Dog feeding calculator

Q: How many calories does a dog need per day?

The standard veterinary estimate is resting energy requirement, RER = 70 × (body weight in kg) ^ 0.75, multiplied by an activity factor — about 1.6 for a typical neutered adult, higher for active dogs and puppies, lower for weight loss. A 25 lb neutered adult works out at roughly 692 kcal a day. That is a starting estimate, not a prescription: adjust to body condition over a few weeks, and ask your veterinarian.

Q: How many cups of dog food should I feed?

Divide the daily calorie estimate by the calories per cup on the label — printed as the calorie content statement, mandatory on US labels since 2017. Worked through: a 692 kcal a day dog eating Hill's Science Diet Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe, which publishes 393 kcal per cup, needs about 1.8 cups a day, split across meals. 107 of the 122 foods here publish a per-cup, per-can or per-ounce figure.

Q: Why doesn't this match the feeding chart on the bag?

A bag chart maps broad weight bands to a cup range and cannot know your dog's activity, age or neuter status. This calculator uses one published number — the label's own calorie statement — and one factor you choose, so the two agree only when your dog matches the middle of the band. Both are estimates. Where they disagree, the physical bag in your hand is the more current document.

Q: Can I use this for a puppy?

The growth factors give an energy estimate only. Whether a particular food is suitable for growth is a separate question answered by the manufacturer's AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement, which 16 of the 122 foods in this database do not publish at all — for those, we quote no life stage. Growing dogs, and especially large-breed puppies, are a veterinary conversation, not a calculator output.

Estimates daily calories with the standard veterinary RER/MER method, then converts that into a real portion using the calorie density printed on the food's own label — not a generic chart. 117 of the 122 foods in this database publish a calorie statement; the other 5 are absent from the menu because their makers publish nothing to divide by.

Dog's weight (lb)

Life stage / activity

Food — optional, supplies the label calories

Estimate ±25%

These are population estimates. Individual dogs of the same weight vary by ±25% or more in what they actually need, so treat the output as a starting point and adjust to body condition over two to four weeks. Dogs that are pregnant, nursing, under- or overweight, or being treated for a medical condition need a veterinarian, not a calculator.

Reference ranges

Every cell below comes out of the same food the calculator runs, so you can sanity-check any result against it without typing anything.

Estimated kcal per day, computed as 70 × kg^0.75 × factor and rounded to whole calories. Factors are the standard maintenance multipliers; they describe the dog, never the food. Methodology
Body weight	Weight loss ×1.2	Senior ×1.4	Neutered adult ×1.6	Active adult ×1.8	Puppy 4–12 mo ×2.5	Puppy < 4 mo ×3.0
5 lb	155	181	207	233	323	388
10 lb	261	305	348	392	544	653
20 lb	439	512	585	659	915	1,098
30 lb	595	694	794	893	1,240	1,488
40 lb	738	862	985	1,108	1,538	1,846
60 lb	1,001	1,168	1,335	1,501	2,085	2,502
80 lb	1,242	1,449	1,656	1,863	2,587	3,105
100 lb	1,468	1,713	1,958	2,202	3,059	3,670

How this works

Resting energy requirement is the calories a dog burns at rest, and it scales with body weight to the three-quarter power rather than linearly — which is why a 100 lb dog does not eat four times what a 25 lb dog eats.

RER = 70 × (body weight in kg) ^ 0.75

daily kcal (MER) = RER × activity factor

A 25 lb dog is 11.34 kg, so its RER is 433 kcal; at the neutered-adult factor of 1.6 that is 692 kcal a day.

The portion line then divides that by whatever the label publishes.

portion = daily kcal ÷ kcal per cup, can or ounce

Where a manufacturer publishes only kcal per kilogram, the answer comes back in grams instead: grams = daily kcal ÷ kcal per kg × 1,000. Both come straight from the calorie content statement on the label, linked on every food page. Choosing a growth factor changes the arithmetic and nothing else — it makes no claim that the selected food is suitable for a growing dog, which only its AAFCO statement can establish, and 16 foods here carry no such statement.

Questions

How many calories does a dog need per day?

The standard veterinary estimate is resting energy requirement, RER = 70 × (body weight in kg) ^ 0.75, multiplied by an activity factor — about 1.6 for a typical neutered adult, higher for active dogs and puppies, lower for weight loss. A 25 lb neutered adult works out at roughly 692 kcal a day. That is a starting estimate, not a prescription: adjust to body condition over a few weeks, and ask your veterinarian.

How many cups of dog food should I feed?

Divide the daily calorie estimate by the calories per cup on the label — printed as the calorie content statement, mandatory on US labels since 2017. Worked through: a 692 kcal a day dog eating Hill's Science Diet Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe, which publishes 393 kcal per cup, needs about 1.8 cups a day, split across meals. 107 of the 122 foods here publish a per-cup, per-can or per-ounce figure.

Why doesn't this match the feeding chart on the bag?

A bag chart maps broad weight bands to a cup range and cannot know your dog's activity, age or neuter status. This calculator uses one published number — the label's own calorie statement — and one factor you choose, so the two agree only when your dog matches the middle of the band. Both are estimates. Where they disagree, the physical bag in your hand is the more current document.

Can I use this for a puppy?

The growth factors give an energy estimate only. Whether a particular food is suitable for growth is a separate question answered by the manufacturer's AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement, which 16 of the 122 foods in this database do not publish at all — for those, we quote no life stage. Growing dogs, and especially large-breed puppies, are a veterinary conversation, not a calculator output.

Captured 2026-07-25 Methodology