Kai Ken Growth Rate

edited February 2013 in Kai Ken (甲斐犬)
Ginko is growing up fast, can't believe I've had him for almost a month already (feels like 6 months.)

Anyways, when I got him at 4 months he weighed 16.7 lbs.

I weighed him a few days ago and he's up to 21.4 lbs. He will be 5 months old this Sunday the 24th.

Is this a normal size for his age? I expected him to be bigger. Should I be expecting growth spurts at any certain times? At what age was your Kai fully grown?

Thanks guys!
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Comments

  • It sounds about right. Goro was a BIG Ayu pup and he was around 20 pounds at 3 months... but he's a beast. Ginko's littermate Matsu seems to be heading down the same path of large Kai as Goro. Ginko could end up being Nio's size. Kai are medium size dogs. We often tell people that they are smaller than they look in pictures. Every once in a while you get large KKA kai like Goro and Matsu.
  • He eats his food every day; but I'm thinking about switching to a different brand just to give him more quality food and calorie intake. He's a very active pup when I'm home.

    He is definately growing though, the cage I have him in now is almost too small for him. When I got him it seemed giant. I really don't have a problem if he does end up being on the smaller side, but man it seems strange that Matsu is so much larger than Ginko..
  • edited February 2013
    Matsu is probably 30 or 31 lbs. He is bigger than Juno who I know is 28. I will try to get an exact weight on him tonight. My brother and sister are a lot taller than i am, its just how families are. :) Ginko is very red and - ive always thought- very handsome!

    I think Matsu is the top end for the litter- you need to hear from Orry and Misaki and Sumiko too for a better average. @montanakai @mysticrhythms
  • edited February 2013
    Well Leo, Goro's littermate, is much smaller than Goro. Some pups have different genes. Matsu probably picked up the large 50 lb. gene from Ayu like Goro did.
  • Yeah Misaki is tiny compared to Matsu.
  • @nrmorris What food are you feeding him, by the way? Earthborn is really great because of it's high in protein. It's the one Brad feeds his dogs and it's what our dogs eat.
  • Kai and hokka are on the small side of the Nippo medium dog scale. If I'm to understand the book "Japanese dogs" right its is part of why kais have their own breed club.

    I would say not as a breeder or long time expert that your average female kai is low 30s and male kai is in the high 30s. Though @yandharr, cszeig, sjp051993 and I all have kai under 30lbs, male and female. (sorry if I butchered names). Unless he gets the 'big' gene he might only be as tall as your knee.

    He def has several more months of growth and will at any size be able to be the activity partner you want, trust me I've seen my girl for run for more than an hour and not be tired, but sticking to a good high protien food is always a plus.
  • edited February 2013
    @Hinata23 I feed my dogs Earthborn too. After Evo got sold, I found Earthborn worked well with pieces of raw meat. Eevee is 55lbs (but she needs to lose some weight) and gets fed 3 cups a day. Ninja, AA, gets fed 3 cups too. Sasuke, who was a 30lbs Shiba, got fed 3 cups as well, but he had a fast metabolism.
  • I think Ginko will be on the smaller side - I'd expect him to finish around 40lbs. Kai are typically fully grown height-wise by 9 months or so - but they continue to fill-out to 3 years or even later.
  • @nrmorris I have one of your pup's brothers, Orry. I haven't weighed him for quite some time now, but I would guess he's somewhere inbetween Ginko and Matsu. He's probably about as tall as Matsu, but he's not quite as thick, at least that's my take based on photos. Based on his growth, I think Orry will be about 40lbs...maybe 45lbs at the high end.

    I've heard of few ways to project adult weight for medium sized breeds, which provide ballpark figures at best. There's a lot of variation based on breed and the individual pup. One that I did for Orry, was to take his weight at 14 weeks, multiply it by 2, and then add half of the starting weight. In other words, Orry weighed 17.5lbs at 14 weeks, so this method projects his adult weight to be 43.75lbs ((17.5*2)+(.5*17.5)). If you know some of his earlier weights, you could you use this method as an estimate.

    Some more "rule of thumb" type methods that I've heard: a pup weighs about 45-50% of its adult weight at 4 months and about 65-70% at 6 months. Again, these are just loose estimates for medium sized breeds...they may be way off for other breeds, but at least in Orry's case they seem to be pretty reasonable.

  • @nrmorris I have one of Ginko's sisters and my little Shelby is probably about 20lbs now. Last time she was weighed (feb 5) she weighed 18.5lbs. Shelby is getting close to knee height. When she jumps up on me (her way of asking me to hold her) her feet are almost to my waist and I'm 5'7".

