Raw-fed puppy growth?

[sam.i.am]

For those of you who have raised a puppy on raw food, how long did your pup grow in height (12 months, 18 months...)?

Delilah was Rescued by Morgen (saints23) at the age of four months old and she was severely malnourished (12.5 pounds) and sick when Morgen found her. Morgen got her up to a good weight for her size and then we adopted Delilah at age 6 months (45 pounds).

Since then, Delilah has been raw-fed. But her growth as a young puppy was very different than a puppy fed regularly throughout puppy-hood.

I'm wondering if her growth schedule is going to be longer due to that period of time she was not fed normally (before Morgen found her).

Delilah is now 14.5 months old. I thought she'd be pretty-much finished growing in height, but her rear end is higher than her shoulders AND her tail is long enough to touch the floor, so it seems like her body is still preparing to grow in height? Or, is it possible that she will stay with her rear higher?

Since Delilah's growth has defied all growth charts, my vet cannot even make a general prediction of Delilah's growth. At six months and 45 pounds, my vet told me she'd probably top out at ~60 pounds. But, 60, 70, 80, and 90 pounds has come and gone.

Delilah's body type looks like a golden retriever with a bit of stockiness thrown in. I have a feeling she is Saint/Golden due to her head shape and body shape. Her Mom was a Saint Bernard and most of her litter was probably fathered by another Saint, but it seems that it may be possible that there was a rogue father in the mix....

She is a couple of inches shorter than Oliver (Oliver is a fairly tall Pyr/Saint mix) but her build is not as square and stocky as a Saint would be.

[AkNeoLover]

Tink has never had "pup/dog" food - our breeder started her on raw for us. She is now almost 2 years old and just finishing (I hope) her last little growth spurt. Troll was switched over to raw at about 18 months, and he had his last little bit of filling out at about 2 1/2 years. Tinks brother Rufus is fed Innova and is just a little lighter than Tink however, she has more of the mastiff body, and Roofie Doof is more bloodhoundish. Now we took Tinks weight at 10 weeks old and asked the vet and our breeder what they thought she would end up at, and both said about 140, which is exactly what she is at now - give or take a couple lbs. Don't know if that helped you at all

[sam.i.am]

Thanks, Sue! That makes me feel much better. I swear Delilah is growing still, but everyone told me that after about 1 year, she would not grow in height anymore, but it looks like she has growth yet to do due to her high booty.

Oliver was kibble fed until he was a senior, so I have not raised any puppy on raw (even though Delilah was not raw-fed until 6 months), but I thought she'd be finishing out and not be obviously growing anymore. If Tink just finished a growth spurt, I think Delilah's continued growth makes more sense to me, now.

Thanks so much for letting me know that Tink grew well after one year old.

[gotbigdogs]

My raw fed puppies have grown super slow.. but I prefer that. Typically saints grow height until 12-18 months and then fill out and mature to 3 sometimes even 4. Argus will be 3 in Sept and is still mautring even after recently neutering. Most saints dont even enter the show ring until between ages 2 and 4 because thats when they start to look their best.

Some dogs never out grow their rear being higher than their fronts, you see it a lot with dogs with bad hips or conformation issues.

[sam.i.am]

Oh, see, that is what I worry about with Delilah. She has bad hips and I don't want her to have poor conformation to exacerbate her bad hips. Well, I just hope she is still growing.... I have no issue at all with slow growth, I just don't want her to be done with her butt still high.

[Itsapyr]

Jasper had evened out but then yesterday I noticed he is really high on the butt end again. He will be 2 the end of this month and He is evidently still growing.

[sam.i.am]

OMG, well, I guess I have a while to go before Delilah stops growing then. If you and Sue have 2 year olds who are still growing, I won't worry about Delilah's high butt, now.

She does have bad hips and who knows about her breeding.....she is probably a random BYB Saint x a very random golden retriever. Goldens and Saints have the worst genetics for hips, so she got two bad hip breeds in her mix.

[LJL]

Gus has been on raw for a while now. He's a Saint, and at 2 years about 1 months, he has become butt high again. I think he has a little growing still to do.

[sam.i.am]

Holy crap, I guess I have another year to watch her grow then. LOL She's not turning out to be quite as small as I originally imagined. Morgen and I both thought she'd be 80-85 pounds.

[ShilohsGirlJen]

my girls really stopped growing up somewhere around 2. We did see the tail touching the floor then the back went up and then the front.