Size and weight discrepancy in litter ranging from 4-20lbs

[natalieraye]

So we got our puppy from a breeder on April 14th (7.5 weeks old) she was born in a liter of 11. At the vet on the 14th she weighed 20.1 lbs. All of the pupdate pictures we received prior to April 9th showed a small puppy (like one would expect a puppy to generally look) the picture we received on the 9th showed a very different looking puppy. When my wife picked up the puppy she commented on how she didn’t understand how she could get so big in a week but was told our pup just hit her growth spurt early. She is supposed to be a medium F1 golden doodle expected to get to be about 50lbs in adulthood.

My wife has been questioning the age of our pup all week and she was messaged by the owner of a litermate who also had concerns of their pup being older and bigger than previously thought. Their pup is 10lbs. They reached out to 3 other littermate families and found out there puppies are measuring 3.6 lbs. so naturally we are confused and curious. Is it possible for a litter of 11 to have such a wide variety of sizes?! 3.6 lbs to 20 lbs from the same litter just seems insane.

 

[lumiere]

@natalieraye When it comes to mixing two different breeds the sizes can be unpredictable. Goldens and poodles are more similar in sizes than other doodles I've seen but they are still two different breeds. Do you have any information on the weight of the parents? If one is greatly bigger than the other then that means the litter will most likely be different sizes as they get older.

Edit: I forgot to look at the pictures but wow. That is a huge difference in 5 days. There is honestly a chance it's a different dog but I definetly want someone else's opinion on that due to the fact I don't have much experience with watching litters grow. I have never found a responsible doodle breeder. Most of the time they just breed for money so idk what they would do. I suggest taking them to the vet and asking them about their age vs what the breeder says.

 

[chrishudges]

@natalieraye Doodle breeders are shady.

 

[natalieraye]

Our puppy for reference:

https://imgur.com/9GvXdEa

Some of her siblings:

https://imgur.com/a/10PL4O7

 

[gwenyth]

@natalieraye Hi! I am a goldendoodle breeder.

First, I was thinking that this is a totally possible situation. I have seen puppies from the same litter where one is 4.5lbs full grown and the sibling is about 25lbs. So it’s totally possible, although somewhat unlikely.

BUT THEN I saw the photos. There is no way those puppies were born in the same litter if those pics were taken within even a week of one another. Your vet will be able to tell the age of your dog based on their teeth so I highly recommend taking him to the vet for an evaluation. Maybe and that’s a big maybe, they have the same parents, but that would mean that your dogs would likely have at least an 8 month age difference as females only go into heat every 4-6 months usually. They would need to wait for another heat cycle, which would likely be 4 months minimum, they are pregnant for 2 months, and then another 2 months to raise them. So likely they are not related at all!!!!

Also, embark dna testing will show you if your dog is related to another dog so maybe you can see if the littermates would be interested in doing dna testing with you.

 

[discussdocs]

@gwenyth OP - I agree with above. Not a breeder, but I work with breeders and have a F1B doodle myself. Genetics is kind of funky, especially when it comes to size of mixed breed dogs.

If the breeder claimed your dog would be “medium”, assuming they bred the golden to a smaller standard… Your dog could have inherited all the large body traits from the grandparents on both sides while others happened to get as much of the smaller body traits as possible from the poodle-side.

Ex. My doodle is the product of an Old English Sheepdog x Toy Poodle bred to a Standard Poodle. He and his brother are 50 lbs, but one of his sisters is 40 lbs. and another is 60 lbs. His parents and him were all Embark-tested so lineage is confirmed.

 

[fasttruck93l]

@natalieraye Did I read your post correctly? Your puppy weighed 20 pounds at 7.5 weeks???

I’m a goldendoodle breeder and that is bigger than any puppy I have ever had. My female is 63 pounds and the stud I use is about 70 pounds. Their puppies are about 8-10 pounds around that age. I once bred my female to our giant schnauzer(he’s 85 pounds) and their puppies were about 10-12 pounds at that age… I keep in contact with a lot of my puppy owners and they are all over 60 pounds. Some of my males are mid 70’s. I would imagine a 7.5 week old puppy weighing that much would be huge as an adult! Even my 85 pound giant schnauzer didn’t weight that much at 7.5 weeks.

 

[natalieraye]

@fasttruck93l That is correct, she just had her 12 week appt and weighs 26lbs so she has slowed down growth for sure. They estimated she will weigh between 40-50lbs fully grown but seems like she may blow past those estimates!