Tags:
Thanks Melissa, I always had large dogs, so I am familiar with their growth patterns and your analogy is helpful. As for his personality, he was at the shelter for just two weeks, he was picked up roaming and had been picked up before, so they knew who he belonged to.
He had no shots (not even puppy shots).... and the owners did not claim him, unwilling to pay the fees. Luckily he ended up in a no kill shelter where he got all his shots, microchipping, neutering and, with all that stress and exposure, kennel cough. I saw him on Petfinder.com the eve of my birthday and the next day he was mine :-) He is doing well, is such a love and fits in great with my other dogs! I feel very lucky to have him in my life and look forward to seeing how he develops.
If he is that young, your vet should be able to guess the age within a month or two, based on what adult teeth he has and how worn they are (or in this case aren't). They were able to guess the age of a kitten we adopted based on the fact that she had all her adult teeth, but they looked brand-new so had likely just come in.
Good luck with the new guy! Rare to find a Cardi in a shelter like that, since they aren't that common.
Some Cardis grow much more slowly than others, but at a year for a male, 20.6 is very small (as you already know). If he was skinny, that does explain some of it though. He could just be genetically built smaller - it happens. My smaller boy is between 33 and 34 lbs at one year. He was maybe 31-32 lbs at 9 mos.
Do you have any other photos of your guy? Are they certain he's purebred? He looks like a Cardi in the face from your profile pic. As far as the coat, if he was malnourished, his coat will reflect it. Coat can vary a lot in thickness/length within the Cardi "standard". Some have tight, flatter coats and others are longer and thicker. My correct coated merle was already greatly endowed with adult coat (including a huge fox-brush tail) at 9 mos. I can't use my fluff for comparison.
Heads were never really out of proportion with bodies (ears were another story). Are his paws in proportion to his leg bones? Younger ones' paws look larger until their legs fill out - but even by 9 mos. you shouldn't notice that.
I bet his breeder would love to know how he got in a shelter. Cardi breeders - at least the ones I know - are VERY protective of their babies.
Both of mine are blowing coat. The fluff barely has any undercoat left and it's cold in VA, too. Doesn't make sense.
It's really hard to say especially without pictures, but 20 lbs. would be quite small for an adult male. Of course there are always dogs that will be over or under-sized compared to the standard, so he may just be on the small side. As far as his coat, it's possible he may have blown his undercoat while he was roaming or at the shelter due to the stress of it all, but cardis can really have a variety of coat lengths. Not all will have the big fluffy fox tail.
Just for comparison my cardi boy is 7.5 months and about 24 lbs. He's on an all life stages food so I assume his growth is somewhat slower than if he was on a regular puppy food, but corgis in general just seem to mature very slowly.
I feed Fromm's Four Star Nutritionals - the chicken variety at the moment, but I alternate the flavors each time I buy a bag so they're used to getting different foods. Luke gets about 3/4 cup twice a day along with occasional treats.
Luke started to get undercoat when he was around 6 months old I think and it's quite evident now. Your boy may just have a tighter/shorter coat.
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang. Powered by