Best Dog Food for Boston Terriers

What is the Best Dog food for Boston Terriers?

It is perhaps worth it to determine what we mean by “best”.

For some, it would be the cheapest, because that is simply all that can be afforded right now.

If you are fortunate enough to have the financial means to choose, there are a number of considerations that will help you decide which is the best dog food for Boston Terriers.

Puppy or Adult?

A puppy has different nutritional needs than an adult dog.

If it’s still small it is easy to know if you have a puppy (duhhh!!).

But when does it change from puppy or young dog to adult?

This seems a trivial question but it is important if you are serious about feeding your Boston Terrier puppy an optimal diet.

The answer, short and sweet, is that from birth to six months old, it is considered a puppy.

And it will need food that is higher in protein (about thirty per cent) than adult dog food and higher in all the vitamins and minerals that will promote and support growth.

Boston Terrier Puppy

So what will be the best food for puppies?

If you want to make a quick decision, buy dog food that says “puppy” on the bag or tin. Because commercial dog foods have to comply with the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) standards at a minimum, commercial dog food that has the word “puppy” on it will have a different formulation than adult dog food.

Although the ingredients may be the same, the proportions should differ. If you want to, you could also buy food labeled “for all life stages”.

If you are going for puppy food labels, you can narrow it down further by choosing “small breeds” or “medium breeds” since “large breeds” will also be different and is meant for dogs like German Shepherds and such.

Boston Terriers are classified as one of the small breeds by the American Kennel Club (AKC). So, without going into details like growth rates and bone density, rather feed your Boston Terrier puppy a dog food appropriate for the size that is it is going to be!

Puppy food can be quite high in calories and Boston Terriers have quite an appetite. So make sure that you give him enough but not too much food.

Alright, how much is enough?

In terms of the number of meals, start with four meals a day, then reduce to three meals a day at age around eight weeks, then reduce to two meals a day after twelve weeks.

How much dog food should a Boston Terrier puppy eat?

The size of the puppy food meals depends on the number of calories, and you do not want that to be too high.

We all instinctively equate food with love, but we also know that overweight does not equal good health, even in dogs. So resist the urge to treat your puppy with food every time it does something cute…which is pretty much all the time, let’s be honest.

The easiest way to ensure that your Boston Terrier puppy is getting sufficient energy without running the risk of becoming obese is to follow the recommended feeding on the bag/tin of puppy food that you are using. You want it to grow strong but not to put on too much weight too fast.

You could go to the trouble of working out the exact number of calories per day. It goes like this:

1. Determine the Resting Energy Requirements (RER). It’s easier than it sounds because you just weigh the puppy (in kg), raise the weight to the power of three-quarters and then multiply that by 70. QED.
2. Multiply the RER with a factor appropriate to its growth stage – for a puppy up to four months the factor is three. From four months to adult, the factor is two.
3. Ta-da!

Or you could just serve the portions recommended by the manufacturer or your vet.

Remember individual puppies can have needs different from the norm, so check with your vet if your puppy looks too thin or too fat.

Food allergies can start to develop in puppyhood already and Boston Terriers are rather prone to those, so even more reason to check regularly with the vet.

Adult Boston Terrier

This is a good point to start talking about adult dog food. The method above for determining the number of calories to feed daily can be used for adult dogs as well as it has several factors for different adult stages. So once you know the weight of your adult Boston Terrier you can work out the daily calorie requirements as well.

But really, who still knows how to raise a number to the power of three-quarters?

And if you don’t, how would you know if the answer from your calculator is correct?

Me, I just go with the recommendations and easy on the snacks.

The best dog food for Boston Terriers when they are an adult is the one that will fulfill the nutritional needs of this specific breed, as well as the needs of the individual dog. Activity level is one of the considerations so make sure your dog gets enough exercise before you decide on how much food it needs.

There are basic nutrients that all adult dogs need.

These are amino acids from protein, fatty acids from fats, glucose from carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, and of course, water. 

