How much should I feed my dog? Dog food calculator

How much should I feed my dog?

The amount depends on two things: how many calories your dog burns, and how many calories are packed into your particular food. A cup of one kibble can hold far more energy than a cup of another, so a single "cups per pound of dog" rule can't work. The calculator does it in three steps.

1. Daily calories. It starts from the resting energy requirement, the energy your dog burns lying still, and multiplies it for life stage, neutering, activity and body condition.
2. Treat allowance. It sets 10% of those calories aside for treats and chews, the limit used by veterinary nutritionists at UC Davis, so the main food still supplies at least 90%.
3. Amount of food. It divides the remaining calories by the energy in your food, per cup or per kilogram.

Cups per day = (70 × kg^0.75 × multiplier × 0.9) ÷ kcal per cup

Worked example: a 30 lb (13.6 kg) neutered dog that gets a few walks a day has a resting need of 496 kcal. Multiplied by 1.92, that's about 952 kcal a day. Keep 95 kcal for treats and 857 kcal is left for food. On a kibble with 380 kcal per cup, that is 2¼ cups a day, or 1⅛ cups at each of two meals. The life-stage multipliers come from the Merck Veterinary Manual: 3 × resting energy for puppies under 4 months, 2 × after that, 1.6 × for neutered adults and 1.8 × for intact adults. The dog calorie calculator explains the activity and condition adjustments in more detail.

Where do I find the calories in my dog food?

Look for the heading Calorie content on the bag or can, usually near the guaranteed analysis. AAFCO rules require it to be given in kilocalories per kilogram of food as fed and per familiar unit, such as per cup, per can or per biscuit. "kcal" is the same unit as the "Calories" on human food labels.

Use the per-cup number if you scoop, and the per-kilogram number if you weigh. European labels often give energy per 100 g instead: multiply it by 10 to get kcal per kg. If you also want to know how many grams fit in your cup, the dog food cups to grams converter works it out from the same two label numbers.

Dog feeding chart: cups per day by weight

Cups per day for spayed or neutered adults at a healthy weight, on an example food with 380 kcal per cup, after 10% is set aside for treats. If your food has more calories per cup, feed less; if it has fewer, feed more. Use the calculator for puppies, intact dogs and your own food.

Notice that a 100 lb dog does not eat ten times what a 10 lb dog eats. Energy needs rise with weight to the power of 0.75, so a dog ten times heavier needs only about 5.6 times the food.

Why the feeding guide on the bag can be off

Feeding directions on the bag have to say how much food to give per weight of dog per day, but AAFCO itself calls them guidelines that may need adjusting. They are written for a typical dog of that weight, and most charts don't ask whether your dog is neutered, a couch potato or a working collie.

The calculator is more specific, but it is still an estimate. The Ohio State University veterinary nutrition service points out that individual dogs can need up to 50% more or less than the calculated figure. Treat the result as the place to start, then let your dog's weight tell you whether to change it.

Cups or grams: which is more accurate?

A kitchen scale wins easily. When researchers at the University of Guelph asked dog owners to measure out dry food with common measuring devices, portions ranged from about 48% too little to 152% too much (Coe and colleagues, 2019). Small portions such as a quarter cup were the least accurate, which is a problem for small dogs, and the authors recommended weighing food on a gram scale instead.

If you do use cups, use a proper 8 oz measuring cup rather than a mug or the scoop that came with the bin, and level it off. Better still, weigh one level cup of your food once, so you know what your cup really holds.

How do I know if I'm feeding the right amount?

Weigh your dog every few weeks and check its shape. At a healthy body condition you can feel the ribs easily under a thin layer of fat, and you can see a waist from above. If your dog is gaining when it shouldn't, feed a little less; if it is losing, feed a little more, and recheck. The body condition score checker walks you through it. Puppies need recalculating more often, because their weight and needs change week by week; the puppy feeding chart covers meals per day by age.

Remember the extras. Training treats, dental chews and bits from the table all count toward the 10% treat budget, and the dog treat calculator shows how far that budget goes.