How Much Should I Feed My Dog? (Charts by Weight and Age)

The feeding chart on your dog food bag is a decent first guess, but it’s written for a “typical” dog that may not look much like yours. It usually covers a wide weight band (say, 40–60 lb) with one cup amount, and many brands assume a fairly active dog. If your dog is neutered, a little older, or spends most afternoons asleep on the couch, the bag can easily overshoot.

Why should I start with calories instead of cups?

A cup isn’t a fixed amount of food. One cup of a dense, high-fat kibble can carry 450 calories, and one cup of a “light” formula might have 300. So “feed 3 cups” means very different things depending on the bag.

Vets start with calories. The standard formula is the resting energy requirement (RER), the energy a dog burns lying still in a comfortable room:

RER (kcal/day) = 70 × (body weight in kg)^0.75

To get kilograms, divide pounds by 2.2. A 50 lb dog weighs about 22.7 kg. Raise that to the 0.75 power (a phone calculator does this with the x^y key), multiply by 70, and you get about 725 kcal. (For a calorie chart by weight, age and activity, and how these numbers compare with WSAVA’s ranges, see how many calories a dog needs a day.)

Then multiply RER by a life-stage factor to get the maintenance energy requirement (MER), what your dog needs on a normal day. The ranges below are from the 2021 AAHA Nutrition and Weight Management Guidelines. The starting points are the ones our calculators use:

Dog	Range (× RER)	Our starting point
Neutered adult, typical activity	1.4–1.6	1.4
Intact adult, typical activity	1.6–1.8	1.6
Inactive or gains weight easily	1.0–1.2	1.2
Weight loss (use ideal weight)	1.0	1.0
Puppy under 4 months	3.0	3.0
Puppy 4 months to adult	2.0	2.0
Light work or very active	1.6–2.0	1.8
Moderate work	2.0–5.0	2.0

So our 50 lb neutered adult needs about 727 × 1.4 ≈ 1,020 kcal a day to start, and up to about 1,165 kcal at the top of AAHA’s range.

Why start at the low end? You may see 1.6 for every neutered dog in older charts and in the Merck Veterinary Manual. But the WSAVA calorie chart for healthy adult dogs gives 850–1,067 kcal for a 22 kg dog (about 48 lb), which sits closer to 1.4. The NRC figure for inactive pet dogs lands there too. Most pet dogs are less active than their owners think, so starting lower and adding food if your dog gets thin is the safer way round.

One honest caveat: these are averages. Dogs of the same weight can differ a lot. Merck and WSAVA say individual needs can vary by about 30% either way, and Ohio State says up to 50%. That’s why the last step, checking your dog, matters most. Our dog calorie calculator shows every step of this math for your dog.

How do I turn calories into cups or grams?

Look at the bag. US pet food labels include a calorie statement, usually shown as “kcal/kg” and “kcal/cup”, close to the guaranteed analysis panel. It’s often in small print on the back or side.

Then:

Cups per day = daily calories ÷ kcal per cup

1,020 ÷ 380 ≈ 2.7 cups a day. Split into two meals, that’s about 1⅜ cups each.

If your bag only lists kcal/kg, weigh the food instead. Divide kcal/kg by 1,000 to get calories per gram. A food with 3,700 kcal/kg has 3.7 kcal per gram, so 1,020 ÷ 3.7 ≈ 275 grams a day. A cheap kitchen scale is more accurate than a scoop anyway. A 2011 study found that owners measuring kibble with cups were often far off, and a scoop is rarely filled the same way twice.

Dog feeding chart by weight (neutered adults)

This chart uses the formula above with the starting factor of 1.4 and a kibble of 380 kcal per cup. If your food is richer or lighter, carry over the calorie column, not the cups. The full chart from 5 to 150 lb, with intact and inactive columns, is on our dog feeding chart page.