Dog foods that are commercially produced contain all of these nutrients but in differing proportions and from differing sources.

Here is where the challenge comes in:

To choose the best dog food for Boston Terriers you need to make sure that it has optimal proportions of all the nutrients and from appropriate sources.

The problem is that Boston Terriers are quite susceptible to certain allergies so you need to be aware of the specific ingredients in dog food. Although any ingredient can become an allergen the most common dog food ingredients that Boston Terriers have been documented (according to their owners) to become allergic to are proteins and grains.

Here is a problem – your dog must have protein.

And yes if you want to burden your dog with your human vegan preferences you can provide it with sufficient protein from plant sources, but it is not easy.

Food allergies normally develop over time and dog allergies are usually due to consistent feeding of one kind of protein. If you are sure that your Boston Terrier is allergic to protein you can still feed it a “novel protein”. This is a protein source that it has not eaten before.Common protein sources in dog food are beef, lamb, chicken, and salmon. If your Boston Terrier has a protein allergy the chances are good that the dog food you are buying has one of these as the main protein source. Switch over to another source, and possibly consider switching to a really novel one.

Novel protein sources are:

• Venison
• Bison
• Wild boar
• Elk
• Pork
• Goat
• Rabbit
• Duck
• Pheasant
• Quail
• Guinea fowl
• Herring
• Kangaroo
• And sometimes plant sources like potato and pea

You can avoid a grain-based allergy by buying grain-free food. This kind of dog food typically uses potatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, quinoa, and peas as an alternative carbohydrate source.

(Quick note – sweet potatoes are even higher in carbohydrates than corn so it can be a factor in causing obesity. Sweet potatoes have also been identified as a possible culprit in the canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) saga because it is one of the common ingredients in grain-free dog food.)

Hydrolyzed proteins are proteins that have been already broken down into their amino acids before included in the dog food.

The molecules are so small that the body does not recognize it as an allergen thereby avoiding the allergic reaction. Another benefit is that it is easily digestible, so if your dog has a sensitive stomach, it may also be a better choice.

Breed-Specific Food for Boston Terriers

All of the above will help you choose the best food for your Boston Terrier. But isn’t it simpler to just buy food that specifically states that it is for Boston Terriers?

Hmm.

Some dog food products have a picture of a Boston Terrier on the packaging without claiming that it is specifically formulated for them.  Other than that I must confess I have yet to see a product that is labeled for “Boston Terrier”.

In fact, there is the opinion that if you have taken care to select good quality dog food preferably in consultation with your vet, then breed-specific foods are nothing but a marketing gimmick.

Homemade Dog Food For Boston Terriers

If you have lots of time and you are confident that you can provide the nutritional elements in the correct proportions for your dog, then you may opt for homemade dog food.

Interestingly, one of the books that have solid information on home cooking for dogs also has a picture of a Boston Terrier on the cover.

It probably doesn’t mean anything…

Homemade dog food is a choice that places a huge responsibility on your shoulders.

If anything goes wrong with your dog’s health and it can be traced back to a food problem you know it’s your fault. It is not only a question of being able to provide a balanced diet with all the best ingredients for proper nutrition. That in itself can be difficult to achieve.

It is also a question of preventing contamination and bacterial growth, proper cooking (too much as well as too little can be problematic), and using recipes that are freely available on the internet but are in fact unhealthy or downright dangerous.

Before you start, consider which foods can Boston Terriers eat?

First sort out its allergies and sensitivities, if any, and avoid the foods that could be responsible for them in your dog’s diet.

Next, you need to avoid all the foods that are generally taboo for all dogs. A few examples:

• Almonds
• Avocado
• Chocolate
• Cinnamon
• Fat trimmings and bones
• Garlic, onions and chives
• Grapes and raisins
• Ice cream, milk and dairy products
• Macadamia nuts
• Raw bread dough
• Salty snacks or too much salt in general
• Xylitol (found in artificial sweeteners) 

Boston Terriers, like other dogs, will have varying degrees of tolerance for some of the foods on the list (like dairy products) but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Looking at the list of basic nutrients that dogs need, what ingredients would be good to use in your home cooking?

