How much to feed your dog per day? You have bought the best food for your dog’s size and age. You check how much you should give in the tables on the packet, but you may not know that these tables are rarely correct.
- How Much Can Food Should I Feed My Dog Per Day? Puppies must eat limited amounts of food.
- Why are commercial food tables not always correct?
- How much food can the dog keep at the ideal weight? First, we calculate the metabolisable energy.
- How Much Can Food Should I Feed My Dog Per Day? Correction factors
- How much should the puppy eat? We calculate kcal for him, too.
- Executive summary
- How Much Should I Feed My Dog? How can Kcal be converted into the amount of kibble or wet food to be fed?
- Modified Atwater formula
- How Much Should I Feed My Dog? How many kibbles should a 28 kg Labrador eat?
- How much should I feed my dog?
Feed your dog. Many people will give different answers based on their experience with their dogs. However, the scientific facts related to the feeding aspects in the case of dogs need to be emphasised in the feeding activities maintained.
Usually, the puppies should not be separated before eight weeks old. However, sometimes orphaned puppies may exist. Usually, about five per cent of the body weight may be taken as criteria for the quantity of food for the puppies. However, the dog’s consumption also varies with the dog’s size.
However, one can have a thumb rule of feeding the puppy until you see visible fullness of the abdomen to a moderate degree. If you provide the animal without emphasising its stomach appearance, the puppy may experience digestive upsets and diarrhoea.
How Much Can Food Should I Feed My Dog Per Day? Puppies must eat limited amounts of food.
Feeding your puppy a lot of food may cause inconveniences to the owner and the puppy. Unlike adult dogs, the puppies need to be provided with limited food but more frequently. However, once the age advances, the payment may be increased to some extent, but feeding frequency is often decreased.
A dog on a raw diet may consume only two to four per cent of its body weight. Just observe the dog’s feeding pattern and the animal’s body condition closely. If the dog becomes obese, reduce the quantity of food; if the dog becomes thin, increase the feeding items.
As mentioned earlier, puppies and adolescent dogs eat more than adult dogs. Likewise, the senior dog eats less than the adult dog due to reduced muscle movement. However, remember to restrict the amounts of protein given to aged dogs during diet feeding.
Why are commercial food tables not always correct?
How can a 6-year-old whole male dog, weighing about 10 kg and constantly living on the couch, eat the same amount of food as a dog of the same weight, but a spayed female dog going for long walks every day and living outside?
The range is too broad as much as kibble is formulated to be as personalised as possible.
More often than not, these tables overestimate the amount of food needed.
That’s why it’s good to know how to calculate the right amount of commercial food so as not to run into one of the most common problems in dogs: being overweight.
Below we will give you directions (according to FEDIAF) for calculating the correct amount of commercial food, starting from the dog’s ideal weight and considering the following:
- Environmental condition
- Hormonal status
- Temperament and character
- Breed
So, are you ready to calculate? Grab your calculator, and let’s get started!
Look at the image below to understand how to calculate; you’ll need it! Photo1 & Photo 2
How much food can the dog keep at the ideal weight? First, we calculate the metabolisable energy.
If your dog is not in good physical condition, you should consult your veterinary doctor to make corrections and assess whether the condition is optimal.
If your dog is well and in good physical condition, do this calculation to check that the amount of food you are feeding is correct, and you are more likely to keep your dog in the right shape.
Let’s talk about Maintenance Energy Requirement (MER): how much energy does your dog need to maintain his ideal weight?
The energy required, expressed in Kcal per day, varies depending on various conditions (which we will see). For example, dogs living at home, on the couch, exercising, living in the cold, whole or neutered, may not have the exact energy requirement.
So, let us start with the basics and then calculate, with corrective factors, the correct energy requirement.
For a dog that:
- NOT neutered
- Lives in homeothermic conditions (i.e. does not have to disperse energy to thermoregulate itself)
- Performs average physical activity
The energy for this condition is calculated using the formula:
MER= (IDEAL WEIGHT^0.75)x110.
So energy is calculated by knowing the dog’s ideal weight, ‘exponentiation‘ to a common factor (0.75) multiplied by 110.
For example, a 10 kg French Bulldog in the picture above must consume 618.57 (rounded up to 619) kcal per day.
How Much Can Food Should I Feed My Dog Per Day? Correction factors
Temperature
The energy a dog consumes to maintain a constant internal temperature varies depending on its coat type and the temperature in which it lives. Temperature correction factors are applied based on this concept.
