Dog Raw Feeding Calculator
How much raw food should your dog eat a day? Enter their weight and goal for a daily amount in grams and ounces, split across meals.
A starting point — most adult dogs eat 2–3% of body weight a day, puppies far more. Adjust by watching body condition (you should feel the ribs), and make sure the diet is complete and balanced. Check with your vet, especially for puppies and pregnant dogs.
Estimate only — not veterinary advice. Every animal is different; for a medication dose, a possible poisoning, or any emergency, call your veterinarian or an animal poison control line right away.
How the amount is worked out
Raw feeding is usually planned as a percentage of body weightper day rather than by calories. The calculator multiplies your dog's weight by the percentage for their goal and life stage, then splits it into two meals. It's a starting point — the right amount is the one that keeps your dog at a lean, healthy body condition.
Adjust by the dog, not the chart
Every dog burns energy differently. Use the number as your week-one estimate, then let your hands decide: if you can't easily feel the ribs, feed a little less; if they're getting bony or are very active, feed a little more. If you also want a calorie figure, the dog calorie calculator gives the energy side of the same question.
Frequently asked questions
- How much raw food should I feed my dog?
- The convention raw feeders use for an adult dog is about 2–3% of body weight a day: roughly 2% to lose weight, 2.5% to maintain, 3% for active dogs or to gain. Puppy figures of around 6% (4–12 months) and 8% (under 4 months) circulate in the same community. Be clear about what these are: portioning rules of thumb from raw-feeding practice, not veterinary nutrition standards — no professional body publishes them. Treat the output as a starting serving size to discuss with your vet, and weigh your dog every couple of weeks, because the animal in front of you beats any percentage.
- Should I split it into meals?
- Yes — most adult dogs do well on two meals a day, so the calculator shows the per-meal amount for a two-meal schedule. Puppies usually eat three or more smaller meals. Weigh portions rather than eyeballing them, which is the easiest way to keep weight on track.
- How do I know if the amount is right?
- Watch body condition, not just the scale: you should be able to feel the ribs easily and see a waist from above. If your dog is gaining, drop toward 2%; if they're losing or always hungry and active, nudge toward 3%. Re-weigh and adjust every couple of weeks.
- Is a raw amount the same as a complete diet?
- No. This tells you how much to feed, not what, and a portion size says nothing about whether a diet is nutritionally complete. Home-assembled raw diets are frequently found to be unbalanced when analysed, and the risks are not evenly shared: growing puppies are the most vulnerable, because a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio that is off can cause permanent skeletal problems, and pregnant dogs and any animal with a health condition are also higher risk. Raw meat also carries salmonella and other pathogens for the dog and for the people in the house. If you feed raw, use a product labelled complete and balanced for your dog’s life stage, or a recipe formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist — and for a puppy, do not improvise.
Sources
These are the references behind this calculator. Where a source gives a range we take the midpoint and round toward caution, and where we go beyond what a source states — an extra safety margin, or a rule of thumb rather than a clinical threshold — the page says so in the text above.
- Global Nutrition Guidelines — WSAVA
- General feeding guidelines for dogs — VCA Animal Hospitals