[Ladysmom]

The general rule of thumb is to triple their weight at eight weeks which would put him at about nine pounds.

Genetic play a big part in it, though. Not only how big his parents were, but his grandparents, great grandparents, etc.

 

[Ladysmom]

Which means my baby will probably end up being a bigger malt. Unless he's just growing a lot now and will then slow down...we'll see. It's just that it seems like most sm members doggies here weigh less at a much older age.

The Maltese standard calls for adult weight between 4-7 pounds. If you didn't get him from a responsible breeder who carefully breeds to produce Maltese who will grow up to be excellent representations of the breed, he could be very far from the standard.

The standard is a blueprint for breeders to follow, a "recipe". Just like with cooking, if you don't follow the recipe carefully, the outcome can be very different from what you intended.

We have had Maltese from backyard breeders here who weigh in the teens and have long snouts and curly cottony coats.

This is a good explanation of puppy development from a Maltese show breeder:

Maltese Puppy Development

 

[Ladysmom]

You cannot overfeed a eight week old puppy.

Considering the circumstances, be glad he's a bigger boy. Much less risk of hypoglycemia.

He is already genetically programed to be the adult size he will be. Don't worry about it and just enjoy him.

 

[Ladysmom]

Milo was about 1.8lbs at 8 weeks.

Like Marj said, you can't overfeed an 8 week old puppy - they're supposed to be fat and chubby!:wub:

How big is Milo now? I know the standard in Ireland is different than ours. Your Maltese are bigger, right?

 

[Ladysmom]

OK good. Thanks! I wasn't originally thinking about the "over-feeding" thing but I started noticing that a lot of SM members seem to meticulously measure out their pups food at different wks/month etc. so I started to think that maybe I'm doing something wrong + we're Italian and we tend to over-do-it sometimes - LOL. Also, he tends to kind of nibble at his food at first, for like 10 seconds then he takes a "break" and goes away to do something else and he only goes back if I encourage him by placing him near the bowl and sometimes putting some on his mouth - so for a moment I thought, am I being too Italian saying "mangia, mangia" - but I guess it's better to have some extra reserves than risking hypoglycemia. He's so cute - yes, he's my little chunkie teddybear and I hope to keep him healthy for a long, long time no matter how big or within the standard he winds up being.

As always, thanks everyone for the reassurance -

At his age, "mangia" is a good mantra!

Those of us who carefully measure food have adults. Some, like my Lady, have no concept of being full and would eat as much as they can. :biggrin:

Even if he ends up to be 9-10 pounds, that is still a very small dog.