Pitbull Puppies 4 Weeks

Our Pitbull growth chart will help you to check that your Pitbull puppy is reaching the developmental milestones they should be. We’ll also help you to find out when your soon to be adult Pitbull will stop growing. And what size, height and weight your baby Pitbull will be when they are fully grown.

We’ll also let you know whether your adult Pitbull is the right weight for their height. And how to keep them healthy, so that they can live a long and happy life by your side.

Use the links here to jump straight to the part that interests you. Or, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about Pitbull growth.

There are five different breeds that are all considered to fall into the Pitbull breed category. They are all medium height dogs, with a stocky, muscular build. These are the American Pitbull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Bull Terrier, and Miniature Bull Terrier. However, despite these distinct breeds, most people still only use the term ‘Pitbull’.

Most often, when people say Pitbull, they mean the American Pitbull Terrier. So, this is the main Pitbull breed we will be looking at in this guide.

Pitbull growth charts can be interesting and useful. But, it’s also great to learn about the development stages your Pitbull puppy will go through. Here’s an average Pitbull weight chart from birth to 1 year old.

There are no completely accurate ways to tell exactly how big your puppy will be as an adult. But, you can use online Pitbull growth charts as a general guide. These table gives expected size by Pitbull age.

Here’s a Pitbull growth chart example for medium sized dog breeds, taking you through each week and month of their development.

The weight of a newborn Pitbull puppy depends upon the size of their mom, and how many siblings are in the litter, among other factors. But anywhere between 7 and 10 oz is in the normal range.

In their first week, newborn Pitbull puppies won’t have their eyes or ears open. But, they have enough strength in their front paws to pull themselves to mom. One week old Pitbull puppies can’t regulate their own temperature, so need their mother. They’ll spend pretty much all of their time eating or sleeping.

At two weeks old, baby Pitbull puppies will start to open their eyes. And, they will start to grow quickly. In fact, a Pitbull puppy will add around 5 to 10% of his body weight by the end of this week.

At three weeks, Pitbull puppies will start to stand and sit properly by themselves. Ears and eyes are fully open, and tails start to wag! Pitbull puppies at 3 weeks will be continuing to grow quickly.

By this stage, Pitbull puppies are stronger, and can move around more easily. At this age, puppies start to look more like proper dogs than tiny puppies.

Five week old Pitbull puppies will start to move and play a lot more. This is a key stage for puppies to learn behavioral habits like bite inhibition. They’ll be eating plenty, and continuing to grow quickly.

As your puppy nears the end of his sixth week, he will be either fully or mostly weaned from his mother. Instead of milk, he now eats five or six very small meals of puppy food. Your puppy will start gaining weight very rapidly from this stage onwards.

Pit Bull Breeding and Adoption Tips

Please take the time to read over the following set of tips before you allow your female pit to be bred.

Never, EVER breed an aggressive animal. Just like people, character traits are passed on from parents, and although you may think its humorous that your 70-pound pit bull female viciously attacks the vacuum cleaner each time you run it, it is not a sign of quality temperament. Please—for the sake of this breed—do what you can do help breed aggressiveness out, not in.

The Best Ways to Manage Puppies’ First Solid-Food Feedings

Everyone has a different set-up, but according to what you have available, here are the best suggestions I have for managing these feedings without needing to spend hours cleaning, crying, and growing your slang/rant vocabulary twice a day.

Garden Tub or Walk-In Shower. If you have either of these, you are golden. It may not look any prettier, but it will save you incredible amounts of time and frustration if you simply feed them via a large, low-sided dish in the center of your large tub or shower. Your regular tub may work if you have a smaller litter. However, if they cant get a nose into the bowl, this can cause much scrumming and begin to form a food-fiend pile of pups. You do not want any pup to believe they arent going to get enough, which will obviously encourage aggressive eating. In a dog this powerful, there is no need to tempt this fate. If you have an immense litter, feed them in shifts.

The Box. If you do not have a large enough area aside from their box or enclosure, you can use the box and help it to remain somewhat mush and odor-free. Remove all of the blankets and place a piece of plastic, tarp, or even garbage bags in a pinch on the bottom of the box. Toss the low-sided bowl, or even a high-fluted plate in the center and let the scrum begin. Note: If you do not protect the box, i.e., clean up any mush piles, stay tuned, as there is one sure way to get some of the serious grunt work done.

