Raw dog food calculator

How much raw food should I feed my dog?

There are two ways to size a raw diet, and the calculator does both.

• Percentage of body weight. Raw feeding guides usually start a healthy adult at 2 to 3% of its ideal weight a day, going lower for less active or overweight dogs and higher for very active ones. It is simple, but it is a rule of thumb from the raw feeding community, not a veterinary formula.
• Calories. The calculator estimates your dog's daily energy needs with the formula vets use (70 × kg^0.75, multiplied for life stage and activity) and divides by the calories per kilogram on your raw food's label. This is the more precise method, and the only one the calculator uses for puppies.

Grams per day = body weight in kg × 1,000 × percent ÷ 100

Worked example: a 40 lb (18.1 kg) adult at 2.5% gets 454 g, about 16 oz, of raw food a day. Split over two meals that is 227 g per meal. If you enter your food's calories, the calculator also tells you whether that amount lines up with the calorie estimate and which percentage would.

Raw dog food feeding chart by weight

Grams (and ounces) of raw food per day for adult dogs at 2, 2.5 and 3% of body weight:

What is the 80/10/5/5 raw diet ratio?

Many raw feeders build meals on the "prey model" split: 80% muscle meat, 10% raw edible bone, 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ such as kidney or spleen. The bone share means the weight of the bone itself, so a bony cut like a chicken neck counts partly as bone and partly as meat. Here is what that split looks like at 2.5% of body weight:

The split is a convention, not a nutrient profile. Two meals that both follow it can differ a lot in calcium, fat, vitamins and trace minerals depending on which meats, bones and organs go in.

Why small dogs need a bigger percentage

Energy needs don't rise in a straight line with weight. They follow weight to the power of 0.75, so a small dog burns more calories for each kilogram it weighs. Using the calorie formula, a neutered, moderately active 10 lb dog needs about 92 kcal per kg of body weight a day, while a 100 lb dog needs about 52. On the same food, the small dog needs roughly 1.8 times the percentage. A single percentage for every dog will underfeed small dogs or overfeed big ones, which is why it pays to enter your food's calories and compare.

Is a raw diet nutritionally balanced?

Not automatically. When researchers in Germany analyzed 95 bone-and-raw-food rations fed to adult dogs, 60% had at least one major imbalance. One in ten supplied less than a quarter of the recommended calcium, about half fell short on iodine, a quarter were low in vitamin A, and more than half supplied less copper and zinc than recommended. The rations that worked usually included extras such as eggshell, seaweed, cod liver oil or a mineral supplement.

If you want to feed raw, the safest route is a commercial raw food labelled complete and balanced for your dog's life stage, or a recipe formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. For cooked home diets, the homemade dog food calculator turns a recipe into daily portions.

How to handle raw dog food safely

The FDA found Salmonella or Listeria in a share of the raw pet foods it tested, and owners who feed raw may have a higher risk of infection themselves. Its advice:

• Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds after handling raw food.
• Clean and disinfect every surface, bowl and utensil the food touches.
• Don't rinse raw meat, because the splashes spread bacteria.
• Don't let your dog lick your face, especially after a meal.

The Merck Veterinary Manual adds that raw diets with bones carry a risk of broken teeth and blockages in the gut, on top of the infection risk.