Are they over weight?

Well,started today on cut backs for all 3 of the shelties. Cut back kibble by half,and gave frozen green beans to all.

We will get this under control,I know. It did not take long for Earnhardt,and this issue to will resolve.

I nearly had a stroke,and just shocked to the weight gain. These boys have always maintained right at 20 & 21#. Jasper was always a pound or so more.

He is very lean even looking at him,compared to Trapp right now. Its so strange to,as Jasper is built very differant than his half brother.

And yes Dawn,it is the same scale,and it is accurate. As I weigh myself on it,prior to my check ups at doctors office.

Trapp just had a complete check up,and everything was fine.Nothing in the slightest to give Dr. Mac any indication of thyroid problems.

Jasper & Mia are both due here directly,and will for sure make it sooner than later.
I will also offer other fillers such as pumpkin,broccoli,other veggies. They both did well this morning eating thier rations..
hopefully I don't get to many sad sheltie eyes begging for food.And Earnhardt does not teach his methods to counter surfing:wink2:
 
Lightplum said:
Yes id say overweight...mine are fed BB and they get 1/3c per meal (they get fed twice a day). As general rule of thumb run your hand across the back of your hand...feel the bones of your metacarpals?(even in my chubby hands I can feel each bone) Now run your hand across your dogs ribs, it should feel the same as the back of your hand. You should be able to feel each indentation of the ribs.

Noah is 15 1/2-15 3/4" depending on how he stands, he weights 24lbs and he is heavy boned...Six who is just under 16" weighs 21-22lbs and hes moderate boned.
Click to expand...

Thank you,this is quite helpful.
when I measured Mia's food this morning,gosh it looked like she hasd nothing. As she was only getting 1/2cup a day,now with the cut back...it looked like more veggie than kibble.

We worry about all 3,but Mia is very sedentary. She is a "couch potato" in every sense. With the disabilites,she does not interact nor play with the boys. Just very difficult to stimulate into play.
 
WOW! Sca is 33 right now and I want to get him back to 32 or 31 and he is a LOT bigger than the guys there and I think stockier. Now I do think that even at 33 he is in great shape but that is just a pound more than Jasper.

Spitfire is now closing in on 14 pounds and just under 14" but I do think he is finer boned than Sca.
 
Gizmo must be on the leaner end, as well as the small end. if he is 13inch its BARELY. but he weights maybe 12lbs. but i dont think he is underweight, because he has so much energy. when i feel for his ribs, i can feel them, with out there being much fat between then and the skin, but they arent any where near protruding either. i think this is just a good weight for him to be at.
 
Michelle, my little Meggie only gets a 1/4 cup morning and night as well. The green beans practically outweigh the kibble, but if I go over, she gains weight easily. She is not nearly as active as Cooper.

Mine are:

Meggie 14 +/-" tall; 16.8 lbs. at vet last month (Small boned)
Cooper 15 1/2+ tall; 20.6 lbs. at vet last weekend (Small boned)
Lottie 15 1/2+ tall; 22.6 lbs. at vet last weekend (Lottie is very large boned and is actually on the thin side, but with her hips and injured front paw, being a little underweight is to her benefit.
 
Gavin is pushing 30lbs.
When he was 27-28 he was too skinny :( But that was due to worms.
at 32lbs he goes on a diet. we mostly do the rib test to check, but the numbers correlate to 30lb being his perfect weight.

But then, he's 19 inches of love :D
 
That definitely sounds a bit heavy. I've been told that their ideal weights (which they weigh now) and the heights of my pack are as follows:

- Ginny 14" @ 14 lbs.
- Sadie 17.5" @ 23-24 lbs.
- Toby 18.5" @ 25-26 lbs.

I can't say whether they're fine boned or not, I'd say they have the typical sheltie build.
 
I never use weight as my guide, I feel the sternum and want to feel a thin fat pad covering the bone. Tinsel is 15" and 22 pounds. He could be slightly lighter since he is sedentary and so his weight is over ideal because of extra fatty tissue. If he was well muscled he might weigh more and be considered in perfect weight as muscle weighs more than fat.
 
My Claussen is 17" and 24lbs...but I'm trying to put weight on him actually. His hip bones..most of his top line are finally starting to not be so prominent. The vet agreed he needed to gain 5 lbs. that's a lot for a sheltie! 25% of his weight... And LB is 15.5" and 20lb. He's got some gaining to do also. They're up to 1.75 cups of TOTW (originally Orijen for 1 year) but they never gained weight when I upper the food...just had sloppier poops. I think it really is how your dog feels to you because there is length to be considered also.
 
I would say that its hard to say if someones dog is overweight, especially if none of us have physically seen them.

If this is really freaking you out, I would take them to the vet and have them accessed with regard to their weight and then follow the vet recommendations as far as food is concerned.

I have done this with mine own dog Beau, because he now weighs 20 pounds which is quite normal but, to some busy bodies in the neighborhood they kept trying to tell me that he was overweight.

My vet was laughing because when I brought him home Beau only weighed 13 pounds you could see his ribs, bones and cartilage, so now that he's actually healthy people are like he's fat. And now that I have the actual knowledge from my Beau' vet I can turn around and tell people to mind their business

Especially since I know with all the physical activity that he gets there is really a 'fat" chance that he will ever really truly have a weight problem.. His momma maybe, but, not him
 
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