Dog Ideal Weight and Diet Calculators

274 breeds with their published weight standards and the daily calorie figure a vet would start from. The breed standard is a range, not a target — these pages say where a weight falls in it and leave the verdict to the person who can put hands on the dog.

A starting point, not a prescription. Calorie formulas are estimates a veterinarian refines by watching the animal. Talk to yours before changing a diet, and always before starting a weight-loss plan.

Popular breeds

Calorie need by size

Daily calorie needs by dog size band
Size	Adult weight	Breeds	Median	Per day neutered adult	Kcal per kg
Toy	0–5 kg	19	3.4 kg	280 kcal	82
Small	5–12 kg	59	7.9 kg	528 kcal	67
Medium	12–25 kg	101	19.9 kg	1,055 kcal	53
Large	25–45 kg	71	30.6 kg	1,457 kcal	48
Giant	45 kg+	24	54.4 kg	2,243 kcal	41

The last column is the one worth reading twice: per kilogram of body weight, a toy dog needs roughly twice what a giant breed does. That is the 0.75 exponent at work, and it is why scaling a large dog's bowl down by weight underfeeds a small one.

Life-stage factors

Life-stage multipliers applied to resting energy requirement
Life stage	Factor	When it applies
Neutered adult	×1.6	The commonest case for a pet dog.
Intact adult	×1.8	Un-neutered dogs burn noticeably more.
Obesity-prone	×1.4	Less active, or a breed that gains easily.
Weight loss	×1.0	Applied to the RER of the TARGET weight, not the current one.
Puppy under 4 months	×3.0	The highest metabolic rate of any life stage.
Puppy 4-12 months	×2.0	Growth slowing but still well above adult.

What decides how much a dog needs

Three things set a dog's daily calories: its weight, its life stage, and where that weight sits in its breed's range.

Weight, on a curve

Energy need follows body weight to the power 0.75, so doubling a dog's weight raises its calories by about 68%, not 100%. At the middle of their standards, the smallest breed here, the Poodle (Toy), needs about 94 kcal per kilogram a day as a neutered adult, and the largest, the Pyrenean Mastiff, about 37 kcal.

Life stage and neutering

The resting requirement is multiplied by a life-stage factor. A neutered adult's ×1.6 against an intact adult's ×1.8 means 11% fewer calories for the same dog after the operation. A puppy under four months is at ×3.0, and a weight-loss plan uses ×1.0 — applied to the target weight, not the current one.

Where the dog sits in its breed standard

A breed standard is a range, and some ranges are wide: the Peruvian Inca Orchid's runs from 3.9 to 24.9 kg, and a dog at the top of it needs about 4.0 times the energy of one at the bottom. 13 breeds are given a single weight rather than a range.

Reading a breed page

Below, within or above the standard describes where a weight falls in the published range. It is not a verdict on the dog; body condition, assessed by hand, is.
Cups a day assume 380 kcal per cup. The bag states the real figure, and changing it changes the cups, not the calories.
The life-stage table shows the same dog under every factor, so the effect of a change such as neutering can be read before it happens.
Lifespan is the range published for the breed, and across these breeds it tracks size: toy breeds average about 14 years at the middle of their range, giant breeds about 10.

Common mistakes

Scaling one dog's portion to another by weight. A dog half the size needs more than half the food.
Keeping the same amount after neutering. The factor falls by 11%.
Using the breed average for a dog at the edge of its range. Across the Peruvian Inca Orchid's standard the energy need changes by a factor of 4.0.

Where to go next

Open a popular breed above, or any breed below, grouped as the AKC groups them.
Methodology — the energy formula, the life-stage factors and their sources.
Disclaimer — why none of this replaces a veterinarian.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories does my dog need a day?

Start from Resting Energy Requirement — 70 × bodyweight in kilograms to the power of 0.75 — then multiply by a life-stage factor: 1.6 for a neutered adult, 1.8 intact, 1.4 if the dog is prone to putting weight on, 3.0 for a puppy under four months. Pick your breed above and the calculator does the arithmetic across the whole breed standard.

Why does a dog ten times heavier not eat ten times as much?

Because energy need scales with bodyweight to the power of 0.75, not to the power of one. A Pyrenean Mastiff at 81.7 kg weighs about 37× a Poodle (Toy) at 2.2 kg, but needs only about 15× the calories. Per kilogram of body weight, small dogs eat far more than large ones.

Is the breed standard the weight my dog should be?

No — it is a range, and it exists to describe the breed rather than to grade an individual animal. A small female at the bottom of the range and a large male at the top are both correct. That is why these pages report where a weight sits in the range and never call a dog underweight or overweight; body condition score, which a vet assesses by hand, is the measure that actually matters.

How do I feed a dog that needs to lose weight?

Feed to the target weight, not the current one. Calculating maintenance calories for the body the dog already has is why so many diets stall. Every breed page has a weight-loss mode that takes the target weight as its input — but agree that target with your veterinarian first, because rapid loss is dangerous and unexplained weight change can itself be a symptom.

Where do these numbers come from?

Breed weight and height standards come from American Kennel Club breed standards. The energy formula and life-stage factors come from Merck Veterinary Manual, nutritional requirements of small animals. Every figure is computed by the same reference implementation, checked against golden fixtures on each build.

Breed standards: American Kennel Club breed standards. Energy formula: Merck Veterinary Manual, nutritional requirements of small animals.

Estimates for informational purposes only and not veterinary advice. Breed standards are ranges, not targets, and healthy weight varies with frame, age, neuter status and body condition score. Calorie formulas are a starting point that a vet adjusts by watching how the dog responds. Talk to your veterinarian before changing a diet, and especially before a weight-loss plan.

Data on this page last verified 26 August 2026. How these figures are calculated