[hillyb]

ok i notice that alot of these bassets are bigger than lulu rounder and saggyer than her does that come with age or we not feeding her well enough she is rather thin fo a basset though she weighs almost 50lbs
what do you all feed your dogs and how much and how often?

 

[Kezzy&Snoops]

I have a skinny one too! he's usually around the 45 lb mark. The vet says he's in good condition.

he eats lots, but is so active, weight doesn't stay on him. he's also exceptionally fast, for a basset - he can nearly keep up with his friend, Penny the lurcher.

 

[Dozer-Digger]

My two weigh 54 & 59 lbs. Dozer could gain a lot more weight, a Digger looks like he could gain a few more pounds. Vet said they both are thin, and should gain at least 10 lbs.
They get all the canned and dry that they will eat. If I feed them more, they won't eat it. If I fed them more table scraps, they would gain more weight, but I rarely feed scraps. (OK, last week they ate 6 hamburger patties and 4 hot dogs that were left from last weeks picnic, but that was a treat. If they ate like that all the time, they would be fat.)
By the way, they are very active.

 

[hillyb]

yah the vet said she was good the last time i saw the vet which was 6mos ago and i feed her on demand we put food out for all our pets and leave it out when the dish is empty we refill it none of my pets are fat
heck even my kids are kind of skinny lol she loves people food too but it hought it was bad for her so other than scraps form the the kids dropping on the ground we dont much feed her table food she does get up on the kitchen table and i will turn around and there is a bassett sitting on my kitchen table werid dog

 

[MaureenandSlinky]

When I got Slinky she was just 27 lbs. The vet at the rescue suggested Science Diet, but Slinky had loose bowel movements with that. I was at PetsMart, and they had a promotion for Bill Jac dog food. I have used that ever since. Slinky gets about 3 1/2 cups a day (some in the morning and some in the evening). Slinky weighs 47 lbs. and the vet says that this is a good healthy weight for her.

Most people tend to over feed Bassets, because they look so sad; but a healthy weight for Bassets is 45-60 lbs. according to Slinky's vet.

 

[Betsy Iole]

Differences in appearance are also related to breeding. Bassets bred by BYBs and puppymills tend to be smaller, with less skin, lighter bone and shorter ears. They look sort of basset-y, but not classically so.

Well-bred bassets look more like Steinar's girls--substantial, with lots of skin, heavy bone, and a classic basset head.

 

[Guest]

Homer weighs around 50 pounds now. When he was given to us at 1.5 years old, he weighed 37 pounds. You could count every rib! He's not a large Basset so I wouldn't want him to weigh more than the 50 pounds he weighs now. I feed him Purina One Weight Control Formula, as I do my other 2 Lab mixes. He gets 1.5 cups in the morning and 1.5 cups in the evening, although he sometimes steals a bit from the others! :lol:

 

[Booya]

i've heard that some breeders are making deliberate attempts at producing slightly smaller Bassets than in the past, perhaps to give them greater mass appeal as pets?

but i've seen some that are as small as large beagles, and some that are as big as Labs (only with shorter legs )

 

[Betsy Iole]

Responsible breeders strive for a balance of proper conformation and movement, and they don't breed for the pet trade.

 

[Booya]

Originally posted by Betsy Iole
Responsible breeders strive for a balance of proper conformation and movement, and they don't breed for the pet trade.

i agree. it's weird, because more than any breed, it seems like the appearance of Bassets varies from dog to dog. they're all very cute, but like you said, there's some that are thinner and smaller, and in some ways, they're like a whole different breed than the larger, more "classical" Basset.

also, i've noticed very different temperments. some have been almost like terriers and others very shy and reserved.

 

[hillyb]

oh them maybe lulu isnt a classic basset i got her from a breeder in cameron missouri

 

[Booya]

Originally posted by hillyb
oh them maybe lulu isnt a classic basset i got her from a breeder in cameron missouri  

how much does she weigh? she looked like a Classic Bassett to me!

 

[MissMolly]

I think the proper word is fluffy not fat

MissMolly is around 50 lbs and she is 10 months old. The vet said she is all muscle (aside from her rolly pollys)

 

[Emma and me]

Whatever you do, you'll not gonna get a big basset by feeding too much, you just get a fat basset.
Overfeeding a pug won't give you a rotweiler.
Emma was 22 lbs when I got her, 8 weeks old. She was more than 50 as a puppy, and is now about 75. I've seen males pushing 100 lbs, and they are not fat, just enormous huge.

There's a lot of stuff about this on CyberHound.

A lot of the American bred bassets are more like an Artesian Normand basset than a basset hound:

Artesien Normand Basset:

Basset Hound:

 

[Booya]

those giant ones that you see in Europe, can those be gotten in the U.S.? do foreign breeders sell in the U.S.?

 

[Betsy Iole]

Show bassets in the US don't tend to run as large as their European cousins. IME, the largest US bassets tend to be seen in the western US. If you're interested in size, and you don't want to import, you might check out some western breeders.

Steinar is right--many poorly bred bassets seem to more closely resemble the Basset Artesian Normand that the Basset Hound. But, there are very few Basset Artesian Normand breeders in the US and correspondingly few true representatives of that breed.

Another ploy that unethical breeders will sometimes use is to try to pass off poorly-bred dogs as "field" bassets.

 

[hillyb]

i dont know how much she weight some where around 50lbs i am guessing she is damn heavy she might weight more or less a bit
i just didnt know if the really wrinkely bassets come with age or if they arent like that as puppys they wont ever be? and to be sure we were feeding her well enough she is fairly active at times and lazy at others she eats as much as she wants which clearly isnt too much since she isnt fat at all just heavy lol
but i thought maybe she isnt a classic basset bexause she isnt all saggy like some of them here

 

[Betsy Iole]

Originally posted by hillyb
i just didnt know if the really wrinkely bassets come with age or if they arent like that as puppys they wont ever be?

If they don't have lots of skin and wrinkles as puppies, they won't have lots of wrinkles as adults.

 

[Booya]

well, for one thing, Males, IME, tend to have more wrinkles than Females. so the fact that Lulu is female could have something to do with it.

as far as when wrinkles show up, i've noticed with my dog, it depends what he's doing. if he's walking down stairs, you can't even see his eyes because the skin falls over his eyes!

however, if he's looking up at me, the skin is pulling down on his face, and he doesn't look too wrinkly at all.

but by the time he was 1 years old, he definitely had extra skin.

but i don't think wrinkles in general are necessarily a characteristic of a pure-bred basset - the fact that Lulu is without too many doesn't mean she's not a great Basset!

 

[hillyb]

i cant get a good side shot of her to tell which she resembles more