An adult Staffordshire Bull Terrier needs a complete food and a portion matched to its weight: for a neutered, moderately active Staffy of 14 kg, that is about 512 kcal a day. Weight is where the surprises start: in UK vet practices the typical Staffy weighs around 20 kg, more than the breed standard allows, yet Staffies are recorded as overweight no more often than other dogs. The same records hold two more: the famous sensitive stomach is not borne out by the data, while the skin really does deserve attention.
The breed standard (FCI No. 76, country of origin Great Britain) sets 12.7-17 kg (28-38 lb) for males and 11-15.4 kg (24-34 lb) for females, with a height at the withers of 35.5-40.5 cm that should be in proportion to weight. That is the range the feeding chart below covers.
Real Staffies are heavier. In VetCompass, the Royal Veterinary College programme that analyses records from UK vet practices, the 1,304 Staffies seen in 2016 were the second most common pure breed, and their median weight was 20.2 kg: half of the dogs with a recorded weight were more than 3 kg over the standard's top figure for males, and the middle half weighed between 17.7 and 22.9 kg. In Sweden, where the Kennel Club's official hip screening requires the dog's weight to be noted on the day of the X-ray, the 964 males X-rayed as young adults between 2007 and 2016 had a mean weight of 18.2 kg and the 1,145 females 15.2 kg. There, at least, the trend is downwards: across those ten years the breed lost 1.2 kg on average, about 7%.
Where do the extra kilos come from? A scale cannot tell frame, muscle and fat apart, and the Swedish authors warn that breed standard weights, often set decades ago, may not be a valid yardstick. The UK authors add a caveat of their own: Staffies can be hard to identify from looks alone, so the records may include dogs that are not pure Staffies. In practice, a number above the standard does not prove your Staffy is fat, and a number inside it does not prove it is fit.
Given the weights above, you might expect Staffies to be a breed prone to obesity. The data say otherwise. A VetCompass study of overweight dogs, using the same 2016 records, found 6.6% of Staffies (86 of 1,304) recorded as overweight, against 7.1% of all dogs, and the Staffy was not among the eight predisposed breeds: Pug, Beagle, Golden Retriever, English Springer Spaniel, Border Terrier, Labrador, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Cocker Spaniel. In earlier records from 2009-2013, obesity affected 6.0% of Staffies: more than crossbreeds (3.9%), but less than half the Labrador figure (13.0%).
There is a known catch: vets write down overweight less often than it exists. The same authors point out that studies assessing every dog in person find rates between 22% and 65%. So the most reliable check is yours. The WSAVA scores body condition from 1 to 9, and the target is 4 or 5: ribs easily felt under a thin layer of fat, a waist visible from above and a tummy that tucks up when seen from the side. On a compact, muscular dog like a Staffy, those three checks tell you more than the scales.
Weight matters for the hips too. In Swedish screening, 41.9% of 2,109 Staffies X-rayed were graded as having hip dysplasia, mostly mild (33.0% of dogs; moderate or severe in 8.9%), and a second study of the same data found that, within the breed, heavier dogs more often had a worse grade. The study could not tell whether those dogs were bigger, more muscular or fatter, and it does not prove cause and effect; still, it is one more reason not to let a Staffy carry spare fat.
The vet records point the other way. In the 2016 VetCompass study of the breed, Staffies had lower odds than other dogs of being diagnosed with a gut disorder (enteropathy) and roughly half the odds of impacted anal glands, a problem the authors partly link to soft stools. In the 2009-2013 records, diagnoses involving the digestive system affected 19.2% of Staffies against 30.0% of crossbreeds: the lowest figure of the seven most common breeds in that study.
That does not mean a Staffy never gets diarrhoea or vomits, only that a delicate gut is not a feature of the breed. If upsets keep coming back, it is worth finding the cause with your vet rather than switching food again and again: every switch makes it harder to work out what is going on.
Teeth start from a good place as well: in 2016 Staffies had less than half the odds of other dogs of being diagnosed with periodontal disease. Even so, it affected 6.5% of Staffies in a single year, so regular checks and brushing still pay off.
Skin is the breed's real weak spot. In the 2016 VetCompass study Staffies had nearly twice the odds of a diagnosis of atopic dermatitis compared with other dogs (odds ratio 1.88), and it is the predisposition the authors trust most, because it was recorded with the most precise diagnosis. In absolute terms it affected about 2% of Staffies seen in a year.
Atopic dermatitis is a skin disease with a genetic basis, linked mostly to environmental allergens such as pollen, when the itching is seasonal, or house dust mites, when it lasts all year. Food can come into it in two ways: a food reaction can look exactly like atopic dermatitis, or it can make it flare, and the skin alone cannot tell them apart. According to the guidelines of the International Committee on Allergic Diseases of Animals (ICADA) there are no reliable commercial tests: in dogs that itch all year round, the only way to rule out a food reaction is a strict elimination diet with a meat the dog has never eaten, for at least 8 weeks. One clue worth telling your vet about: if the itching comes with diarrhoea, vomiting, soft stools, more frequent poos or a lot of wind, food is more likely to be involved.
