Mastiff slow growth and low weight

[John Woodington]

I know this seems like a common topic and has a lot of fluctuation. For the first 7 months, my English Mastiff female was been a slow grower. She was 13 lbs at 8 weeks old when I got her and she grew almost exactly 3 lbs every week until she hit 7 months when she weighed 87 lbs and stood 27.25" tall at the shoulders. At this point, it's like she hit a brick wall. She's just shy of 9 months old now and in the last 7 weeks, she hasn't grown any taller and has put on maybe 7 more lbs.

Seems like there are slow growers, slow then fast, and fast then slow. Never really read about a mastiff growing slowly and then stopping at such a young age. I'm just a little worried that she'll fill out a little and that's it.

All of my dogs have learned to eat when they want so her bowls are filled all the time. She just doesn't seem to eat very much and has never been motivated by snacks. So I'm beginning to wonder if how I feed her is contributing to her slow growth. Ultimately, she seems happy but I want to make sure she's getting everything she needs.

 

[John Woodington]

Adding some pictures all taken in the last month... Some days she just looks skinny and other days she looks malnourished. Granted most times when she looks malnourished like in the one picture below, it's just how she's walking and angle of the picture but still. The other mastiff is a 2 years old female that weighs about 160 lbs.

 

[Loverboy Skyline]

Like you said, it's tough to tell from the pictures if she's malnourished or not. You seem to have a pretty good eye for it, so you and maybe your vet are going to be the best judges of that. If you want to her to gain more weight you can try changing her food or adding some meat to her bowl. My Shih Tzu is a real picky eater, but when we started feeding Fromm Gold, she and my Bullmastiff both loved it, even more than Acana and Taste of the Wild.

 

[Boxergirl]

I don't think she looks malnourished in those pictures. I think she looks nice and lean. Of course I can't see her in person. What does your vet say? Don't worry about what the scale says. Always go by body condition. There are some charts in other posts about weight that can help you score her body condition.

 

[John Woodington]

Yeah I've been trying to do the canned meat and even raw chicken legs on top of her food for the last few weeks without much change. I also changed her food to see if maybe she didn't like the Canadae stuff anymore.

I did get her spayed 2 weeks ago. It was just time and not related to weight or size. The vet seems to know giant breeds pretty well and didn't say anything about her size but I also didn't ask. From all the charts I've seen, she's kind of at or below the low end for a female.

 

[Boxergirl]

Yeah I've been trying to do the canned meat and even raw chicken legs on top of her food for the last few weeks without much change. I also changed her food to see if maybe she didn't like the Canadae stuff anymore.

I did get her spayed 2 weeks ago. It was just time and not related to weight or size. The vet seems to know giant breeds pretty well and didn't say anything about her size but I also didn't ask. From all the charts I've seen, she's kind of at or below the low end for a female.

Charts are very generalized. That's why body condition is better for individual evaluation. Where does she fall on this chart? Keep in mind that younger dogs do tend to go through lanky periods, in my experience.

 

[John Woodington]

Ok I'd probably put my girl on the low end of "4" and I'm sure she'll fill out some. I don't plan to force feed her but I have been treating her with some meat in addition to her normal food.