The…Floor? Really? It can be done, although hopefully you have had a bit better planning, if you have a rescue or an unexpected litter and no huge accommodating box or used playpen in sight, you can certainly let the food scrum occur on the floor. However, I would NOT suggest ever doing this if you have expensive wood, tile or otherwise grainy or textured flooring; do not have an area uncovered by carpeting or rugs; or will cry if your precious faux-linoleum incurs a scratch or a brown mush haze temporarily.

If you are going to feed on the floor, plan to do two things.

Section Off an Area, even if you have to use a pile of books, kids toys or even just a couple of long-armed and familiar adults. Tuck them in a corner if alone, you will need to referee the match. Ever the millers, they will eat, roll around in the mush, and in generally roam off while following yet more mush piles on the floor, tub bottom or box. Be prepared to gently nudge them or if brave and not averted by said mush, place them back in the scrum pile.

Keep Mom Away. For many reasons, this is beneficial and necessary. Mom definitely needs to know that gruel is for pups. You should not let her overwhelm them while they are learning to eat, nor compete with them for food. Also, this will supply you with the best cleaning partner you have ever had. Once they are done and starting to mill slower, and likely sleepier, set mom loose. She will clean up the floor, albeit in a way not entirely sanitary, and once done with the bigger obvious mush piles, she will turn her attention to cleaning her pups.

The floor certainly isnt the ideal method. The garden tub or a walk-in shower are far more ideal (with a detachable shower head for quick clean-up). However, the other methods will work, and ultimately, you will really come to rely on creating a sort of ritual when doing the feedings so that everyone, even Uncle Eddie, my litter of pups stepdaddy, gets to participate in the cleanup.

Also, be sure to sanitize the feeding area after each feeding. Even if you feed them in a box, sprucing up, applying Lysol and a light bleach wash will kill the germs and ensure a cleaner surface for the next feeding. For tubs, a quick bleach wash is usually enough.

The Most Important Thing

Do NOT give them cows milk. Goats milk is ideal, and puppy or baby formula works too.

There sure is a lot of milling around.

They are probably quite tired of a box if you have them in one. If you dont, you are probably quite tired of them by now. They are on the go these days in a lot of ways.

They should have tried the gruel by now, and you should be preparing to supplement a morning or mid-day meal from mom with the gruel mixture.

They will likely need some roaming time now. This means more messes to clean up, but socialization is important with all dogs, most especially Pit Bulls, at this critical age.

Everyone is getting around pretty good. There may still be some shaky legs and wobbling heads, but there is certainly no shortage of willpower. Box floppers are more and more common, even using a box that shipped a large riding lawnmower.

There will be power struggles happening in the box. In or out, they are determined to elicit screams from their siblings at any cost. Must be those weeks stuck together, but they are really letting off steam this week.

Eating Habits by the Fifth Week

The pups should by now have had several gruel meals and their food should be closer to the dry side now, as opposed to the wetter mushy food.

These pups are some incredible beasts. Seriously, the most ornery, amusing, mushy sweet, clumsy, wobbly-headed, thick-skinned, love muffins around.

When they arent testing out their burk-to-barking skills, they are amok, flopping from the box at high rates. I am fairly sure they have learned to take one for the team by letting other puppies stand atop them, so they have a better chance at springing at least a few of their box mates. For most Pit pups who have been weaned on this schedule, this week may be their last in your home.

You should now begin trying to keep them on a food schedule.

Prepare yourself, your spouse, and your children for their departure. Prepare the pups too.

Get them outdoors, rain or shine, cold or hot, and let them muck around a bit. Dont let their first experience outside of the box be the same one that takes them to their forever families.

For the sake of their future homes as well, it would be a good idea to start trying to get them to use puppy pads, or take them outside, en masse, for pee parties.

Bathe them, worm them, collar them, and if you plan to be the one who does it, vet them and get their first shots.

How Much To Feed A Pitbull Puppy?

If you have a 2 week old Pitbull puppy, your puppy will have opened his eyes and begun teetering around slightly. Puppies at this age do not get very far. At this age, the puppy will be completely reliant on his mother’s milk.

The mother should never be too far from the puppies and she herself will also need a large amount of calories to make up for all of the milk that she is making and sharing with her puppies. If your Pitbull pup is looking small or even smaller than his littermates, talk to your vet about supplementing formula.

