🐾PetFeedingCalculator

About PetFeedingCalculator

PetFeedingCalculator exists to answer one question well: how much should I actually feed my pet? Pet food labels give ranges so wide they are nearly useless, and most owners end up guessing. We put the formula that veterinarians and veterinary nutritionists actually use into a free calculator, then built a feeding guide around it for every common dog breed and cat.

Who we are

PetFeedingCalculator is built and maintained by the PetFeedingCalculator Editorial Team — a small independent team of software engineers and lifelong pet owners. We are not veterinarians, and we are careful about what that means: every number on this site comes from the published veterinary formula described below, never from our own opinions. Editorial guides are reviewed against primary sources (WSAVA guidelines, veterinary nutrition textbooks) before publishing. Questions, corrections and suggestions are welcome at hello@petfeedingcalculator.com.

Methodology — the exact numbers

Every result on this site is computed with the standard two-step veterinary energy formula:

  1. Resting Energy Requirement (RER) = 70 × (body weight in kg)0.75 kilocalories per day. The 0.75 exponent reflects that metabolic rate scales with metabolic body size, not linearly with weight.
  2. Maintenance Energy Requirement (MER) = RER × a life-stage factor. The multipliers we use are the commonly published veterinary ranges:

Dog multipliers

  • Puppy (0–4 months)× 3.0
  • Puppy (4–12 months)× 2.0
  • Adult, neutered/spayed× 1.6
  • Adult, intact× 1.8
  • Active / working× 2.5
  • Senior (7+ years)× 1.4
  • Weight loss plan× 1.0

Cat multipliers

  • Kitten (under 1 year)× 2.5
  • Adult, neutered/spayed× 1.2
  • Adult, intact× 1.4
  • Senior (11+ years)× 1.1
  • Weight loss plan× 0.8

Calories are converted to portions using typical caloric densities: dry kibble ≈ 380 kcal/100g, wet / canned ≈ 95 kcal/100g, raw / fresh ≈ 150 kcal/100g. Real products vary — check your bag's label (kcal/kg or kcal/cup) and prefer the gram figure over the cup figure, since kibble density varies by shape. Breed pages use the midpoint of the breed's healthy adult weight range as the pre-set weight.

Sources

  • WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — nutritional assessment guidelines and calorie recommendations.
  • Standard RER/MER methodology as published in veterinary nutrition references (e.g. Small Animal Clinical Nutrition).
  • Breed weight ranges: official breed standards (AKC/FCI) and breed club data.

The important disclaimer

These are population-level estimates for healthy adult animals. Pregnancy, lactation, medical conditions, extreme climates and individual metabolism all shift real needs. Nothing on this site is veterinary advice — use the numbers as a starting point and adjust with your veterinarian, especially for puppies, kittens, seniors and pets with health issues.

How the site is funded

The calculator is free and always will be. The site earns through clearly-labelled Amazon affiliate links (see the affiliate disclosure), display advertising, and a paid developer API. None of these influence the numbers: portions come from the formula above, full stop.