Raw Dog Food Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Weigh the dog properlyEstimating bodyweight is unreliable and the whole calculation scales from it. Most vet practices let you use their scales free.
2. Use the puppy setting for anything under a yearPuppies eat two to three times the adult percentage, and feeding an adult figure badly underfeeds them during the fastest growth.
3. Set the activity honestlyA sedentary house dog and a working sheepdog on the same bodyweight need noticeably different amounts.
4. Adjust by body condition afterwardsThe number is a starting point. Ribs easily felt, waist visible from above — change by ten per cent at a time and reassess over a fortnight.

A percentage of bodyweight, split three ways

Raw feeding quantities are conventionally expressed as a percentage of the dog's bodyweight per day, rather than as a fixed amount. That scales sensibly across the enormous size range of dogs, from a 2 kg chihuahua to a 70 kg mastiff.

For a healthy adult at maintenance, 2 to 3% is the usual range. Two and a half per cent is the common starting point, adjusted from there by how the dog looks and feels.

Activity shifts it by around half a percentage point in either direction. A senior dog doing two short walks needs less; a working dog in season can need well over 3%.

Puppies are a different matter entirely. They need two to three times the adult percentage, and the figure falls steeply with age — roughly 9% at eight weeks, 7.5% at four months, 6% at six months, 4% at nine, and 3% by a year.

Feeding a puppy an adult percentage underfeeds it substantially during the period when skeletal and muscular growth is fastest, and that is not recoverable later.

The split is where raw feeding differs most from other approaches, and it is often summarised as 80/10/10.

Eighty per cent muscle meat provides protein and fat. Ten per cent edible bone provides calcium and phosphorus in roughly the ratio a dog needs. Ten per cent organ meat provides the vitamins and minerals that muscle meat lacks, and half of that organ portion should be liver.

Each part matters for a specific reason. **Bone is the one most easily got wrong in both directions.** Too little and the diet is calcium-deficient, which is serious in a growing puppy. Too much causes constipation and, sustained, can interfere with the absorption of other minerals.

**Liver is essential and is very high in vitamin A**, which is fat-soluble and accumulates in the body. Around 5% of the diet is the usual figure, and consistently feeding much more risks vitamin A toxicity.

The other 5% of organ means secreting organs — kidney, spleen, pancreas, testicle. Heart and gizzard are muscle meat nutritionally, despite being sold as offal, and counting them as organ leaves the diet short of what organ was there to provide.

Worked example: a 20 kg adult dog

A 20 kg adult at normal activity, at 2.5% of bodyweight.

20 kg × 2.5% = 500 g a day.

Split across two meals, that is 250 g each.

Over a week it is 3.5 kg, and over a month about 15.2 kg — which is the figure to think about when costing raw feeding or planning freezer space.

Now the daily split. At 80/10/10, that is 400 g of muscle meat, 50 g of edible bone and 50 g of organ, of which 25 g should be liver and 25 g other secreting organ.

In practice nobody weighs 25 g of liver daily. It is far more usual to balance over a week: 2.8 kg of muscle meat, 350 g of bone, 175 g of liver and 175 g of other organ across seven days.

That weekly view is the one to work with, and it is why the calculator shows both.

Now change the activity. At low activity the percentage drops to 2%, giving 400 g a day. At working level it rises to 3.5%, giving 700 g. That is a 300 g spread on the same dog, which is why activity is not a detail.

Now a puppy. A 20 kg four-month-old — a large breed — at 7.5% needs 1,500 g a day, three times the adult amount for the same weight. Split across three or four meals, that is 375 to 500 g per meal.

And because the puppy is growing, the amount has to be recalculated as its weight changes, not just as its age bracket changes. A puppy gaining 2 kg a month needs its ration revisited monthly.

Some raw feeders use a percentage of the puppy's *expected adult weight* instead, which avoids constant recalculation. Both approaches are used and they converge as the puppy matures.

Finally, the adjustment that matters most. If after a fortnight at 500 g the dog is gaining weight and the ribs are harder to feel, drop to 450 g. If it is looking lean and losing condition, go to 550 g. The calculator gives a starting point; the dog gives the answer.

Daily amounts by weight

The puppy column shows why life stage matters more than any other input — a six-month-old needs roughly two and a half times what an adult of the same weight would eat. Note also that the puppy figure has to be recalculated as the puppy grows, since it is a percentage of current weight rather than a fixed ration.

Balance, safety and talking to your vet

The single biggest risk in raw feeding is a diet that is not balanced over time. A dog fed chicken mince and nothing else will be deficient in several respects within months, and the deficiencies are not obvious until they are advanced.

Variety across protein sources is part of the answer — different meats have different mineral and fatty acid profiles, and rotating them evens out the gaps. So is including the organ portion consistently rather than occasionally.

Some things are commonly added: oily fish or a fish oil for omega-3, which most terrestrial meat is short of, and in some diets vegetables, though whether dogs need them is genuinely contested among raw feeders.

Calcium and phosphorus balance is the aspect that matters most in a growing puppy, because it directly affects skeletal development. Large-breed puppies in particular can develop serious orthopaedic problems from an imbalanced diet, and this is the case where getting it wrong does lasting harm. A home-prepared raw diet for a large-breed puppy is not a good place to learn.

On bones, the rule is that they must be raw. **Cooked bone splinters and can perforate the gut, and is genuinely dangerous.** Weight-bearing bones from large animals are too hard and fracture teeth. Softer edible bones — chicken wings, necks, rabbit — are what the 10% refers to, and they are eaten rather than gnawed and discarded.

Any bone should be fed under supervision, and a dog that gulps rather than chews needs larger pieces or a different approach entirely.

On handling: raw meat carries bacterial risk to the household as well as the dog. Handle it as you would raw meat for people — separate boards, thorough hand washing, prompt cleaning of bowls and surfaces. Take particular care where anyone in the home is very young, elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised, since the risk falls on them rather than on the dog.

Defrost in the fridge rather than at room temperature, and do not refreeze.

Commercially prepared complete raw diets are formulated to a nutritional standard and remove most of the balancing problem. They cost more than assembling your own and they are considerably safer for anyone not confident in the nutrition.

Finally, and this is the important part: **discuss any change of diet with your vet**. Raw feeding is a legitimate approach with committed advocates, and it is also one where mistakes cause real harm. Dogs with pancreatitis, kidney disease, immune compromise or a history of gut problems may be poor candidates. For a home-prepared diet, a qualified canine nutritionist can formulate one properly, which is money better spent than on correcting a deficiency later.

Assumptions and limitations

• Percentages vary between sources and none is authoritative
• Assumes a healthy dog at a healthy weight — feed to target weight, not current, if overweight
• Puppy figures must be recalculated as the puppy grows
• Does not assess nutritional balance across protein sources
• Does not account for medical conditions affecting diet
• The 80/10/10 split is a convention, not a formulated standard
• Not veterinary or nutritional advice — consult your vet before changing diet

Questions people ask about this in United Kingdom