    I've been feeding Shelby Bil-jac and she gets a little over 1 cup twice a day. I've been feeding Bil-jac to my other dogs as well. My Shiba (she's a bit on the petite side, judging by everyone else's weight and size comments for Shiba) weighs about 16lbs and she eats 3/4 cup a day. This is enough for her to be full and happy.

    Hope this helps you gauge Ginko's growth. :)
  • Matsu is 29.5 lbs officially and a thick tonka truck of a kai.
  • Mika was 36 pds. at 6 mos old, and I don't think she's gained much more, maybe 1 pd. She's short and stalky, but thin when you look at her stomach indentation.

    Koda was 51 pds. by 9 mos. of age. He will turn 4 in April and is still there. Lately he's a piglet, so he may have gained a pound. He's so thin though that it's a good thing.
  • LOL on Koda. Tora has been a piglet lately as well. I think she has put on a few pounds. She is probably about 35 pounds now.
  • I got Kaiya at about 4.5 months and she weighs within 2-4 pounds of that weight (she was 26 pounds or so) at her current 2.5 years. She is between 28-30 pounds and has been since probably 6 months. I think she grew pretty quickly though.
  • @Hinata23 originally I was feeding him Iams (we had a major snowstorm the day I got him so I just grabbed the food I could.)

    Now that the bag is pretty much gone, I was thinking about switching to Blue Buffalo grain free. Any thoughts? I would have to order Earthborn, it's not available near me. I checked the website.

    And Ginko weighs 22.3 lbs, and stands 17 inches tall at the shoulders as of today. Thanks for all the input guys, wasn't sure what to expect.
  • Any high quality grain free would be good for him. Just check around for what is available near you.
  • You can look dog food up on this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com

    These are the best dry foods: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/best-dry-dog-foods

    :)
  • I like dogfoodanalysis.com
  • Ooh, haven't been to that one. Thanks!
  • edited February 2013
    @nrmorris I have a bag of earthborn brand new that i wont be using. split shipping with me and its yours if not @ttddinh could use it for her pups.
  • @cdenney Is it giving Sachi girl really bad gas?
  • no about three weeks in she refused to eat it no matter what I put on it. would eat everything else so I assume she was just done with it. we are on a raw and kibble mix right now that is giving her a ton of energy and everything is normal so I figure keep going with this until the next time she tires out.
  • Well Leo, Goro's littermate, us much smaller than Goro. Some pups have different genes. Matsu probably picked up the large 50 lb. gene from Ayu like Goro did.
    Yes, Leo is smaller than Goro. I don't know how much he weighs--we haven't weighed him in awhile, but he was not quite up to 40 pounds the last time we took him to the vet (which was several months ago).
    I think Ginko will be on the smaller side - I'd expect him to finish around 40lbs. Kai are typically fully grown height-wise by 9 months or so - but they continue to fill-out to 3 years or even later.
    Leo really surprised me by having a recent growth spurt. He'll be a year old in a couple of weeks, and I noticed his growth in height about a month ago (maybe two tops). He grew a couple of inches taller. He used to be the same height as Bel (large female Shiba) but now he is significantly taller. I did just measure him recently, but I never remember numbers well. I think he was about 18-19 inches at the withers.

    I think he's a pretty good size overall.

  • Toshi was pretty much full size at 7 months (42lbs), I weighed him often and out it into a chart app. he's about 45lbs now so I don't expect much more weight gain. his male litter mate is over 52lbs though and the females are all in the 30s I think
  • Wow, I missed the boat on this one earlier. I have Misaki and she is 21.6 lbs now. I will say that she was heavier than Ginko when he left Brad's. I was freaking out about her weight compared to Mr. Matsu at 16lbs vs 24lbs which was a few weeks before Ginko left. :) I have been feeding her slices of raw meat in the morning along with her food. We recently switched to Earthborn Holistics Coastal Catch due to our other pup Jiro's stomach not liking the Innova Puppy Vantage. She just recently had a huge growth spurt.
  • I will say that there is no reason to try to make dogs grow faster by giving them a special food. Too fast puppy growth is not a good thing--slow steady growth is much better. That's why some breeders of large and giant breeds recommend not too much protein in a puppy diet.

    Just find a good food you lik that fits your feeding philosophy and agrees with the dog, and go with it, but don't try to find something to make them grow faster.
  • @knecha Mandi, you should make a thread of Sachi and another one of Jiro!
  • Mike is correct. Kazan is around 52 pounds. He was always the largest of the litter. Kazue holds steady at 32 pounds which is the same weight as her mother and I believe Ren has been hanging around the 28 pound range. There can we a wide variety within a litter.
  • @sjp051993 how tall is Kazan? Is he like his uncle Koda? Tall and thin?
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