For the dog whose ideal weight was 10 kg in the previous example, the final result should be multiplied:
- x1.2 if it lives in extreme heat (30-35°) (long-haired dogs)
- x1.25 if it lives at 0° (not Nordic breeds that live well at this temperature)
- x1.5 if living at -10°
Depending on living conditions and coat type of your dog.
We then calculate the energy required for a 15 kg dog living in extreme temperatures (-10°). The calculation will be obtained by applying the formula above, and the result will be multiplied by the corresponding factor.
The calculation will be (15^0.75×110) x 1.5.
Temperament and neutering
Neutered subjects have a lower energy requirement than whole dogs. This is why it will be necessary to reduce their energy requirements.
It will, however, be necessary to assess what kind of physical activity the dog does, which is why we also have several correction factors here, which, let us remember, must be added together.
So, to the calculation made above, we will apply this correction factor depending on the metabolic condition:
- x0.8 if neutered dog
- x1.3 if very active
- x1.4 if nervous and hyperactive (e.g. hunting dogs)
If the temperament is also concurrent with castration, we will add the two factors in sequence.
So, returning to our 10 kg spayed dog, he will have to eat an amount of Kcal equal to (10^0.75×110)x0.8. If he is also a hyperactive dog, we will add x1.4.
Feed my dog. Correction factor according to race
We know that breeds are more prone to obesity and species that, on the other hand, always tend to remain very thin or even underweight.
Similarly, dog hybridisation of these breeds will have the same attitude.
The correction factors to be applied, in sequence, as we have now learned to do, are:
- *0.8 for breeds that tend to put on weight (Golden Retriever, Labrador, Beagle, Boxer, Nordic Breeds)
- *1.2 for breeds that tend to slim (Great Danes, Greyhounds, Weimaraners, Pitbulls, Amstaffs)
How much should the puppy eat? We calculate kcal for him, too.
The puppy needs the energy to grow and live. We must understand its current weight and the weight it will need to reach as an adult.
To do this, I need to know.
- Know the weight of the parent (of the same sex; if it is male, I refer to the father; if it is female, I refer to the mother)
- Know the weight of the current puppy
- Refer to the table below
Growth Needs:
Multiplication coefficient of the maintenance energy requirement.
| Puppy weight – Adult weight | Co-efficient |
|---|---|
| 0,3 | 2,14 |
| 0,4 | 1,94 |
| 0,5 | 1,75 |
| 0,6 | 1,58 |
| 0,7 | 1,42 |
| 0,8 | 1,28 |
| 0,9 | 1,14 |
To use the table, we must divide the puppy’s weight by the parent’s.
If, for example, the mother weighs 20 kg and the puppy 5 kg, the calculation will be:
5/20 = 0.25. This is the puppy weight/adult weight ratio.
We take as reference the value closest to 0.25, i.e. 0.3 in the table, and thus obtain the coefficient to be used, which in the table is 2.14
From here, we start again with the standard calculation:
A puppy weighing 5 kg will need metabolisable energy (Kcal) equal to:
5^0.75*110*2.14
Remember that the coefficient changes as the puppy ages and approaches adult weight.
Beware, however, that puppies need to be handled very carefully, so it is a good idea to consult your veterinary surgeon to ensure no harm is done.
Executive summary
To calculate the amount of Kcal to be fed to our dog, we start with the ideal weight, calculate the base Kcal and apply correction factors:
- Temperature
- Temperament/neutering
- Breed
How Much Should I Feed My Dog? How can Kcal be converted into the amount of kibble or wet food to be fed?
At this point, we have to go and read the labels of our commercial foods and find out how much energy (i.e. how much kcal) there is inside per 100 g of product.
This value, unfortunately, is rarely declared!
Therefore, we must be able to calculate it from the analytical components, in particular, the energy-bearing components:
- Protein
- Fats
- Carbohydrates (Inazotated extracts)
Carbohydrates are rarely stated as a percentage, but we love a challenge and don’t stop!
The formula we will analyse is the centesimal analysis (the analytical components), i.e. the number of members present in 100 g of product on the packaging of our commercial food.
As you see in the example above, you have:
- 30% protein (30g protein per 100 g food)
- 19% fat (19 g fat per 100 g food)
- 2.0% crude fibre (2 g per 100 g of foodstuff)
- 6.0% Inorganic matter (also called ash) (6 g/100 g food)
everything else is not considered caloric intake; even in this formula, carbohydrates are not indicated.
Among the essential nutrients, we also consider water, which, if not indicated, is taken as 8% by default (8 g water per 100 g).
