Dog Food Calculator
Find your dog's daily calories and how many cups, cans or grams that is.
That is 2.83 cups of dry food a day, or 1.42 cups dry at each of 2 meals. Weigh your dog every few weeks and change the portion by about 10% if the weight drifts.
A starting point from AAHA guidelines. Your vet's advice comes first, especially for puppies, older dogs and dogs with a health condition.
Calories by body weight
Drag the brass point to change the weightCalories rise more slowly than weight: a dog twice as heavy needs about 1.7 times as much, so small dogs eat more per pound. At 45 lb this neutered adult plan is 1,076 kcal a day; at twice the weight it would be 1,809 kcal. The marked point is what you feed now, 1,140 kcal.
Check what you feed now
- Calories in it
- 1,140 kcal
- This plan
- 1,076 kcal
- Weight it would keep
- 48.6 lb
That is more than this plan: it would keep a neutered adult at about 48.6 lb, heavier than your dog.
Each meal
| Meal | kcal | Dry |
|---|---|---|
| Meal 1 | 538 | 1.42 cups |
| Meal 2 | 538 | 1.42 cups |
Treats
Turn this on to take treat calories off the meals, so the day stays the same.
Every life stage at 45 lb
| Life stage | Factor | Cups | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neutered adult | × 1.6 | 1,076 | 2.83 |
| Intact adult | × 1.8 | 1,210 | 3.18 |
| Inactive or easy gainer | × 1.4 | 941 | 2.48 |
| Weight loss | × 1.0 | 672 | 1.77 |
| Active, light working | × 2.0 | 1,344 | 3.54 |
| Heavy working | × 4.0 | 2,689 | 7.08 |
| Puppy under 4 months | × 3.0 | 2,017 | 5.31 |
| Puppy 4 months to adult | × 2.0 | 1,344 | 3.54 |
Factors from the AAHA 2021 guidelines. Weight loss is worked out at the weight in the box, which should be the target.
Guidelines
- Treats (WSAVA)
- under 10% of calories
- Weight loss (AAHA)
- 1% to 2% a week
- Ideal body condition
- 4 to 5 of 9
For a 45 lb dog, 1% to 2% is 0.45 to 0.9 lb a week. At 4 to 5 of 9 you can feel the ribs without pressing and see a waist from above.
How it's worked out
The tool starts from the resting energy requirement (RER), the calories your dog would burn lying quietly in a comfortable room. Vets work it out from body weight in kilograms, using the formula in the 2021 AAHA nutrition guidelines. It then multiplies by a factor for the dog's life stage and activity.
The factors are 1.6 for a neutered adult, 1.8 for an intact one, 1.4 for a dog that mostly rests, 2.0 for an active dog, 4.0 for heavy work, 3.0 for a puppy under four months and 2.0 after that. For weight loss it feeds the RER of the target weight itself, a factor of 1.0.
The power of 0.75 is why small dogs eat more for their size. A 5 kg dog needs about 374 kcal a day and a 40 kg dog about 1,781. The big dog is eight times heavier but eats less than five times as much.
Then the calories become food. Treats come off first. The rest is split between wet and dry food by the share you pick, and divided by the calories on each label: kcal per cup or per kilogram for kibble, kcal per can for wet food.
Worked examples
Biscuit, a 45 lb family dog
Biscuit is neutered, gets two walks a day and eats kibble with 380 kcal per cup. At 20.41 kg his RER is 672 kcal, and times 1.6 that makes 1,076 kcal a day. That is 2.83 cups, or 1.42 cups at each of two meals.
Checking the scoop
Biscuit's family has been filling the bowl with about 3 cups a day. That is 1,140 kcal, which would keep a neutered adult at about 49 lb. It is more than a 45 lb dog needs, so over months he would drift up toward that weight. The Check what you feed now card does this sum for your own cups.
A Labrador on a diet
Rosie weighs 34 kg and her vet sets a target of 30 kg. Fed at the target weight she gets 897 kcal a day, against about 1,577 kcal to hold her current weight. After 60 kcal of training treats, that is 2.46 cups of a 340 kcal food. At 1% to 2% a week, 0.34 to 0.68 kg, she reaches 30 kg in about 6 to 12 weeks.
Reading your result
The big number is the calories your dog needs in a day, and the line under it is how much food that is. Cups assume a level standard measuring cup. A kitchen scale is better still: turn on Dry food by weight and the tool gives grams.
Treat the number as a starting point, not a rule. Two dogs of the same weight can need amounts that differ by a fifth or more, because of breed, coat, age and how much they move. Weigh your dog every 2 to 4 weeks. If the weight drifts the wrong way, change the portion by about 10% and weigh again.
Vets judge weight with a body condition score. On the WSAVA 9-point scale, 4 or 5 is ideal: you can feel the ribs without pressing, see a waist from above and a tuck behind the ribs from the side. A 2019 study of more than 50,000 neutered dogs found that overweight dogs lived shorter lives, by up to about two and a half years in some breeds.
Puppies change fastest. A 3-month-old puppy of 8 kg needs about 999 kcal a day, three times its resting energy, so recheck every two weeks. Large and giant breed puppies need food made for large-breed growth. Your vet's advice comes before any calculator, especially for dogs with kidney disease, diabetes or allergies.
Common mistakes
- Feeding by the bag chart alone. Bag charts cover a wide range of dogs and are often generous. Calories from your own dog's weight and life stage are a closer start.
- Heaped scoops. A heaped scoop can hold much more than a level cup. Weigh one portion on a kitchen scale to learn what it looks like.
- Feeding a dieting dog for its current weight. Pick Weight loss and enter the target weight your vet set, not the weight now.
- Forgetting treats and chews. Dental chews, training treats and table scraps all count. WSAVA advises keeping them under 10% of the day. Turn on Count treats so they come out of the meals.
- Splitting wet and dry by volume. A can of wet food has far fewer calories per bite than kibble. Split by calories, as the tool does, or the bowl ends up with more food than you meant.
- Changing food overnight. Swap to a new food over about a week, mixing in more of it each day, and recheck the calories per cup on the new bag.
Questions people ask
Sources
- Baldwin, K. et al. (2010). AAHA Nutritional Assessment Guidelines for Dogs and Cats. Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association 46, 285-296
- Cline, M. G. et al. (2021). AAHA Nutrition and Weight Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats
- WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee, Global Nutrition Guidelines
- National Research Council (2006). Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. National Academies Press
- Salt, C. et al. (2019). Association between life span and body condition in neutered client-owned dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 33, 89-99
Maintained by Anil ShahUpdated October 28, 2026Checked against 11 reference values