Boerboel Growth Chart & Puppy Feeding Guide
Typical Boerboel weight by age, when the breed actually stops growing, what we feed our own puppies, and how to protect giant-breed joints while they grow. Written from the whelping box, not from other websites' charts.
Updated July 2026
The Short Answer
Adult male Boerboels typically reach 150-200 lbs and females 120-170 lbs. Most of that height arrives by 12 months, but a Boerboel keeps filling out in chest, head, and muscle until 2.5 to 3 years old. The single most important thing to know: growth should be lean and slow. A giant-breed puppy pushed to grow fast is at real risk of permanent joint damage, so never feed a puppy up to match a chart, this one included.
Boerboel Growth Chart: Typical Weight by Age
A healthy Boerboel puppy roughly doubles its 8-week weight by 4 months, carries most of its adult height by 12 months, and then spends another year and a half adding mass. The ranges below describe healthy, lean growth for males and females at each age. They are wide on purpose, and a puppy near either edge of a range can be perfectly healthy.
Be honest with yourself about what a chart like this can and cannot tell you. No published, peer-reviewed growth study exists for the Boerboel specifically, so every chart on the internet, including this one, is an estimate built from breeder records and general giant-breed growth curves. Bloodlines differ enormously, and littermates raised side by side can finish far apart as adults. Some published charts even claim newborn Boerboels weigh 3 lbs or more, which does not match giant-breed whelping norms of roughly 1-2 lbs. Treat any single number you read as a guess, ours included.
| Age | Male (typical range) | Female (typical range) |
|---|---|---|
| Birth | 1-2 lbs | 1-2 lbs |
| 8 weeks | 18-30 lbs | 15-26 lbs |
| 3 months | 30-50 lbs | 25-45 lbs |
| 4 months | 45-65 lbs | 40-55 lbs |
| 6 months | 75-110 lbs | 60-95 lbs |
| 9 months | 100-145 lbs | 85-120 lbs |
| 12 months | 120-170 lbs | 100-140 lbs |
| 18 months | 135-185 lbs | 110-155 lbs |
| 24 months | 145-195 lbs | 115-165 lbs |
| 36 months (mature) | 150-200 lbs | 120-170 lbs |
Do not feed a puppy up to hit this chart. There is no prize for the heaviest 6-month-old, and there is a real cost: rapid growth in large and giant breeds is linked to hip and elbow dysplasia, osteochondrosis, and other developmental orthopedic problems, and that damage does not undo itself later. A Boerboel's adult size is set by genetics. Feeding more does not build a bigger dog; it builds the same dog faster, on joints that were not ready for the load.
Adult height lands around 24-28 inches at the shoulder for males and 22-25 inches for females. If you are still deciding whether a dog this size fits your home and budget, start with our Boerboel price and cost-of-ownership guide.
When Do Boerboels Stop Growing?
Boerboels reach most of their adult height by about 12 months, but they are not done growing. Skeletal growth continues until the growth plates close, around 18-24 months in giant breeds, and the breed keeps adding chest, head, and muscle mass until roughly 2.5 to 3 years of age. A 14-month-old Boerboel that looks tall and lanky is normal, not underfed.
This is worth understanding because the awkward teenage phase fools a lot of owners. Somewhere between 10 and 18 months, most Boerboels go through a stretch where they look all legs: ribs faintly visible in motion, tucked waist, a head that seems a size too small for the frame. The common mistake is to read that as skinny and pour more food into the dog. In a giant breed, lanky at 14 months is exactly what healthy looks like.
The transformation between 2 and 3 years is dramatic. The chest drops and broadens, the head fills out, and the muscle comes in. Males especially can add substantial mass in their third year without gaining any height at all. If you compare photos of the same male at 12 months and at 3 years, you will often struggle to believe it is the same dog. Patience, lean feeding, and time do the work.
How Much Should I Feed a Boerboel Puppy?
Feed a Boerboel puppy to its body condition, not to the feeding chart on the bag. You should be able to feel ribs easily under a thin layer of flesh; if you cannot, feed less, and if the ribs and hip bones are sharply visible, feed a little more. Young puppies eat three to four smaller meals a day, adults eat two. Adjust weekly as growth comes in waves.
What We Actually Feed Our Puppies
Our puppies start on solid food at around 6 weeks, eating either Inukshuk 26/16 or Victor Hi-Pro depending on how each litter is developing. Puppies that start on Hi-Pro move to Inukshuk 26/16 at about 12 weeks. Every puppy goes home with a sample of the food it has been eating so the transition does not upset its stomach.
On protein: feeding a puppy-formula food up to about 12 weeks is fine, but from 12 weeks to 10 months we recommend a diet around 24-26% protein rather than a hot, calorie-dense performance food. The puppy is already growing as fast as we ever want it to. Growing too fast can cause irreversible joint issues, so the job of the food is steady fuel, not acceleration. We feed Inukshuk 26/16 to most of our Boerboels at all life stages and have been happy with the results since switching in 2024.
Portions: the Bag Is a Starting Point, Not a Rule
Feeding charts on the bag are written for a generic dog and tend to run generous. Start near the middle of the bag's recommendation for your puppy's age and weight, then let body condition drive every adjustment. Two Boerboel puppies of the same age can need meaningfully different amounts. The scale tells you what your puppy weighs; your hands on its ribs tell you whether that weight is right.
Bloat Prevention Basics
Bloat (GDV) is a genuine risk in deep-chested breeds like the Boerboel, and it can kill in hours. The habits that lower the risk are simple and worth building from day one:
- Keep bowls on the ground. Raised feeders were long recommended, but the research that actually compared the two found raised bowls associated with higher bloat risk, not lower.
