How Much Food Should I Feed My Dog?
Bag labels overshoot. They assume an active dog at the top of each weight band, which is not most house dogs. This calculator runs the same RER and DER formula the vet does, then converts to cups using your kibble's actual calorie density. Most adult dogs need a chunk less food than the bag claims.
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Most dry adult kibble runs 340–400 kcal/cup. Check your bag's nutrition panel for the exact number, or leave 360 as a reasonable default.
How to use this tool
- Enter your dog's current weight (or target weight if doing a weight-loss plan).
- Pick the life stage. Spayed and neutered adults need about 15% less than intact dogs.
- Pick the activity level that matches a typical week, not your dog's most active day.
- Set the kcal-per-cup from the bag's nutrition panel if you have it. 360 is a fair default.
- Read the cups-per-day number. Split evenly across the recommended meal count.
Frequently asked
Why is the result lower than what the bag says?
Pet food labels target the most active dog in each weight bracket. Most spayed and neutered house dogs are 20-30% less active than that reference dog. Following bag amounts is a leading driver of pet obesity, which now affects roughly 56% of US dogs (Banfield 2024 State of Pet Health). Cut the bag amount by 15-20% as a starting line, then adjust by body condition.
What does kcal per cup actually mean?
The bag's nutrition panel lists 'metabolizable energy' in kcal/cup or kcal/kg. That number is the only one that translates between brands. Two cups of premium 420-kcal food has the same energy as 2.3 cups of budget 365-kcal food.
How do I check if my dog is at the right weight?
Use a body condition score (BCS) chart from 1 to 9. Ideal is 4–5: ribs felt easily without pressing hard, visible waist from above, slight tuck from the side. Most vets will score your dog at any visit if you ask.
Should I just use a measuring cup?
A measuring cup works fine for medium and large dogs. A kitchen scale in grams is more accurate for small dogs, where being a quarter cup off can mean 100 extra calories a day. Conversion: cups × kcal-per-cup ÷ kcal-per-gram = grams.
Is this the same formula my vet uses?
Yes. RER = 70 × weight_kg^0.75 is the National Research Council formula in 'Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats' (2006), used in every accredited vet school. The multipliers for life stage and activity match the same source.
Feeding an active dog raw?
The NRC formula above gives you a daily kcal target. Translating that target to raw meat is straightforward: most raw mixes run roughly 1,100 to 1,400 kcal per pound, so an active 50 lb working dog needs about 1.5 to 2 lb of food per day. Brands vary widely on protein-to-fat ratios and packaging. Raw Wild ships freeze-dried raw with a single-source protein list and a 120-day cookie window on referral clicks, which gives readers room to compare brands before deciding.
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Want to cook your dog's food yourself?
Home-cooked diets are the cleanest way to know exactly what your dog is eating, but the kitchen math gets old fast: weighing meat, balancing macros, hitting AAFCO mineral targets without a supplement plan. A countertop machine like the Chef Paw Dog Food Machine cooks vet-balanced batches in roughly 30 minutes using your own ingredients. The math from this calculator still applies, just swap kcal per cup for kcal per batch on the recipe card. Chef Paw comes from the Innovet Pet team, in business since 2005.
Adjusting Studio participates in the Awin affiliate network. When you click a sponsored link and make a qualifying purchase, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We mark every affiliate link clearly.