What to feed your dog
how much to feed
how to do it
dry dog foods
raw diet
chocolate toxicity
salmon
booda velvets
miscellaneous dog stuff
Getting a puppy
How much do I feed my dog?
Well, you've got a dog. Maybe he's a little too fat, or maybe your puppy is completely hyperactive, or maybe you're planning on going camping in the middle of winter and want to know how to feed your dog. Maybe she's a herding dog, maybe she's used to laying on the couch for seventeen hours every day. Or maybe you're feeding a sled dog team or a show dog or a hunting pair.Unlike most of us, dogs are not terribly concerned with caloric intake, grams of fat, cholesterol, or nutrition. They will happily eat just about anything we give them, and most will thrive on a diet of commercial dog food of one sort or another.
Some dogs will eat until they can't move. Others will go off their food at the slightest change in their surroundings - How do you make sure that they are getting the proper nutrition that they need? Depending on the feeding method that you use, you can easily control the food intake and supplements that your dog eats.
However, many dogs are overweight. Feeding portions on many dog foods are sometimes vague, and most of us can't resist that soulful gaze when the bowl is empty. Depending on their activity level, where they live (inside or outside), and the climate, dogs, like people, require more or less calories to maintain an optimum weight.
The following tables show:
- Daily Calorie Requirements for Dogs
- Adjustments for General Climate
- Adjustments for Outside Temperature
- Calorie Requirements for Puppies
- Minimum Daily Requirements of Vitamins and Minerals
Most dog food cans or bags will display the caloric value for the food, either per pound or per cup. (Dry dog food is normally measured by weight, not volume. ) Some very rough estimates are:
| Canned, ration or "stew" type | 500 calories/lb |
| Canned, all meat/animal tissue | 600 calories/lb |
| Soft-Moist | 1350 calories/lb |
| Dry | 1500 calories/lb |
Using these estimates, my 110lb and 100lb Akitas require ~2800 calories each for normal activity, which would be the equivalent of approximately 5 pounds of canned food, 2 lbs of moist food, or 1.8 lbs of dry food per dog . You can see why we don't feed canned food! Yikes! But what kind of food should you feed?
Remember that this is only a starting point -- so much depends on the food and on the dog. For example. premium dog foods will have a higher calorie content and higher digestibility, and your dog will have to eat less. To get the same value from Dog Chow as they get from Eukanuba, my dogs would have to eat nearly three times as much food. (And the higher-quality foods tend to leave a lot less for you to scoop back up in the yard afterwards!)
I've also compiled comparison of popular dog food brands with basic nutritional information and ingredients to get some more detailed information.
Calorie Requirements for Dogs
The following table shows the daily calorie requirements for dogs in a variety of situations - indoor dogs, outdoor dogs, working dogs, and very high activity dogs. Also, it includes the calories per lb of body weight . Use the "Base" column for your average dog (activity punctuated by couch-potato-ing)
Weight cal/ Base Pets, Pets, Herd- Work-
lb Inside Outside ing ing
2.2 64 141 130 *
4.4 53 233 211 *
5.0 50 250 225 *
5.5 49 269 242 *
6 48 288 258 *
6.5 47 305 273 *
7.0 46 322 287 *
7.5 45 337 300 *
8.0 44 352 312 432
9.0 43 387 342 477
10.0 42 420 370 520
11.0 41 451 396 561
12.0 40 480 420 600
13.5 39 526 459 661
15.0 38 570 495 720 795
16.5 37 610 528 775 858
18.0 36 648 558 828 918
20.0 35 700 600 900 990 1000
22.0 34 748 638 968 1065 1078
25.0 33 825 700 1075 1182 1200
28.5 32 912 770 1197 1317 1380
30.0 31 930
32.0 31 992 832 1312 1443 1472
36.0 30 1080 900 1440 1584 1620
40.0 29 1160 1000 1560 1716 1760
44.0 28 1232 1100 1672 1839 1892
50.0 27 1350 1250 1850 2035 2100
57.0 26 1482 * 2052 2257 2337
66.0 25 1650 * 2310 2541 2640
88.0 24 2112 * 2992 3291 3432
118.0 24 2832 * 3894 4283 4602
150.0 24 3600 * 4800 5280 5850
* dogs under 8 lbs should not be "outside" dogs, and dogs weighing
more than 50 lbs should not be exclusively "inside" dogs.
Adjustments for General Climate
If your dog spends a majority of it's time outside, they will need more calories as the temperature gets lower. Usually, this can be accomplished by adding extra fats and oils to the food to give them a good source of high-energy calories (from fat), and increasing the amount of food to maintain balanced nutrition.
Month, northern central southern
% increrase % increase % increase
August 0 0 0
September 0 0 0
October 10 5 0
November 40 15 10
December 70 30 15
January 100 60 30
February 100 60 30
March 70 30 15
April 40 15 10
May 10 5 0
June 0 0 0
July 0 0 0
Adjustments for Outside Temperature
Again, as the temperature changes, your dog will need more or less food. This table is more useful for dogs that are not usually outside all the time, but will be spending time outside for a specific reason - ie, hunting, camping, whatever.Air Temperature Increase Air Temperature Increase 0 70% 60 0 10 50% 70 0 20 35% 80 10% 30 20% 100 20% 40 10% 120 30% 50 0
Calorie Requirements for Puppies
Many small breeds reach their adult size before a year of age, while larger breeds may take two years or more. By tracking the puppies weight to it's age, you can tell how many calories your puppies need for any given day. This is not, obviously, an exact science, but it is a pretty good starting point.
1lb 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 30 40 50 60 70
5wk 100 200 300 400 500 1000 1500
6 90 180 270 360 450 900 1350
7 80 160 240 320 400 800 1200
8 75 150 225 300 375 750 1125 1500
9 70 140 210 280 350 700 1050 1400
10 130 195 260 325 650 975 1300 1625
11 180 240 300 600 900 1200 1500
12 224 280 560 840 1128 1400 1680
13 208 260 520 780 1040 1300 1560
14 240 480 720 960 1200 1440 1920
15 450 675 900 1125 1350 1800
16 420 630 840 1050 1260 1680 2100
17 585 780 975 1170 1560 1950
18 720 900 1080 1440 1800 2160
19 825 990 1320 1650 1980
20 900 1280 1500 1800 2100
