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Cavalier question

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kidless1

New member
I have a 1-1/2 year old Cavalier who weighs 30 lbs. (weight and height proportionate). Do they usually get that big? most info i found said up to 18 lbs. He is not fat....he does have a waist. He is longer than your average Cavalier.

See my profile for pic
 
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Thirty pounds is BIG. I've had two cocker spaniels that were smaller than 30 pounds. Are you sure the dog isn't a "little" pudgy. My vet never tells owners their dogs are too big because people have very negative reactions. My largest cavalier is 19.4 pounds. I stopped showing him because he was too big.
 
Your cavalier defintetly is pretty big. Take slow jogs around the block, and when he's in better shape, maybe go faster so he can lose some weight? Don't really know what to say sorry.
 
I believe the breed standard in the U.S. is 13-18 lbs...my Miles is on the heavy side at 18 lbs, but I don't believe he's overweight (his father and grandfather were both about 17 lbs). 30 lbs seems awfully large for a cav...do you have any pictures? I think you're supposed to be able to see a distinct waist when looking down on your cav from above...do you see it? :)
 
Hello
Of my three cavaliers two ie Daisy and Rosie are size wise to breed standard but Poppy (Tri ) being a big girl weighs in at 32 1/2 pounds ,needless to say she is now on a diet with a target weight, taking into account her size, of 22-24 lbs. Her weight is my problem for worrying about her not eating enough when she was a puppy and then totally over feeding , so when she has her two meals a day the scales come out and she has a maximum of 60 grammes twice daily ,topped up with green beans and carrots.:-|
 
I have a 30 pounder too

I have a 30 pounder too, and she is FAT. Take a good objective look at your dog's body. Can you clearly feel her ribs? Does she have an obvious waist line? If not, she is overweight and needs to go on a diet. There are many threads recently past about this, and my girl has been on a diet for a little over a month and has lost 2 pounds. It will take a long time to get to her goal weight of 24 pounds, which is still large for a cavalier. Good luck. I know a lot of Cavaliers who are on the large size, but 30 pounds is excessive and is most likely obesity. Mine porked up at around 2 years old.
 
Gus is about 20 -21 pounds,Dj is about the same maybe a little leaner and Pippin is around 18 pounds. Lately I cut their food down and topped up with veg as they(especially Pippin who is tiny) were starting to look a liitle chunky.I also increased exercise a little..as in slightly longer walks.

Sounds like you have a BIG cavalier but hard to tell if weight is ok without pics. He seems quite young to be that weight,as others have said you should be able to see a waistline looking from above...thats how I realised mine were putting on a bit too much weight. It was entirely my fault Pippin was on a food that left him feeling really hungry and I felt sorry for him so added a little extra! I have now switched food and feed less food more veg.
 
My Monty is well over 30lbs, but very slim. This is an unusual weight, but he has a well known early large dog in his pedigree. Nevertheless, he is 12+ and is in early stage heart failure, now, but is otherwise healthy.

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No I wouldnt say that he looks fat. If you lightly press on his sides can you feel his ribs? If you cant then I might say he needs a little dieting.

How tall is he?

Since we are talking about size here, does anyone have a "regular" growth chart for Cavaliers? Like how much the usual cavalier weighs by certain ages?

I have asked my vet this but there are little to NO cavy owners in my area so she doesnt have much reference. I am sure my little guy is fine and so is she but it would be interesting to cross reference.
 
He doesn't look overweight - this is a good site, scroll down the page and there are photos to show ideal weigth for a Cavalier.

http://www.roycroftcavaliers.com/manualfeeding.htm


Sadly there are some unscrupulous breeders who use Springer Spaniel stud dogs on Cavalier bitches as this increases the size of the litter - earning them more money :( These dogs look quite like Cavaliers as puppies, and even as adults, but end up considerably bigger than breed standard.


The most important thing though is that you love and enjoy your Cavalier - keep him trim and exercised, and hopefully you will have many happy years together. If you are not planning to show, then size doesn't really matter anyway.
 
It's very hard to tell from that angle in the picture. Our breeder said that with Cavaliers, the rib test is easier than the waist test because of all the hair and varied markings making it hard to really see an indentation accurately.

Our Daisy is overweight (we are working on it), but she is also much larger framed than most Cavaliers. Our vet said her ideal weight would probably be about 22 pounds, given her frame. She is very long-bodied. Someone said on an earlier thread (several weeks ago) that early spaying can make some dogs grow bigger. I wish I'd known that. I spayed her before her first heat for health reasons, but I wasn't aware that early spaying could cause her to be so big. Although that may be an old wives' tale anyway.

Looking at her from the top is hard to judge her waist because she has markings right there on both sides so it makes her look "indented" there when she probably really isn't. She's probably about 4 pounds overweight right now. (I haven't weighed her in a while.)

30 pounds is very big, but he may just be a really big guy. You and your vet will have to make the judgment based on feeling his ribs.
 
Thanks for the info

The vet said he wasn't fat just big for his breed. I can feel his ribs. He is very active and doesn't over eat. He's just a big guy...MORE FOR ME TO LOVE.
 
He doesn't look overweight in the picture. I would use a measuring cup to make sure you keep his food in check at each meal, but other than that just love him to pieces.:)
 
It is hard to tell from a photo but you dog certainly does not look fat in that photo. If you run your hands lightly down his sides and you get just make out the feel of his ribs, it is unlikely that he is overweight.

There does seem to be a huge variation in the size of the CKCS and where the breed standard may say about 8 kilograms is the correct weight, the reality is that there are many much smaller & much larger.

My boys are also quite long. Sonny (3 yr old) weighs 9 kilograms and Beau (18 months) weighs 10 kilograms. Both look lean & I can feel their ribs easily.
 
Hope have just taken on an overweight red and white cocker. His fosterer says she can't pinch a piece of flesh between thumb and forefinger. A sure sign of being overweight as the skin is pulled tightly over the podge. he'll soon be as he should, though, as his foster home is an active one.
 
He's definitely not fat.I just think he looks like a tall dog,certainly he looks in proportion.Some cavaliers are dainty and may not even may make the breed standard,but there are some very large cavaliers out there.My mother's cavalier is massive but he's fat as well as tall.
I was at a camogie match last night and a woman came up to Daisy who was on her leash with me and asked if it was a miniature cavalier,as they had cavaliers before and they were much "bigger and chunkier".
Unless your dog was bought from a breeder who shows cavaliers, chances are that your dog will be well off the breed standard size.From what I can see there's a wide range of diversity when it comes to these little spaniels.
Sins
 
Thats the same weight as Bluebell, she is very big, but not fat. She is just solid, a large cavalier! they all come in different sizes, i have seen some that are so tiny when out on walks. i checked with the vet about Bluebells size and she said she was perfect, still had a waist and was not fat.

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Our Chloe will be 7 months old on Sunday and is around 25 lbs. She is definitely not overweight as she has a very thin waist but she is very long/tall. I know that her siblings from the same litter are between 14 and 17 lbs. She is very happy and healthy and the only draw back is that she is tall enough to pull items off of the counters so we have to watch her carefully at all times. We had her spade about 1 1/2 months ago when she weighed 22 lbs.

I guess like people dogs will sometimes pick up on a gene in their pool that will make them a little different. She is a most loveable pet and we never intended to breed or show her. Our vet commented that in her considerable experience with CKCS she has found the larger dogs to be very healthy but has had some pretty serious issues with the "tea cup" dogs.
 
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