Prices
How Much Do American Bullies Cost?
Not the sticker on the puppy. The twelve-year total, which is the number actually worth being certain of before you take one on.
Taken across a full life, an American Bully costs somewhere around $15,000 to $25,000, and the puppy itself is only three to fifteen percent of that. The first year, with the purchase folded in, comes to $1,900 to $3,600. From there, plan on $1,200 to $2,200 a year for a dog that stays healthy, and more if it inherits the skin and allergy trouble the breed is prone to.
The first year
| What | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The puppy | $700 from me | $800 to $3,500 across the market |
| Neuter or spay | $250 to $600 | Ask your vet about timing for a large breed |
| Vaccinations and vet visits | $200 to $400 | Remaining course, rabies, checks |
| Flea, tick, worm | $150 to $300 | Year round in most of the country |
| Food | $400 to $900 | A dog reaching 70lb eats accordingly |
| Crate, bed, bowls, leads | $150 to $350 | Buy the crate at adult size |
| Training class | $100 to $300 | Worth it on a strong breed |
| Licence and microchip | $20 to $80 | Microchip available here for a fee |
Every year after that
| What | Per year |
|---|---|
| Food | $400 to $900 |
| Routine veterinary care | $200 to $400 |
| Preventatives | $150 to $300 |
| Dental cleaning, when needed | $300 to $800 every few years |
| Insurance, if you take it | $300 to $700 |
| Allergy management, if needed | $300 to $900 |
That bottom row is the one peculiar to this breed. Skin and allergy trouble is the complaint I see most often in American Bullies, and it is a cost you manage for life rather than settle once. What it involves.
The lines nobody budgets for
- Boarding or a sitter. $40 to $80 a night, and a fair number of boarding kennels turn the breed away as a matter of policy. Sort that out before you book the holiday, not the week before you fly.
- Home or renter insurance. Several of the big carriers still name pit bull type dogs on their exclusion list. Coming home with one can mean changing carrier, occasionally at a steeper premium.
- The emergency. A bad one lands between $2,000 and $8,000: a swallowed object, a torn cruciate, a serious heat stroke. Decide now whether your answer is insurance or a dedicated fund.
- Old age. From about year nine come the joint support, the more frequent visits and the regular bloodwork.
The biggest single lever you have over the lifetime total is keeping the dog lean. A heavy bully meets joint disease sooner, needs more from the vet and dies younger. Getting it right costs nothing; getting it wrong is expensive in both money and years. Why weight outweighs almost everything else.
Seeing the purchase price in proportion
Someone torn between a $700 puppy and a $2,500 one is haggling over roughly eight percent of the whole. It deserves far less of your worry than two other questions: can the household carry $1,500 a year, every year, for twelve years, and is somebody home enough for a breed that was built to be a companion?
Those are the questions I would put to you, and if the honest answer to either is no, I would far rather you learned it today than two years in.
Market prices in detail · Price by puppy age · Why mine are $700
Ask me the total for your situation
Where you are, what the delivery would run to, and a frank read on the first year. One reply, with nothing slipped in afterwards.