If you are like most furry kid owners, you often worry if your baby is too skinny or overweight. One way to determine if your pup has packed on too many pounds is by doing the ‘rib test’. Place your hands on each side of your dog, without pressing too hard you should be able to feel his ribs.
How much should a Boston Terrier weigh is between 15 and 25 pounds for males. While the females are slightly smaller at 10 – 20 pounds. You can perform a simple test to verify if your dog is carrying too much weight. If you are not able to feel your dog’s ribs when doing the above rib test, he is overweight.
What are the Signs My Boston Terrier is Overweight?
When you have a pet, you want to make sure you are doing everything possible to ensure their health and safety. Monitoring their diet and watching their weight (gain or loss) is one way to ensure your pet is healthy. Below are some of the signs to look for if you are worried your Boston Terrier might be tipping the scales in the wrong direction!
- The first sign is your pooch fails the “rib test”. You are unable to feel his ribs when gently rubbing his sides.
- You are unable to see the dog’s waistline. When you stand over your pet and look down upon him, you should be able to recognize in front of his back legs a skinnier area. This is what is known as the dog’s waist. If your Boston Terrier is overweight, his body will have the shape of a barrel, with no defined waist area.
- One thing we know for certain– a scales numbers don’t lie! Your Boston Terrier might be overweight if she is showing an increase in weight that is unintentional.
- The appearance of a big belly. Also referred t as an abdominal tuck, when you view your pooch from a side angle and you notice he gets thinner in only the back le anterior section. A belly is hanging lower than this tummy tuck area is a good indication he is overweight.
- Any form of exercise make your Boston Terrier tired. Another good indication your pooch is overweight or possibly obese. It is a common fact that having excess weight to carry around makes us tire quicker than normal. A fact that also holds true for your Boston dog.
- Your dog appears to have become lazy. If your dog has packed on some excess pounds, he won’t be his usual energetic or hyper self. In addition, an overweight pooch will spend more time napping.
- Hesitance when climbing stairs. Carrying around a few extra pounds makes stair climbing a challenging task. If your dog shows a reluctance to go up stairs, he could be overweight or obese.
How Much Should I Feed My Full-Grown Boston Terrier?
Now that you know the signs of an overweight or obese Boston Terrier, how do you mainting his healthy weight? As mentioned earlier, a healthy Boston Terrier male weighs between 15 and 25 pounds with females weighing in around 10 to 20 pounds.
To maintain your dog’s healthy physique, you should only feed him from one cup to one-and-three-quarters cups of food daily. A smaller animal only needs approximately one cup of food a day.
What if My Boston Terrier is Too Skinny?
When determining the ideal weight for your Boston Terrier, first understand how to recognize if the dog is too skinny. Performing the rib test is a sure way to check if your dog is overweight or obese. However, there is a difference between being able to feel the ribs and actually seeing them.
By following this simple protocol, you can verify what shape your Boston Terrier’s body is in. You should be able to feel your dog’s ribs when you gently place your hands on each side of his body. Being able to feel the ribs when doing this test indicates your dog is the ideal weight and shape. However, if you can easily see his ribs, then your dog is too skinny and steps need to be taken to fatten him up.
What are the Categories of Weight for Boston Terriers?
The Boston Terrier’s average weight is between ten and twenty-five pounds. However, this dog breed’s weight has been split up into three categories by the American Kennel Club.
These three weight categories include:
- Less than fifteen pounds.
- At least fifteen, but no more than twenty pounds.
- Average weight is between twenty and twenty-five pounds.
To ensure your pet’s optimum health, you should schedule routine veterinarian appointments. These appointment are beneficial in maintaining and monitoring the health of your Boston dog.
Boston Terrior’s weigh approximately 0.48 pounds at birth. If fed a healthy diet, by the time this dog is a year old it should weigh 23.14 pounds.
Weight-Related Problems for Boston Terriers
If your Boston Terrier has any issues with weight, then the following health problems may develop.
- Obesity: dogs that eat too many calories and don’t exercise frequently are in danger of becoming obese.
- Heart Disease: A popular reason of death for older Boston Terrier’s is heart failure. As a matter of facts, as many as 75 percent of older dogs develop issues with the mitral valve. The primary reason for heart problems in this dog breed is poor oral hygiene and uncontrolled weight issues.
- Extreme weight loss: This can be the result of not eating a sufficient amount of food, losing healthy nutrients due to diarrhea, or has high energy requirements. Any of these factors can result in your dog losing excessive amounts of weight.
- Respiratory Distress Syndrome: This breed of dog is known as a brachycephalic breed.Meaning a Boston Terrier has a skull bone that is shortened, which results in a short nose and a flat face. When too much fat deposits around the airways and in the chest areas it constrains the breathing. Additionally, obesity and an advanced blood flow also enhances breathing difficulties.
- Fragile bones: Cartilage is a substancevneeded for joint protection. Weight gain in excess hampers cartilage growth resulting in bones that are stiff and weak.
- Problems with reproduction: Boston Terriers that are underweight are known to experience lowered yields of milk, and thus, a higher neonatal mortality. On the flip side, overweight terriers have litters that are smaller, and the chance of false pregnancy is greater.
Closing Thoughts
Being the owner of a Boston Terrier can be a rewarding experience. When we know how much should a Boston Terrier weight, it allows us to keep our dog healthy.
The average male weighs between 15 to 25 pounds, with the females slightly less at 10-20 pounds. In order to maintain these healthy weight averages, we must feed our dog adequate servings of a nutrient-rich diet. Maintaining your dog’s healthy weight is not only healthy to your pet, it also ensures the healthy of future litters.
A healthy diet is important to us; however, it is equally imperative to ensure our fur babies also have a healthy diet. When pets eat healthy, and are within average weight, we increase the odds of a longer life for our pets!