeding. If we have a big girl, we hope to breed with a small boy. And vice-versa. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

12 lbs actually is within the breed standard in the UK and Ireland.

Breeders say you really need to see more than the parents to get a sense of likely adlt size as genes from further back are influencing the final result -- we all know of kids much taller or shorter than their parents! Or the kid with red hair in a family of brunettes. Same thing with puppies. A LOT of variables will influence size, from genes to environment. Size of puppies isn't always a very accurate predictor as size of litter will influence whether they are large or small, as will genes, rate of growth, the fact that a pushier puppy got more milk in early weeks, etc.

As Bruce says most all end up around the same size and the size at a certain age is only a very rough gauge of how big a puppy *might* grow all else being equal. But you can see discrepancies too! Lisa from Dog Training Ireland has two Tibetan terriers from the same litter and one is large, one small. I couldn't believe it when she told me they were litter mates.

Big Girl

My Cav is right at 20 lbs and over the breed standard. We've talked to the vet and she's a tad bit overweight and we began measuring her food out at 1 cup a day and some days she doesn't even eat all of that. We have her on Natural Balance which I think is a great food. I guess she's just a little bigger than average as she's very healthy... ??

Our Lia is 4 months and weights 9 lb.

but she's the biggest one in her litter, and is big. (4 kilo)

I always wonder why people talk about size in terms of weight. Weight is, after all, negotiable, and what might be a healthy normal weight for one dog could be over or underweight for another. Would it not make more sense to use height as a starting point- difficult for pups, I know? For example, Holly is 11 inches at the shoulder. That makes her below breed standard, and the vet told me that weight wise she is very much on the small end too- he did not give me the figure, but I know she is right for her height because she has a distinct waist without being bony.

It is hard to tell from a photo, but Bella does not look too small. She will almost certainly catch up- and if she does not, no big deal. So long as she is healthy that is the mainly thing. There are many advantages to having a petite Cavalier!

Lisa_T said:

I always wonder why people talk about size in terms of weight. Weight is, after all, negotiable, and what might be a healthy normal weight for one dog could be over or underweight for another. Would it not make more sense to use height as a starting point- difficult for pups, I know? For example, Holly is 11 inches at the shoulder. That makes her below breed standard, and the vet told me that weight wise she is very much on the small end too- he did not give me the figure, but I know she is right for her height because she has a distinct waist without being bony.

It is hard to tell from a photo, but Bella does not look too small. She will almost certainly catch up- and if she does not, no big deal. So long as she is healthy that is the mainly thing. There are many advantages to having a petite Cavalier!

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Ditto Lisa's comments. Merlin is 19 pounds so probably just on the edge on the breed standard but is top end of the breed standard in height, whilst Oakley at 5.5 months is 14 pounds - al lot bigger than Merlin was at the same age but then again he does eat whilst Merlin didn't eat well as a puppy. I also think that Oakley has matured faster as he already has slippers and featherings coming along whereas Merlin was still unfeathered at the same age.

I think they just grow at different rates and like Karlin says you need to go a bit further back than just parents to get a good idea of adult size.

our 20 week old just weighed in at 5.5 lbs and our 18 1/2 week girl weighe 7.5 lbs. the breeder said both would be on the small side.
how do you know what amount of food is right?

Dottie went for her vet check yesterday. She is 10 weeks old and weighs 4.4 lbs. She is my first Cavalier, so I am learning everything from scratch!