Expert: Kaza - 5/17/2008

Question
I've read that the average weight for a Bichon is 9 lbs.  I have a 3 month old puppy that already weighs over 5 lbs.  Is this normal?  Are we feeding him too much, and how much should he be eating daily?

Answer
Hi
There is NO such thing as the average weight for a Bichon. Simply , all dogs are the progeny of two dogs, many factors work into height, weight, length, and it does not just come from the two parents of the dog.If shall we say the parents are large  and the grandparents are large then the average weight for the pup will be higher than those from smaller bichons.
Today especially within the UK Bichons are actually getting bigger, this can be due to a better diet, a gene pool that favours the bigger dog and or all these factors. I know that taller dogs appear to be the in thing on the show circuit, this can only increase the general size through popular sire syndrome....
If your dog is healthy and not being overfed with kibble (these increase weight) then I would not worry, but bear in minda far better diet for Bichons is a raw food diet, they eat less, the poop less and they are in general healthier and see vets far less.For more info on diets please log into our health site
www.eurobichons.com