- No meals right before or after hard exercise. Leave a buffer of calm time around every meal.
- Slow down fast eaters. A slow-feed bowl or food scattered over a mat stops a dog from inhaling its meal along with a stomach full of air.
- Split the daily ration into multiple meals. Several smaller meals beat one giant one, for puppies and adults alike.
Our Boerboel health and lifespan guide covers bloat, joint health, and the rest of the breed's medical picture in depth.
How Much Exercise Can a Boerboel Puppy Handle?
Less structured exercise than most owners expect. Growth plates, the soft zones of developing bone near the joints, stay open until around 18-24 months in giant breeds. Until they close, skip forced running, long leashed jogs, stair marathons, and repetitive jumping. Free play on grass, where the puppy sets its own pace and stops when it is tired, is the safest exercise there is.
The difference that matters is forced versus free movement. A puppy playing loose in the yard self-regulates: it sprints, flops, rests, and repeats. A puppy trotting on a leash beside a jogger, or chasing a ball thrown fifty times in a row, keeps loading the same joints past the point where it would naturally quit. Repetitive, high-impact, can't-say-no exercise is what injures open growth plates, and in a dog that will carry 150-200 lbs as an adult, a damaged joint is a lifelong problem.
You will see the "5 minutes of exercise per month of age" guideline quoted everywhere. Treat it as a rough rule of thumb for structured walks, not science; no controlled study established it, and it says nothing about free play, which puppies can and should get much more of. It is still a useful sanity check: a 4-month-old Boerboel has no business on a 45-minute leashed walk on pavement.
Practical version: short sniffy walks for socialization, all the free play on soft ground the puppy wants, no jogging partner duty until at least 18 months, and keep the puppy off tall furniture and long staircases while it is growing. Exercise restraint now is one of the two things (with lean feeding) an owner directly controls in the fight against joint disease. The genetics half is our job, and it is why we breed from health-tested parents.
Why Lean Growth Is the Whole Game
Every section above comes down to one principle: a Boerboel puppy should grow slowly and stay lean the entire way. Rapid growth and extra weight during development are linked to hip and elbow dysplasia and osteochondrosis in large and giant breeds, and the strongest feeding evidence in any breed, a 14-year lifetime study of Labrador Retrievers, found that lean-fed dogs developed arthritis years later and lived roughly two years longer than their heavier littermates.
Nobody has run that study on Boerboels, and we will not pretend otherwise. But the direction of the evidence is consistent across every breed studied, and it matches what we see in our own dogs: the lean puppies grow into the same imposing adults, they just arrive there sound. If your puppy tracks along the bottom of our chart with ribs you can feel and energy to burn, you are doing it right. Questions about a specific puppy's weight are ones we answer for our buyers for the life of the dog; our FAQ covers the most common ones.
Boerboel Growth & Feeding FAQ
When is a Boerboel full grown?
A Boerboel reaches most of its adult height by about 12 months, but it is not full grown until 2.5 to 3 years old. Growth plates in giant breeds close around 18-24 months, and the chest, head, and muscle mass keep filling out well after that. Mature males typically weigh 150-200 lbs and females 120-170 lbs.
How much should a 6-month-old Boerboel weigh?
A healthy 6-month-old Boerboel male typically weighs somewhere between 75 and 110 lbs, and a female between 60 and 95 lbs. That range is wide on purpose: bloodlines differ, and there is no published Boerboel growth study to set a precise number. A lean puppy at the low end of the range is healthier than a heavy puppy at the top of it, so judge body condition, not the scale alone.
What is the best food for a Boerboel puppy?
We feed our puppies Inukshuk 26/16 or Victor Hi-Pro from around 6 weeks old, and puppies on Hi-Pro move to Inukshuk 26/16 at about 12 weeks. From 12 weeks to 10 months we recommend a food around 24-26% protein. The goal is steady, lean growth: a giant-breed puppy pushed to grow fast is at higher risk of permanent joint problems. Our FAQ covers our full feeding practice.
How much food does a Boerboel puppy eat per day?
There is no single correct amount, and the feeding chart on the bag is a starting point, not a prescription. Feed young puppies three to four smaller meals a day, drop to two meals as they mature, and adjust the total up or down weekly based on body condition: you should be able to feel ribs easily under a thin layer of flesh. Expect a growing Boerboel to out-eat most adult dogs of other breeds.
Can I run or jog with my Boerboel puppy?
No, not until the growth plates have closed, which in giant breeds is around 18-24 months. Forced running on pavement, repeated stair sessions, and repetitive jumping load soft growth plates and can cause permanent damage. Until then, free play on grass, where the puppy sets its own pace and rests when it wants, is the safest exercise a Boerboel puppy can get.
Why should a giant-breed puppy be kept lean?
Because extra weight during growth loads joints that are still soft, and rapid growth in large and giant breeds is linked to developmental orthopedic problems like hip and elbow dysplasia and osteochondrosis. The best-known lifetime feeding study in dogs, a 14-year study of Labrador Retrievers, found lean-fed dogs developed arthritis later and lived roughly two years longer. A Boerboel will reach its genetic adult size either way; keeping it lean just gets it there with healthier joints.
When should a Boerboel switch off puppy food?
Earlier than most breeds. Puppy-formula food is fine up to about 12 weeks, but after that we move our dogs to a food around 24-26% protein through 10 months, because a Boerboel is growing rapidly and does not need extra fuel on top of that. We feed Inukshuk 26/16 to most of our Boerboels at all life stages, so for our dogs there is no dramatic switch, just portion control as growth slows.
Raise One From the Start
Every Peterbuilt puppy goes home with a feeding plan, a sample of its current food, and a breeder who answers growth questions for the life of the dog. See what is available now, or start an application and we'll be in touch.