A 3 week old Pitbull puppy will have better balance, but still will not be straying far from his mother. A puppy at this age should still be completely reliant on his mother’s milk. Do not attempt weaning or introducing dog food yet at this age.

Some breeders who are eager to get their pups adopted out might try weaning, but it is not a good idea at such a young age. The mother should still be feeding the puppies on demand, laying down for them to nurse until they are full. The puppies should be able to move enough away from the litter to urinate.

When your Pitbull puppy has reached 4 weeks old, he will have more control over his legs and will begin to explore slightly. He should still be dependent upon his mother’s milk. If you are considering weaning at this point, you can try to introduce puppy food mixed with water.

It should be ¼ food to ¾ water. Your 4 week old Pitbull puppy will not be able to eat much at all and might not be remotely interested in eating the mixture. If he isn’t interested, don’t worry. He just isn’t ready yet and should still be getting his nutrition from his mother’s milk.

A 5 week old Pitbull puppy might be more interested in trying out puppy food. Still, try with the mixture that is primarily water. He is likely to be more interested this week than he was the week before, but don’t try to force him if he isn’t interested.

Hopefully, the puppy will at least taste the mixture. He should still be getting most of his food from his mother’s milk regardless. Even if your puppy is trying the food, don’t expect him to eat much food at all, because his stomach is still small and won’t take in much.

At the age of 6 weeks, your puppy should be a little more interested in that food mixture that you have been making. If he is eating it, you can try reducing the amount of water that is in the food to half, gradually getting down to not having any water in it at all.

The 6 week old Pitbull puppy will still not be eating much at all, but taking a couple of bites here and there can help get his stomach more used to eating it. He should still be getting most of his calories from his mother, but she might be less inclined toward nursing.

Your 7 week old Pitbull puppy should be eating the puppy food without any trouble. If you haven’t cut out all of the water yet, this is the time to get the puppy on the food by itself. If the mother is still willing to nurse, it is more likely to be a quick stop before moving on.

She is going to be working on weaning the puppies as well and will help the process by separating herself from the puppies, allowing them to eat the puppy food as a primary source of nutrition. She should be allowed to escape from the puppies as she wishes.

Your 8 week old Pitbull puppy will be ready to be rehomed with a new family. He should not be getting any more mother’s milk and should be completely reliant on puppy food now. You should be offering your puppy food 4 times a day, if possible.

The food should be given in equal amounts to fulfill his need for calories. Make sure to remove any food that isn’t eaten after around 20 minutes so the puppy will get used to being on a consistent feeding schedule. It will help with digestion.

Your puppy should be in his new home by 9 weeks. If you are changing the food that your puppy is on from what the breeder was feeding, make sure to do it slowly so that you do not upset your puppy’s stomach. Mix in the new food with the old food to make the change.

You should be feeding the puppy around 2 cups of food a day, divided into equal portions. His energy level should be increasing as well, so he might be burning more calories, gradually increasing his appetite over time. Stick with your feeding schedule.

If you have a 10 week old Pitbull puppy, your puppy likely has a lot of energy and has started getting into some mischief. Be aware that puppies often will try to eat anything that they can get their mouths on, so watch what you have on the floor or what your puppy has access to.

If he eats anything that isn’t food, it could be dangerous to him. Otherwise, keep him on his feeding schedule. You can increase his food slightly to accommodate any increase in appetite that he might be experiencing as his stomach is growing in addition to his body.

When your Pitbull puppy is 11 weeks old, he should still be on a strict feeding schedule, sticking with 4 times a day if possible, 3 times a day if it’s not possible. Only leave his food out for 10 to 20 minutes at a time and remove any food that isn’t eaten.

This will help keep him on a schedule and teach him when he can expect food as well as teaching him to eat when it is offered. You will also be able to see how much he was actually hungry for and if he is not responding well to the food he’s getting.

Your 12 week old Pitbull puppy should be growing rapidly. He should have a lot of energy and be hungry enough to eat it all. You can reduce his food to 3 meals a day if you haven’t already, just make sure that his meals have been divided equally.

Do not switch your puppy from puppy food yet as he needs the calories that come with puppy food. If you have other dogs, it is tempting to feed everyone the same food, but you cannot feed a puppy adult food at this age. Keep his calories up for steady growth.

FAQ

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