Approximate Correct Weight for a 24 inch female

[Miabella]

Hi guys,

Ilsa stands at a hair over 24 inches at the withers. When we adopted her one month ago, she weighed in at a whopping 106 lbs. As of last Thursday, she is down to 100 lbs.

I'm familiar with the physical characteristics of a dog at the correct weight (visible waist, tuck-up, palpable ribs, etc), but approximately what weight should I be shooting for here? 85-90 lbs?

Thanks in advance. :)

[Judi W]

Depending upon her age and amount of bone, I'd suggest 80 to 85.

[frau]

Hi,

Gypsy is 26 inches and 84 pounds. We keep her slim because of her CHD. Our newly adopted lab, Vegas, is 24 inches, came home at 83 pounds and looked quite overweight. He is down to 80, but he needs to lose more. Even his skin feels fat. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be hypothyroidic.

I am a proponent of Rotties not being fat. I wouldn't let her be more than 80 pounds, if that. I would judge by how she looked.

Frau

[Miabella]

Hoo boy, we've still got a long way to go! Good thing we both enjoy taking long walks, I'm concerned about letting a fat, out-of-shape dog run hard chasing balls or playing with other dogs. It just seems like the perfect recipe for a torn ACL.

[moondog]

Luna is 25-1/2" and 92 lbs (down from 94). She looks perfect to me, but her elbows would prefer she weigh a bit less, so I'm s-l-o-w-l-y backing her down to 88-90 lbs.

[Carina43]

And Daphne weighs 70lbs (or thereabouts) at 24"! Just to confuse things more...but she's very small boned and slim.

[Miabella]

I've been giving her 1 cup of dry Canidae plus a heaping tablespoon of canned Canidae chicken & rice in the morning and evening. Combined with 3-4 miles of leash walking per day, do you all think this will allow her to lose the weight?

(I'd say she's getting a little over 1,000 calories per day).

[mmgy]

That sounds like a good feeding plan to me. I know of at least four big golden retrievers (90# or more) that are eating Canidae like that (2 cups a day) to lose weight. It's working for three of them, over the course of 4-8 months, and I doubt any of them get that much exercise.

Six pounds in a month is good! I don't believe I'd try to make her lose it any faster. After all, she didn't gain it that fast.

M2

[livertw]

Daisy is a l-o-n-g, lean 86 pounds at 26" tall.

One older dog that I adopted had to lose 15 pounds (from 45 to 30). We did it over a period of about 8 months. No hard playing at all, he was too out of shape. He just gradually ate less and walked more. He went from balloon with legs to a gorgeous little beagle boy.:p

[joquendo]

I noticed with my Jade at 24 inches she weight 79lbs - she is very lean NO fat at all on her - she is all tucked in and very very lean. (I always say she looks like a race horse ):)....I have found though that its much much easier to maintain a normal weight with the raw diet, very very occassionally when I have kibble (Canidae) in the house for the foster dogs, and if I forgot to thaw out their raw food, I might give Jade some Kibble and its ONLY then I notice her getting podgy almost over night - so the raw diet sure takes care of that... phew :)