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by Vicki

Pixie Bella was 4 mos. old yesterday. She already weighs 5 lbs.! I think she is going to be a larger weight breed? She's about 6/12 - 7 in. from paw to shoulder. I did get her from a pet store and by reading all of your posts realize that larger dogs do come from the pet stores. How much more weight can I expect her to gain?

DISCUSSION:

It is really hard to tell. I have one that weighed 5 lbs at 4.5 months. She is now 12 months old and weighs 5.5 lbs. She had a lot of baby fat, and when it went away, and she grew, the weight did not change much.
-Marsha A.

Dear Vicki: Every bloodline is different, some mature quickly while others are slow to mature. The rule of thumb for my line is: 2 Lbs at 12 weeks gives me a 5 Lb dog.

When I first began in maltese many years ago, I purchased a show bitch from a very well known breeder. I specifically requested a bitch that would be no larger than six Lbs at maturity. When I received this puppy at four months of age, she was already 5 Lbs. The breeder still insisted that her mature weight would not exceed 6 Lbs. Novice that I was, I believed this and the bitch matured at 13 Lbs !!!!! She was a nice bitch but she was HUGE. This is all the more funny when you consider that my maltese are probably among the smallest maltese bred in North America.

I don't know what dogs are behind your puppy and could not accurately predict how big she will get but I would hazard a guess that your "Bouncing Baby " will weigh in excess of the upper limit of the standard, which is 7 Lbs. Remember, good things also come in BIG packages!!!
-Andrea Noël Snoël Maltese

Vicki, Isn't the info on this board amazing! I was surprised by the "heavy" baby that didn't grow large. Lucy was 2.5 lb at 14 wk (weighed at the vet). She is 7.8 at almost 18 mo (again, weighed recently at the vet). By all the rules of thumb, she shouldn't have been over the 6 pound limit, but there she is.... She is about 7 in tall--as best I can tell...she tries to chew the measuring tape every time I try to see how tall she is. So I figure she's a pound an inch and that seems like a reasonable weight to me. Love to Pixie Bella from Lucy.
-cathy brown

Vicki: KoKo was 4.2 lbs when she came home from the Pet Store at 12 weeks. She is 22 months and 9.9. She was 10.4 when Shayna came to live with us in Jan. but Motherhood has trimmed her down. Shayna was just under 3 lbs at 12 weeks. At 7 months she is 6.1. I think there is some baby fat on her and she will probably be 6 lbs as an adult. She does love to eat. KoKo is very tall and Shayna is normal height. A lot of people think KoKo is a small toy poddle, she also is curly so her hair is short. Non of the above is important, what's important is well love them both more than we can say and they love us more than life it's self. That's what's important.
-Shelley

Just as a note to the above. I have used a number of vets over the years and have found them CONSISTENTLY incorrect in the weights that they give me on my maltese. Even with the large expensive scales that they have, they always give the wrong weight. In discussing this with them, I have learned that these scales often have a hard time with the very tiny maltese. My dogs just have not weighed enough to register properly and accurately. My solution to this dilemna has been to purchase baby and food scales. The extra tinies and the puppies have their weights recorded on the food scales and the others on the baby scales. Having an accurate weight is important and can, at times, be critical, as in when a dog is going to have surgery or antibiotics. I now TELL my vet how much my dog weighs and am able to make an accurate determination, to the ounce !
-Andrea Noël Snoël Maltese

My Maltese is 12 weeks and tips the scales at 4.3 pounds. His Mama weighs 7 pounds and his Daddy weighs 5 pounds. Any guesses on adult weight?
-April Blackmon

Hi Vicki!! Well, I guess I have 2 of the LARGER Maltese. Travis was always on the "husky"side as a pup and grew up to be 16lbs.at age 4. Harlee Dee was much smaller as a pup, but grew up to be 12lbs.(her B-Day is June 6) at 4 yrs.old. In my case, I'm extremely happy that I don't have the smaller size,I'd be afraid I'd break them....OUCH....
-Karen Kalamaras

Andrea, I noticed that my vet used a baby scale with her, so I guess I can assume that her 5 lb weight is pretty accurate, huh?
-Vicki

What fun to learn about other Maltese! Zsa Zsa weighed 2 lbs 2 oz at 9 1/2 weeks, 2 lbs. 12 oz. at 11 weeks, and 4 lbs. at 15 weeks. At 4 1/2 months she weighs around 5 lbs. She grew so fast those first few weeks, I couldn't believe it. But now she seems to have slowed a bit. Her father was 8 lbs. and her mother was 6 lbs. We'll see! Her personality will be priceless no matter what she weighs!
-Pamela and Zsa Zsa

My little Sassie is 6 months old and weights almost 3lbs. We weigh her at home on our postage scales. When I take her to the vet their scales are always at least 1/2 lb lower than the postage scales. My vet always writes on Sassie chart the weight I give him because he knows the smaller dogs do not weigh well on the dog scales.
-ChrisL