To calculate the number of carbohydrates, we must reason by subtraction from the 100g (the centesimal analysis is used precisely to determine how many components are present in 100g of product).
So, we will do the following:
100 – (30 + 19 + 2 + 6 + 8)= 35% carbohydrates or (Inazotate Extracts)
Modified Atwater formula
Now that we know how many carbohydrates we have, we can calculate how many Kcal we give our dog per 100g product.
To do this, we apply the 4 – 9 – 4 formula.
This formula is based on the assumption that to know how much Kcal 100g of my product provides, I have to calculate it knowing that:
- 1 g of protein provides 4 Kcal
- 1 g of fat provides 9 Kcal
- 1 g of carbohydrates provides 4 Kcal
Adding the grams of protein *4, the grams of fat *9 and the grams of carbohydrates *4 gives us the amount of Kcal per 100 grams of kibble.
Returning to our label, we have the following:
[30 (grams of protein)*4] +[ 19 (grams of fat) * 9 ]+[35 (grams of carbohydrates) * 4] = 431 Kcal per 100 grams of product, which equals 4310 Kcal per kg.
This formula tends to overestimate energy slightly but is an acceptable overestimate.
In our case, we had the declared energy per 100 g on the label, and the overestimate is only 20Kcal per 100 g, a negligible value.
Now that we know how many calories our food provides, let’s return to the calories your dog needs. We will give a clarifying example in the next paragraph. Don’t panic!
How Much Should I Feed My Dog? How many kibbles should a 28 kg Labrador eat?
If you have followed all the reasoning, you know that we have to consider all the variable factors for which we believe this dog to be:
- Neutered female
- 28 kg in weight
- Lives at 15°/21°
- Does light physical activity.
We calculate all the factors and do our calculation:
MER = (28^ 0.75)* 110 *0.8 = 856 Kcal/day.
Knowing that 100 grams of kibble (or wet food) give 386 Kcal (we take the actual value we are from the manufacturer) and that the Labrador needs 856 per day, we make the proportion
386 Kcal :100 g = 856 Kcal : X
X= 856*100/386 = 221 g per day.
And we have finally solved our daily ration.
Well, if you have read this far, it means that you are intensely interested in your dog, and now you also have a chance to find out whether the ration proposed on the nutritional tables was proper.
Look at this table to give you an idea of the range that results from these calculations.
Recommended daily ration
| SIZE | WEIGHT | DAILY RATION |
|---|---|---|
| Toys | 1-4 kg | – |
| Mini | 5-10 kg | – |
| Medium | 11-25 kg | 145-275 g |
| Large Breed Maxi | 26-44 kg | 285-420 g |
| Large Breed Giant | 45 kg and more | 425 g + 35 g for every 5 kg of weight |
Our Labrador, according to all calculations made, should eat 221 g.
The table states that he should eat more than he should consume between 285 and 420 g.
That is why it is essential not to end up with overweight or obese dogs.
How much should I feed my dog?
The amount of food you should feed your dog depends on many factors, including age, breed, activity level, and overall health. It would help if you provided your dog with enough to help them maintain a healthy weight.
An excellent way to determine how much to feed your dog is to use a feeding chart. Feeding charts are available from most dog food companies and can help you choose the right amount of food for your dog’s age, breed, and weight.
If you are unsure how much to feed your dog, it is always best to talk to your veterinarian. They can help you determine the right food for your dog’s needs.
Here are some general guidelines for how much to feed your dog:
- Puppies. Puppies need to eat more food per pound of body weight than adult dogs. A good rule of thumb is to provide puppies three times a day.
- Adult dogs. Adult dogs need to eat less food per pound of body weight than puppies. A good rule of thumb is to feed adult dogs twice a day.
- Senior dogs. Senior dogs may need to eat less food per pound of body weight than adult dogs. Feeding old dogs once or twice daily is a good rule of thumb.
It is important to note that these are just general guidelines. The amount of food you should feed your dog will vary depending on their needs. If you are unsure how much to feed your dog, it is always best to talk to your veterinarian.
Here are some additional tips for feeding your dog:
- Feed your dog a high-quality, complete and balanced diet.
- Avoid feeding your dog table scraps.
- Make sure your dog has access to fresh water at all times.
- Weigh your dog regularly to make sure they are maintaining a healthy weight.
- Finally, talk to your veterinarian if you are concerned about your dog’s weight.
Thank you for reading the article to the end. Your reading contribution was significant to us.
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