Dog Calorie Calculator
Stop guessing with food bag scoops. Calculate the exact veterinary-approved daily calories your dog needs to stay healthy and active based on their weight and life stage.
Dog Energy Needs
Nutrition Guidelines
How Canine Nutrition Works
Pet obesity is a growing crisis in the UK, with studies suggesting up to 50% of pet dogs are overweight. The primary issue is that the serving sizes listed on the back of commercial dog food bags are often generalized and can sometimes overestimate requirements to sell more food. By calculating your dog's specific biological needs, you can keep them at a healthy weight.
The Impact of Spaying / Neutering
One of the biggest nutritional mistakes dog owners make is continuing to feed their dogs the same amount of food after they have been "fixed".
Spaying (females) or neutering (moles) fundamentally changes a dog's hormonal profile. Removing reproductive hormones slows down their basal metabolic rate. Therefore, if you feed a neutered dog the same amount you did when they were intact, they will gain weight. This is why our calculator requires you to specify if they are neutered or intact.
The Veterinary Formula (RER)
Unlike human BMR, which uses height and age, a dog's resting energy is calculated purely on an allometric scaling of their body weight using exponents.
Resting Energy Requirement (RER)
RER = 70 × (Body Weight in kg)^0.75
This calculates the calories your dog would need if it were lying in a crate doing absolutely nothing all day. We then multiply this by a lifestyle factor (usually 1.6 for a normal walk-twice-a-day pet dog).