So is there a best food for a Staffy's skin? The most direct evidence comes from a trial at the University of Helsinki, in which Staffies with and without atopic dermatitis ate either a commercial raw meat-based diet or a commercial kibble for about four and a half months. In the 20 dogs of the main analysis (14 with mild atopic dermatitis), neither diet significantly changed the dermatitis score given by a veterinary dermatologist; scores tended to worsen in both groups, which the authors put down to the trial running into the Finnish pollen season. A sub-study of 8 of these dogs measured the activity of certain skin genes, not itching. These are small pilot studies, and they do not show that any food improves a Staffy's skin. As for chicken: in dogs with documented food reactions the most frequent culprits were beef (34%), dairy (17%), chicken (15%) and wheat (13%), and no data point to a Staffy-specific problem with chicken. Turkey is poultry too: if your dog has reacted to chicken, ask your vet before trying it.
Every Pappa Fresh recipe contains one meat only and declares the percentage of each ingredient on the label, so you always know what your Staffy is eating and can discuss it with your vet:
They are cooked in the pouch and keep outside the fridge until opened; once opened, they go in the fridge and should be used within 2-3 days. For a Staffy that limit never bites: on the Complete plan a dog of 14 kg eats about 449 g a day, so an opened 400 g pouch is finished well within the limit, and even on the Mix plan, which covers half the ration alongside the kibble you already use, it is used up within 2-3 days at every weight in the chart.
An adult Staffy of 14 kg, neutered and moderately active, needs about 512 kcal a day: with our Chicken recipe that is about 449 g, with the richer Beef recipe 376 g. An unneutered Staffy burns more, about 640 kcal. This Staffordshire Bull Terrier feeding guide covers the breed standard, from 11 kg to 17 kg. If your Staffy weighs more, as many do, but has the ribs and waist of a fit dog, enter its real weight in the quiz, whether that is 19, 20 or 22 kg, and the portion is calculated on that.
If you compare these figures with the feeding guide on a bag of kibble, the grams will look like a lot more: that is normal. Kibble is far more concentrated (around 350-400 kcal per 100 g, against 110-136 for our recipes), so for the same calories a wet food weighs about three times as much. On the Mix plan half the ration comes from your kibble and the cost drops to about €4.15 a day instead of €8.04. For the general logic behind portions, see our guide on how much a dog should eat.
| Weight | Energy need (kcal/day) neutered / intact | Grams per day neutered / intact | Complete plan | Mix (½) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 kg | 427 / 534 | 375 g / 468 g | €6.74/day | €3.41/day |
| 14 kg | 512 / 640 | 449 g / 561 g | €8.04/day | €4.15/day |
| 17 kg | 592 / 740 | 519 g / 649 g | €9.33/day | €4.67/day |
Grams based on the Chicken recipe (114 kcal/100 g); with Beef, which is richer (136 kcal/100 g), you need about 16% less. Prices for a neutered dog.
Figures calculated with the same method as our quiz (FEM×K: maintenance energy adjusted for breed, activity, neutering and body condition). They are an estimate: take the quiz for your dog's exact plan, and talk to your vet about any health concern.
Two minutes: enter your Staffy's real weight, age and activity to get the exact portion, with 30% off your first order.
An adult Staffy of 14 kg, neutered and moderately active, needs about 512 kcal a day, which is about 449 g of our Chicken recipe; if unneutered, about 561 g. For a neutered dog across the breed standard, from 11 kg to 17 kg, that ranges from about 375 g to 519 g. These are estimates: the right amount also depends on your dog's body condition.
It depends on whether those 20 kg belong to a fit dog or an overweight one. Plenty of Staffies weigh that much: in UK vet records the median was 20.2 kg, above the breed standard. If your Staffy's ribs are easy to feel and the waist is visible from above, enter 20 kg in our quiz and it calculates the portion on that weight. If not, ask your vet what your dog should weigh and feed for that weight.
The breed standard gives 12.7-17 kg for males and 11-15.4 kg for females. Real dogs are often heavier: UK vets recorded a median of 20.2 kg, and in Sweden young adult males had a mean weight of 18.2 kg, females 15.2 kg. Body condition matters more than the number: ribs you can feel easily and a visible waist.
No data show that Staffies have a particular problem with chicken. The breed is predisposed to atopic dermatitis, which is mostly driven by environmental allergens. Among the foods most often behind documented reactions in dogs, chicken comes after beef and dairy; to find out whether your own dog really reacts to something, you need an elimination diet set up with your vet.
No study points to one brand or format as best for this breed: what matters is a complete food and a portion that keeps your Staffy lean, based on its real weight and body condition. A food that declares every ingredient on the label lets you always know what your dog eats and discuss it with your vet.
We found no study showing that Staffies produce more wind than other dogs, and in UK vet records they were diagnosed with digestive problems less often than crossbreeds. If a lot of wind comes with itching, soft stools or frequent poos, mention it to your vet: in itchy dogs, digestive signs like these are more typical when food is involved.
Written by the Pappa Fresh editorial team from published veterinary studies (see sources). Not a substitute for your vet's advice.
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