Dog feeding calculator
Estimate how many calories and cups a dog needs each day from its weight, age and activity, with every assumption shown.
Runs entirely in your browser: nothing you enter is sent to this site. Results are estimates for planning, not veterinary advice.
What it does
Enter your dog's weight, its life stage and the calories in a cup of its food. The calculator gives a daily calorie target, the cups that meet it after a small treat allowance, and the amount for each meal.
How the numbers are worked out
The first step is the dog's resting energy requirement: 70 times its weight in kilograms raised to the power 0.75. That figure is then multiplied by a factor for the dog's situation. The factors used here are 1.6 for a neutered or spayed adult, 1.8 for an adult that is not neutered, 1.3 for an inactive dog, 2.5 for a very active dog, 1.0 for a dog on a weight-loss plan, 3.0 for a puppy under four months and 2.0 for a puppy from four months to adult size. The factors are typical planning values from veterinary nutrition references, and individual dogs differ by a lot.
Treats are held to about a tenth of the day's calories. The rest becomes cups, using the calories per cup you enter. That figure is printed on the food bag, and it varies from about 250 to 500 kcal per cup between brands and recipes.
Where it stops being right
An estimate is only a starting point. Two dogs of the same weight can need very different amounts depending on age, coat, breed, temperament, how much they move and how well they absorb their food. Weigh your dog every few weeks, look at its body condition, and change the amount by about a tenth at a time.
Puppies, pregnant or nursing dogs, dogs with illness and any dog that needs to lose weight should be fed on a veterinarian's advice. The tool gives no diet for a medical condition. For a dog that needs to lose weight, enter the weight it should be, not the weight it is.
Last reviewed November 8, 2026