Does the number of litter mates affect the size of a dog? Molly is one of thirteen. When she was weighed at 19 weeks she was 14.1 kilos, which is a lot less than some of the dogs on the forum (but still enough when you are having a disagreement with them). I am feeding her on Royal Caniin Lab mix junior. There is quite a range of weights for age on the feeding chart on the back, I pick something in the middle, currently 330 grams per day, as I have no idea what her adult weight is destined to be. She only gets small meals as I use lots of kibble for training, in the Buster Cube and Kong (anything to keep her occupied). She doesn't get treats. She has abundant energy. I can feel her ribs if I have a good poke around. I think I am getting it right, but would hate to starve any creature.
Re: Number of litter mates They are all very, very different. My boy was a bit smaller than his litter mates at 6 weeks, but he soon caught up. 14kgs at 4.5 months is a fair weight. Charlie, who is a chunky big lab, was 17kg at 4 months, but he is definitely going to be towards the heavy end of the forum dogs. I feed the same food as you, and found the recommended amounts were far, far too much for Charlie (and like I say, he is already a big dog). I asked the breeder the weight of his Mum and Dad, and uncle, to give me an idea of how much Charlie was likely to weigh as an adult - it's not exact, but will tell you whether you are heading towards having a light or heavy weight dog. I reckon Charlie will end up around 30 to 32 kgs.
Re: Number of litter mates Penny was one of nine and weight about 6-7kg at 12 weeks. She's now a year old and pretty much done growing at a tiny 18.8kg. I don't think it's to do with litter size although this would make sense as I once knew of a tiny collie that had one puppy who was bigger than his mum at 14 weeks old... You can get a good indication of final adult size by looking at the parents. Penny's parent were fairly small as they are working stock, but even so Penny is small again. Though thinking about it she was probably one of the smallest in the litter. Her parents are probably only about 20-25kg max.
Re: Number of litter mates Harley was one of eight. She was in the middle in size to them at 7-8 weeks. She is just over 6 months and weighs nearly 18kg. The vet thinks she will be around 23-25kg when fully grown. Why don't you ask your vet, they usually have a rough idea