• Proteins. The best raw beef, chicken, bison or other protein that you can find. Treat it as you would your own food. Buy from a reputable butcher and store it properly. Are chicken meal, turkey meal, and other meat meals acceptable? Yes, but again there are low quality and high-quality meat meals. Watch out for labels that are generalized, like Meat meal, Animal meal, Chicken by-product meal, and Meat and bone meal. If you want or have to use plant based protein sources, go for gluten meal, protein concentrate from peas or soy, brewer’s yeast, soy meal and sunflower meal.  
• Fats. Bone broth is an easy and nutritious way to get your dog some fat and some other healthy ingredients. It takes a long time on the stove to draw out all the goodness but then it can be frozen. Eggs and fish are good sources of omega fatty acids and you get the proteins as well.
• Carbohydrates. We know by now that grains and Boston Terriers can make for an explosive combination. Alternatives that are readily available are potatoes (always cook them), sweet potato, green peas, chickpeas, squash and pumpkin. Rice, although a cereal grain, can often be used even if your dog has a grain sensitivity. Brown rice is higher in protein and lower in fat than white rice, but either is a good carb source.
• Vitamins and minerals. There are 12 essential minerals of which calcium, magnesium and phosphorus are crucial. While it is safer not to feed your dog (especially a puppy) bones, you must ensure that it gets sufficient calcium, which will not be properly absorbed without sufficient phosphorus and magnesium.

Let’s Talk Brands

Try almost any kind of a search on the internet that includes the words dog and food and you will be bombarded with sites titled X best ..for this, that, or the other.

Some go into excruciating detail about the ingredients, others merely list a number of products without telling you why those were specifically chosen. In many cases, clicking on a product only results in linking to amazon.com to buy.

When it comes to the best brand for Boston Terriers, Blue Buffalo seems to come up quite frequently.

They have 94 kinds of dry dog food and 97 kinds of wet food. Not to mention 48 kinds of treats. Surely there must be a product there that will suit your Boston Terrier.

Blue Buffalo products even made in onto a vet recommended list of best foods for Boston Terriers.

Although there was a debate several years ago on Boston Terrier Forums about the desirability of Blue Buffalo for Boston Terriers, it all seemed to have simmered down.

The usual “Best” brands that make it to the Top This That and The Other dog food lists are good for Boston Terriers as well. For dry foods these include Purina Beyond, Taste of the Wild, and Orijen.

As for wet food (tins/cans) Hill’s Science, Natural Balance, and Purina Alpo make it to the top.

For those who prepare dog food at home there are now prepared dog meals available that you use as a base and add your own stuff to or feed as is.

Examples are Purina Beneful and well, the only other one I could find readily available is the Cesar Simply Crafted products which is an add-on, not a complete meal.

Prepared meal delivery options are limited to certain areas in certain parts of the world. Be very cautious about deliveries from a kindly soul’s home kitchen – to mean well does not protect your dog from nutritional deficiencies, inadequate hygiene, and potential bacterial infections.

Limited Ingredient Diets

Usually you would only feed your dog a limited ingredient diet if it has some sensitivity, or has been diagnosed with an allergy or a health condition like diabetes. There is no regulatory definition of what a limited ingredient diet is or even what a limited ingredient dog food is supposed to consist of. These days it often equates to a grain-free diet or food.

Most of what we see today on the shelves labelled Limited Ingredient used to be known as hypoallergenic or limited-antigen dog foods. These foods are made with only one protein source and one carbohydrate source. Reputable dog food manufacturers ensure that these foods still provide balanced nutrition for all dog breeds.

With all the concerns surrounding possible heart disease caused by a grain-free diet, dog food manufacturers have turned away from peas, lentils and other legumes to sweet potato as a source of carbohydrates. The supposed low levels of the amino acid taurine is grain free diets was identified as the problem by the FDA, but the jury is still out on the final conclusion.

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