Guide
American Bully Growth Chart
Weight and height month by month from eight weeks to adulthood, with growth stages pictured in plain numbers, what a normal curve looks like, and when the dog finishes.
An American Bully is most of the way to its adult height by twelve to eighteen months, then it keeps widening and gaining mass until somewhere between two and three years old. The growth chart below is not a straight line and neither is the dog. Growth comes in spurts with flat stretches in between, and a puppy that looks stuck for three weeks is usually right on the edge of a spurt.
The growth chart, month by month
Use this as the picture of each growth stage. Weights run by class, so find your dog’s class and track down the column. Height follows the same shape, nearly finished before the weight is.
| Age | Standard | XL | What is happening | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 weeks | 6 to 10 lb | 10 to 15 lb | 14 to 20 lb | Leaving the litter. Four meals a day |
| 3 months | 11 to 17 lb | 18 to 26 lb | 24 to 34 lb | Fast growth. Socialisation window still open |
| 4 months | 15 to 23 lb | 25 to 36 lb | 33 to 46 lb | Teething. Chewing peaks |
| 6 months | 22 to 34 lb | 36 to 52 lb | 48 to 68 lb | Growth begins to slow. Still no forced exercise |
| 9 months | 27 to 44 lb | 45 to 66 lb | 62 to 88 lb | Height nearly done. Looks lanky and unfinished |
| 12 months | 30 to 50 lb | 50 to 74 lb | 72 to 102 lb | Height largely complete. Width hasn’t caught up |
| 18 months | Adult | Adult | Near adult | Growth plates closing. Exercise restrictions lift |
| 2 to 3 years | Full grown | Full grown | Filling out | Chest and head finish. The adult dog arrives |
Read these as a guide, not a target. A healthy puppy can sit above or below the range and be perfectly fine. The shape of the curve and the condition of the dog tell you far more than any single figure. If your vet is happy with the body condition score, the reading on the scale is not the thing to lose sleep over.
The lanky stage, the one that sends owners to their keyboards
Somewhere from nine to fifteen months your bully is going to look wrong. Leggy, narrow in the chest, head not filled in, nothing like the photos that sold you on the breed. This is the growth stage owners write to me about, certain something has gone off the rails.
Nothing has. Height finishes well ahead of width, so for a few months the dog has reached its full frame and has not yet packed anything onto it. Chest and head come last of all, often not until two or even three. Wait it out, and above all resist the urge to feed the dog into looking fuller, which is the single most damaging thing you can do at this stage.
What to do while the growth plates are still open
The first eighteen months are when joint damage is easiest to cause and hardest to spot, because the skeleton is still soft and the puppy has no idea it should pace itself.
- No forced running. Not beside a bike, not on a treadmill, not over distance. Free play at the puppy’s own pace is fine, because a puppy quits when it is tired and a puppy on a lead beside a bicycle does not get to.
- No repeated jumping down off the sofa, out of the truck bed, down from a deck.
- Carry it on stairs until six months, and lay a runner on hard treads after that.
- Keep it lean. A fat puppy is loading joints that were not built for that weight yet.
- Large-breed growth food for an XL, for the controlled calcium.
Ask your vet when they are satisfied the growth plates have closed. It varies by dog and by class, and that is the moment the restrictions above come off.
Predicting the adult size
The parents beat any chart as a predictor, every time. Ask a breeder what the dam and sire stand at the withers and what they weigh, and that gives you a tighter estimate than any formula on the internet. Ask me and I will tell you, including when the honest answer is that a puppy is heading for smaller than you were hoping.
Adult size by class · When growth actually stops · Portions by age
Ask what the parents measure
It beats any growth chart online, and you will get the real figure rather than the one that moves the puppy.