The Well Dog Place

Dr. Ken Tudor Holistic Veterinarian

Dog Food Bowl, Calories on dog food labels aren't easily translated into servings. See our instructions.

Dog Nutrition 03 | Counting Calories to Improve Your Dog’s Health

Calories matter for your dog’s maximum health. Trim dogs live almost 2 years longer than less fit dogs. But dog food companies have taught us to feed cups or cans of dog food. But there are no standard calorie counts for cups or cans of dog food. Cups and cans can vary as much as 200 calories per cup or can between and among dog food brands. That big difference can promote excess body weight and poor health. And the feeding instructions on the labels are always more generous than your dog needs, so ignore those instructions. Every time you change dog food, you need to change the amount you feed!

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How to Count Calories

If you already know your dog’s ideal weight and daily calorie needs it is easy. All dog food bags or can labels must state the calories the food contains. It will be hard to find but it has to be there. It will be expressed as: kilocalories (Kcal)/kilogram (kg); kilocalories (Kcal)/cup or can. Kilocalories are the same as calories so don’t be confused by the metric system.

The equation for finding how many calories to feed is:

Daily calories divided by the calories/cup or can = #cups or #cans to feed daily.

We like owners to feed two meals daily, so: #cups or #cans daily divided by 2 = #cups or #cans for each meal.

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Count calories and add those 2 extra years to your dog’s life!

Author

Ken Tudor DVM

Dr. Ken Tudor, Holistic Veterinarian

Dr. Ken Tudor is a recognized expert and leader in the field of pet nutrition and fitness. He has developed a pet weight management program and served on the American Animal Hospital Association task force to develop their Weight Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats. He is also a frequent guest on the Pet World Insider radio show and a popular guest on the televised Pet Ex Talks-Pet Experts Empowering Pet Parents show.

Dog Nutrition 03 | Counting Calories to Improve Your Dog’s Health

Dog Nutrition

At THE WELL DOG PLACE Whenever you "Refer a Friend" you get $20 off AND they get $20 off their first exam. Call for an appointment:
(909) 929-0778

NEW - If you don't live close enough to visit our office...

If you are too far away to see Dr. Tudor in person, but still wish to make your own balanced dog food at home using Dr. Tudor's exclusive nutrient powder, omega 3 oil and recipes, we now offer two options for you:

Healthier Homemade for Dogs

When you need or want custom recipes that are personalized for your fur family, our sister site Healthier Homemade can help you out. Because this service is remote, we are unable to give medical advice or diagnosis, so we work with your veterinarian to make sure your fur family is well cared for.

At Healthier Homemade, we offer Medical Recipe Programs for 14 different conditions. See them in detail here.

There are an assortment of recipe formulations for dogs with diagnosed Food Allergies. They include, High Protein, Instant, and Economy options.

If you have all Normal Adult Dogs in your fur family and wish to have more control over the formulations of your recipes, we offer Economy, Instant, High Protein, and Ultra-High Protein (including a few all meat options).

With all of our custom recipes you may include up to 4 dogs (with the same health profile) and you may choose cooking frequency from every day to once a week. We do all the math, we even calculate serving size for each dog! We also have detailed tutorials for each step of cooking, mixing, and storing.

Hearthstone Homemade for Dogs

If you are an experienced cook, like flexibility, have a normal adult dog, and just need general guidelines, Hearthstone may be right for you. Before purchasing a Starter Kit, you can see a complete list of ingredient options that can be used.

Our EZ Meal Planner gives you a great starting point. You still get to pick out wholesome ingredients at the grocery store and you still get "The Well Dog Nutrient Powder" to make sure your dogs' meals are balanced.

The Getting Started page gives you a great road map for what you need to equip your kitchen, preparation, transitioning to a new food, and more.