Dog food calculator

It depends on weight and how much the dog moves, and the honest answer is a range rather than a number. WSAVA's chart for a healthy adult dog in ideal body condition publishes a band for every weight from 2 to 49 kg — roughly 470 to 590 kcal a day for a 10 kg dog, 790 to 993 for a 20 kg dog. The calculator above computes that band for your dog's weight and then converts it into grams or cups using the calorie figure printed on your own food.

Target, if your dog is carrying extra. The chart is titled “for an average healthy adult dog in ideal body condition”, so the whole calculation assumes a trim dog. Feed an overweight dog to its current weight and the ration stays precisely as generous as the problem. Your vet sets the target from a body condition score; the calculator asks for it separately for this reason.

Look for the Calorie Content statement on the bag. In the United States it is required on the label and is printed as kcal per kilogram, very often with kcal per cup alongside. The calculator takes either. It deliberately does not pre-fill a typical value, because foods vary enough that a guessed density quietly becomes a guessed ration.

Because it does, and it is worth knowing before you compare numbers. The chart's rows work out to about 84 to 105 kcal × bodyweight in kg to the power 0.75. The footnote underneath cites the 2006 NRC maintenance requirement as 95 for an inactive adult and 130 for an active one, which runs 13 to 24 per cent higher — 534 to 731 kcal for a 10 kg dog against the 470 to 590 the table itself prints. This tool follows the printed rows and shows the footnote figures beside them so you can see both.

WSAVA's own guidance is that treats should always make up less than 10% of a dog's daily calorie intake, and that they never replace a meal. The result above works that budget out in calories. If a treat's packet doesn't state its calories, WSAVA suggests asking the manufacturer.

No, and it doesn't pretend to. The WSAVA chart it is built on covers healthy adults only, and the growth multipliers you'll find quoted around the web were not something we could trace to a primary source, so they are not in here. For a growing dog, the puppy weight calculator on this site projects adult size, and your vet or the food's own growth chart handles the ration.

Treat them as adults here and watch the dog rather than the number. Older dogs often slow down and need less, but there is no single published multiplier worth quoting — and the chart's own band already spans about 25% from bottom to top, which is where that adjustment lives. Weigh monthly and move within the range.