Dog’s weight	Calories per day	Cups per day (380 kcal/cup)
5 lb	~180	~½ cup
10 lb	~305	~¾ cup
20 lb	~510	~1⅜ cups
30 lb	~695	~1⅞ cups
40 lb	~860	~2¼ cups
50 lb	~1,020	~2⅝ cups
60 lb	~1,170	~3⅛ cups
70 lb	~1,310	~3½ cups
80 lb	~1,450	~3⅞ cups
100 lb	~1,715	~4½ cups

For an intact adult, add about 14%. For a couch-potato dog or one that gains weight easily, take off about 15%. For a lean, busy dog at the top of AAHA’s neutered range (1.6), add about 14%.

The amounts don’t double when the weight doubles. A 100 lb dog eats well under ten times what a 10 lb dog eats. That’s the 0.75 exponent at work: bigger bodies burn fewer calories per pound.

How much should I feed a puppy?

Puppies need a lot more energy per pound because they’re building bone and muscle. Using the factors above:

• Under 4 months: about 3 × RER, split into 3–4 meals a day.
• 4 months to adult size: about 2 × RER, in 3 meals, dropping to 2 around six months for most breeds.

A 12 lb puppy at 10 weeks has an RER of about 250 kcal, so it needs roughly 750 kcal a day. With a puppy food at 400 kcal per cup, that’s close to 1⅞ cups across the day. Puppy foods are usually richer than adult foods, so always use the number on your bag.

Two more things about puppies:

1. Recalculate every couple of weeks. They grow fast, and last month’s portion is soon too small. The puppy food calculator does this by age.
2. Large and giant breeds (expected adult weight over about 70 lb) should eat a food labeled for large-breed puppy growth. Growing too fast, or getting too much calcium, is linked to joint and bone problems in these breeds. If you have a Great Dane or a Newfoundland puppy, ask your vet which food to use.

Not sure how big your puppy will end up? Our puppy weight calculator estimates adult size from current weight and age.

How much should a senior dog eat?

There’s no single “senior” number. Many older dogs slow down and need fewer calories. The NRC says older dogs need about 20% fewer calories than middle-aged adults, so our calculators start a typical senior at 1.2 × RER. Some very old dogs start losing muscle and need more food or more protein. If your older dog is losing weight without trying, see the vet rather than just adding another scoop. Our post on when a dog is considered a senior explains when that stage starts for your dog’s size.

Do treats count?

Yes. Treats, chews and table scraps all count. WSAVA and AAHA both suggest keeping treats under about 10% of daily calories. For our 50 lb dog, that’s around 100 kcal, less than you might think. A single large dental chew can take up most of it.

If you train with lots of treats, use some of your dog’s regular kibble as rewards.

How do I check I’m feeding the right amount?

The formula gets you close. Your dog’s body tells you the rest. Every two to four weeks:

• Weigh your dog. Use the same scale at the same time of day. Many vet clinics let you use their scale for free.
• Feel the ribs. You should feel them easily under a thin layer of fat, without pressing hard, but not see them sticking out.
• Look from above. You should see a waist behind the ribs.
• Look from the side. The belly should tuck up from the chest toward the back legs.

Vets call this the body condition score, usually on a 1–9 scale where 4–5 is ideal. If your dog is gaining weight when you didn’t want it to, cut the daily amount by about 10% and check again in a few weeks. If your dog is losing weight, add about 10%. For a planned diet, the dog weight loss calculator sets calories at the ideal weight.

This matters more than it sounds. A lifetime study of Labrador Retrievers found that dogs kept lean lived a median of about 1.8 years longer than littermates who were fed more (Kealy and colleagues, 2002).

What are the most common feeding mistakes?

• Feeding the bag’s top number. If the bag says “3–4 cups” for your weight band, start at the low end for a neutered, average-activity dog.
• Changing foods without changing the amount. A new food with a different kcal per cup needs a new portion.
• Free-feeding. Leaving the bowl full all day makes it hard to know how much your dog really eats, and many dogs overeat.
• Using a mug as the “cup”. A standard measuring cup is 8 US fl oz. Mugs and generic scoops often hold more.

When should I talk to my vet?

Use this guide for healthy dogs. Call your vet before changing your dog’s diet if your dog:

• is pregnant or nursing (energy needs can more than double),
• has a medical condition such as kidney disease, diabetes, pancreatitis or allergies, or eats a prescription diet,
• is losing or gaining weight without any change in food,
• suddenly eats or drinks much more or much less than usual.