This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a small commission. Thanks.
The American bully is one of the dog breeds that require proper care to maintaining his physical health. The breed has both small and large categories, which consist of the active/ working dogs. Hence, you need to possess the right American bully feeding secrets if you’re hoping to get that bulky muscular body.
Among these secrets is choosing an outstanding feeding plan and food quality. For the latter, the selection is not that hard as you only need to know the nutritional requirement of your pooch. Then, choose the food depending on the beneficial ingredients available.
Introducing the American Bully Dog
Usually, the American bully is one of the best dog breeds to get for your home. Of course, many people still misunderstood and discriminate against the canine breed unfairly. But his personalities are nothing but loving to please you as the owner and the rest of your family.
The squarish head with large jaws plus the athletic build does make some people panicky for sure. But the dog breed has a low fighting drive as he was primarily bred for companionship. Due to his gentleness and social behavior, the pet is often very friendly to almost everyone. If it’s your friends, you might even see him scampering up to meet them.
You may also interest: Best dog food for bulldogs
As a member of the bullies, the American bully is also very loving to the children and other pets around him. With the kids, the dog even allows them to climb over him and ride like a horse. This, nonetheless, require you to properly train the dog, which, of course, is pretty easy due to his energetic body and unwavering obedience.
American bully feeding secrets
As you know, food is amongst the things to ensure your dog is healthy and lively. When it comes to the American bully, nonetheless, your feeding routine has to be more than perfect. Not just with choosing high-quality ingredients but knowing what your dog needs at his respective growth stage.
With a highly nutritious, balanced diet, your furry companion has a guarantee of developing strong bones and muscles for his active lifestyle. The meal also ensures your dog has a healthy skin and clean coat, as well as a robust immune system to fight off disease-causing bacteria.
For the food to offer your dog with all these benefits, though, it has to be what is needed and suitable for the pet. This means you have to accurately discern the age plus the weight of your pet before embarking on your set feeding plan.
Just like any other dog breed, the American bully growth stages are three, including the puppies, adolescence, and old age. Each stage has a different appearance, health, and behavioral changes. So, you have to be ready to switch along with it in terms of feeding since it does affect them directly.
Feeding an American Bully puppy
The puppy is a stage that requires a lot of attention as it defines the kind of adult your dog will become.
At about four weeks of age, an American bully puppy is usually ready for transitioning its diets from milk to solid food.
When he’s now stable enough and between 8 -12 weeks of age, you’ll need to provide four meals a day, each rich in vitamins and minerals. The food has to have enough protein [at least 30%] to allow your pup to start bulking up.
Since their bodies are still learning to break down the food nutrients, the offered meal also has to have at least 20% fat content. The high-fat diet helps ease the breakdown process, as well as allow their bodies to develop at an average rate.
After the age of 12 weeks old to about six months, you can now reduce your dog’s meal times to three. Although it will depend on your daily schedule, you can adjust your times to ensure the pooch gets his breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
American bully puppy weight
Sadly, American bullies tend to become overweight due to their characteristic wide body. As such, ensure you provide the puppy with small portions of meals with respect to both the age and weight. Therefore, it’s good you get a weighing scale to enjoy the best results.
Using your American bully puppy weight chart, you’ll have a better track on the growth and development of your pooch. The chart can also enable you to estimate the weight of your dog later on when the weighing scale is faulty.
Since there is no definite formula to calculate the weight of a dog, the following are estimated figures from the
American bully puppy weight chart. The numbers might be slightly different from the actual scale readings as every puppy is different, with some gaining weight faster than others.
Puppy Stage | Small | Medium | Large | Giant |
4 weeks | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
8 weeks | 8 | 13 | 19 | 23 |
12 weeks | 15 | 22 | 38 | 45 |
4 months | 20 | 34 | 52 | 65 |
6 months | 28 | 50 | 78 | 102 |
8 months | 32 | 58 | 92 | 128 |
From our table, you can see a standard 4 month old American bully weight is around 33/ 34 pounds. This is not very far from the actual reading if your dog is eating well and doesn’t have any underlying health issues.
Choosing the Best Food for Your American Bully Dog
As we have just said, you have to provide the right nutrition to your canine if you want to maintain his health and proper development. The following are three categories of dog foods that you can choose from and offer to your bully.
Raw Dog Food
While it’s not fit for humans, dogs have no problem ingesting a raw diet. Some people are still hesitant to embrace the diet plan, but there’s little evidence that is backing it up and its benefits.
The evidence here is that although they’re omnivores, dogs are distant relatives of wild wolves, who primarily rely on raw foods for survival. So, if it’s organ meat, pork, turkey, salmon, lamb, chicken, or even eggs, your furry friend can show them down without hesitating.
Some vets, yes, are often against it due to the risk of exposing your pet to disease-causing pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. But raw dog foods contain no additives, preservatives, and chemicals that some pet food companies use in their processed recipes.
A raw food diet usually consists of natural ingredients, which means you know exactly know what your dog is putting in his body.
Homemade Dog Food
This one also ensures you get to know what is in the feeding bowl of your pooch since you’re the one preparing it. You have control over its preparation, “packaging, as well as storage.
Homemade dog food relies on the ingredients of raw food, but now you can cook them to make them more palatable. As you prepare, you can choose to either use vegetables only, meat, or fruits. Or else, do a combination of each type of food compound to guarantee your pooch a highly nutritious, balanced diet.
You also check: Homemade dog food recipes vet approved for small dogs
Following their activeness and muscular bodies, a combination of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, is the best. It will ensure your dog has optimal levels of energy and other essential nutrients for proper growth and development.
Please note, homemade dog food is mostly recommended for adolescent and adult canines. For the young pups, always keep it to the minimal [or avoid] since it can have nutritional/ dietary imbalance. This can affect the formation of bones and healthy organs in your puppy or lead to obesity later on.
Premium Dog Food
This is the best choice of food for your American bully puppy, young adult, and senior dog. The diet is usually of high-quality standard, with an excellent amount of vitamins, proteins, and antioxidants.
Premium dog food is what we also call the commercial diets. It’s available in two different forms, i.e., dry kibble and wet canned dog food but also you can get as sweet treats. If you’re using the best dog food for American bully, the contained ingredients are from natural sources and purely processed. Hence, remarkably safe and beneficial to your pet’s body.
Apart from the high-quality ingredients, premium dog foods have better digestibility and more immune-boosting with the added vitamin supplements. The dog foods also usually come labeled with the recommended serving requirements to allow simple, quick, and precise feeding.
Downside: Despite their numerous benefits, premium dog foods are usually expensive to buy, particularly if you have more than one pooch. As such, you’ll need to mix with the raw food or the homemade diets at some point to at least reduce the upkeep cost.
Final Verdict
Even if food is crucial to every breathing being, choosing the very best for your American bully dog is truly rewarding. Across its four different categories, the dog breed features a wide, bulky body and short legs to support it. Thus, you have to make sure the diet you provide is rich in proteins to build muscles and minerals like calcium for the formation of strong bones.
Also, the diet has to include a good source of energy, including carbs and fats, to support the active lifestyle of your pooch. This means you’ll also have to exercise your dog regularly to build those bulky muscles you want him to project.
Due to bullies’ high tendency to get overweight, you’ll have to keep track of your dog’s weight and monitor his eating habits. Additionally, avoid food recipes with compounds like peas, beans, milk, and milk products. This comes as American bullies are highly susceptible to gassiness and these four are amongst the foods known to cause it. American bully feeding secrets finish here.
Similar content: How to build muscle on a pitbull puppy