size/weight estimate + crate advice? - Page 1

I rescued 2 female mal puppies.  they were bred for special forces work in israel when i was with the military there, passed the program tests, but i was allowed to keep them as a personal favor to me from my commander as my dog (their sire) had died in the line of duty. they are 21 weeks old, 30lbs.  They are on the lean side for joint protection.  they are eating a lot. The sire and dam were both on the large side.  the vet maintains that they will get up to 75 lbs once they finish growing and fill out.  Does anyone have an opinion on what their final weight might be given their growth rate (they were 11 lbs at 11 weeks when i brought them home).  It's just a curiosity question for me, but i would be interested to hear anyone's opinion.  guesses are more than welcome, as im sure there are people here with much more experience with malinois puppy development and growth trends than myself.

 

also, they sleep in the same crate, and refuse to sleep apart. they will bark and bark if they are kept in adjacent crates even.  they even sleep together if napping on the floor, or outside-- its sort of weird but they are independent and very normal (for high drive mals) the rest of the time so i see no reason to break it.  can anyone suggest a crate that might be able to fit 2 fully grown mals? I have a large one right now but they will soon grow out of it.

I have a french ring Mali, he is 58lbs. His crate size is a medium (roughly 24"l x 18"w) crate; Literally just big enough for him to stand up, turn around and exit. If you have a Mondio well those are a bit bigger.I woulnt house more than 1 mali per den or crate. But thats just me, I would want the dogs to be indipendant, rather than codependant on each other.  

My Mali's are 60 and 70 lbs so there can be quite the variation. But I would say they would probably finish somewhere in between.
I would agree with Josh that the codependence on each other is not such a good thing and I would try to break that a little. If you raise them together for life that will come back and bite you in the butt. I would even go as far as putting one in a foster situation for about 3 months and bring her back once they start looking to you for some of that dependence. I had two female litter mates for a year and a half but put one in a foster home for about 3 months and it worked really well. She came back they became best friends again quicly but didn't react if I had to take one seperate from the other. A good example is the vet. If you ever have to take one to the vet for treatment and she has to stay with the vet for a few days they are net going to fret so much if the other is gone. The less stress the better. I was taking one to flyball and the other to obedience but was not taking the both of them. They were fine without each other. Another thing is playing. The reason I put the other in foster care to begin with was becasue when it came to playing tug with them they would tug really well with one another really well but if I went to play tug with them individually they didn't seem to know how to play with humans so I had to take there play away from each other so they could learn how to play with me. The first couple of days were tough on them but it benifited them much more in the end. Hope that helps. 
In the mean time,  as far as the crate thing I would put two wire crates beside each other touching so they can see each other and touch each other still but as they get older they are going to fight normally not serious fight but they WILL fight so putting them in the same crate as adults would not be the best Idea. They must learn to develope who they are as individuals and need there own space once in a while. Which again is why I would send one away for a few months.