Like their parents, Yorkshire Terriers and Maltese, the Morkie is meant to be a small dog, usually under 10 pounds and most often around 5 or 6 pounds. Both the parent breeds are small boned and not meant to carry any extra weight.
How can I tell if my Morkie is overweight?
It doesn’t take much – for example, if your Morkie is 7.5 lbs and is meant to be about 5 lbs., she’s 50% overweight! Here are some ways to tell if your Morkie is a Porkie….
Can you feel his ribs fairly easily – they may have a thin layer of fat on them, but you should be able to feel each one.
Take an overhead view – it’s hard with the Morkie’s coat, but after a bath and before drying, is your Morkie “wasp” shaped or barrel shaped? Healthy-weight dogs should have a definite waist between shoulders and hips.
Now take a side view – again works best if your pup is wet, because of his fluffy coat. There should be what experts call an “abdominal tuck” – that is, the area behind the ribs should go up or be smaller in diameter than the rib area. This won’t be as extreme in the Morkie as in some breeds who are very deep chested (the greyhound for example) but it should be there.
Why is my Morkie fat?
- Too little activity
- Neutering – a spayed or neutered dog needs fewer calories
- Age – like us, the Morkie tends to gain some weight as the years add up
- Too much food, the wrong food and too many treats
Calories from treats can really add up. Your 6 or 7 lb. dogs needs just under 300 calories a day – one medium Milk Bone is 40 calories. Another popular treat, “Bonz” for small and medium dogs is 70 calories, and a couple of your buttered toast crusts, can be anywhere between 40 and 60 calories or more!
Next post: Does it really matter if your Morkie is chubby?
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Where can I find the ebook mentioned in the article?
Hi Hillary – you can read out the newly updated MEGA-GUIDE TO EVERYTHING MORKIE, here http://www.aboutmorkies.com/mega-guide-to-everything-morkie-2
We purchased a morkie pup 2weeks ago. Got home and took him to the vet. At 8 weeks he weighed 3.3 lbs. our vet said he would prob be 15 lbs!!!!! His mom and dad were only 7 lbs. how can this be???
Small breeds are typically as tall as they’ll get by 6 months, and are fully ‘filled in’ by a year. At that point, they’ve reached their optimum size and weight. It’s very difficult to predict, but some experts say that for small breeds – take the pup’s weight at SIX weeks and double it. Then double it again to project his weight by the end of that year (which is his full size)…. So assuming he weighed 3.0 lbs. at 6 weeks; doubled then doubled again, that is 12 pounds. But that seems on the larger size given his parents’ sizes… doesn’t make a lot of sense. I think only time will really tell. Good luck with your new puppy!