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How to Calculate Your Dog’s Daily Calorie Intake

Just like with people, a dog’s calorie needs depend on several factors. Calories, the technical term for energy from food, are required for essential processes such as digestion, respiration, nervous and circulatory system control, and other normal bodily functions. In addition to the body’s basic needs for everyday life, a dog’s daily intake is determined by their age, sex, activity level, and body condition. For example:

How to Calculate How Much Your Dog Can Eat Per Day

Feeding too little food can deprive your dog of necessary energy, and feeding too much can result in obesity. To determine how much food your dog should eat per day, follow these steps.

  1. Use a calorie calculator to calculate your dogs Resting Energy Requirements (RER).
  2. Choose a factor based on your dog’s energy needs and multiply it by the RER. This gives you the number of calories your dog should eat in a day.
  3. Determine how many calories are in your dog’s food. You can find this on the package of some foods or on line. Once you know the calories in what you are feeding, you can figure out how much he or she needs.
  4. Figure out the amounts to feed. If you feed your dog two meals a day, subtract the calorie count of any treats and divide the remainder by 2 to determine how many calories your dog should get for each meal. Use the calorie count for your dog’s specific food to measure properly. For example, if your dog can eat 400 calories a day and you are feeding a food that is 200 calories per cup, your dog can get 2 cups per day.

Here’s another example: if the dog mentioned above can eat 400 calories per day but also eats 5 treats per day (at 20 calories each), you would determine their intake as follows: 400 calories – 100 calories of treats = 300 calories left for food. If the food is 200 calories per cup, your dog can get a total of 1 ½ cups per day.

Every food is slightly different in regard to the amount of calories it contains per cup. Take human food, for example: 1 cup of cooked green beans has about 44 calories, but a cup of macaroni salad is 360 calories. Dog food is the same way in that some formulas are more calorie dense (so you need to feed less) than others.

Dog Calorie Calculator

The basic core calorie requirements for dogs are determined by Resting Energy Requirements or RER, which can be calculated by raising the animal’s body weight in kilograms to the ¾ power and multiplying that total by 70.

For example:

The calculator that many veterinarians use to calculate RER calorie requirements is provided by Hill’s Pet Nutrition and is as follows:

Body weight (lbs) Body weight (kg) RER (calories per day)
1 0.5 39
2 0.9 65
3 1.4 88
4 1.8 110
5 2.3 130
6 2.7 149
7 3.2 167
8 3.6 184
9 4.1 201
10 4.5 218
11 5 234
12 5.0 250
13 5.9 265
14 6.4 280
15 6.8 295
16 7.3 310
17 7.7 324
18 8.2 339
19 8.6 353
20 9.1 366
25 11.4 433
30 13.6 497
35 15.9 558
40 18.2 616
45 20.5 673
50 22.7 729
55 25 783
60 27.3 835
65 29.5 887
70 31.8 938
75 34.1 988
80 36.4 1037
85 38.6 1085
90 40.9 1132
95 43.2 1179
100 45.5 1225
105 47.7 1271
110 50 1316
115 52.3 1361
120 54.5 1405
125 56.8 1449
130 59.1 1492
135 61.4 1535
140 63.6 1577
145 65.9 1619
150 68.2 1661
155 70.5 1702
160 72.7 1743
165 75 1784
170 77.3 1824
175 79.5 1864

NOTE: The “calorie” we refer to in food is actually kilocalorie.

An RER fulfills the dog’s basic needs but does not account for things like activity levels or other factors. To do so, the RER number is multiplied by factors to estimate the pet’s total daily energy needs. Some pets need less than the RER and some need nearly double the RER.

Daily energy needs for dogs
Neutered adult dog = 1.6 x RER
Intact adult dog = 1.8 x RER
Inactive/obese prone dog = 1.2-1.4 x RER
Weight loss for dog = 1.0 x RER for ideal weight
Weight gain for dog = 1.2- 1.8 RER for ideal weight
Active, working dogs

= 2.0 to 5.0 x RER

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Light work: 2 x RER

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Moderate work: 3 x RER

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Heavy work: 4-5 x RER

Puppy 0 to 4 months = 3.0 x RER
Puppy 4 months to adult = 2.0 x RER

*From the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine (vet.osu.edu). http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/companion/our-services/nutrition-support-service/basic-calorie-calculator

I hope this helps you calculate the calorie needs of your dog. Remember to consult your vet with any questions or concerns regarding your dog’s dietary needs.