Most feeding advice online tells you whether a food is safe. It rarely tells you how much. That gap is where a lot of slow weight gain starts, because a few slices of fruit that look like nothing to you can be a real share of what a 6 kg dog eats in a day.
This calculator estimates your dog’s daily calorie need, takes 10 percent of it, and turns that into portions of 24 foods that are generally safe for dogs. If the food you have in mind is not on the list, check it first with our Can my dog eat this? food checker.
How much of this can my dog actually have?
Vets suggest keeping treats and extras to about 10% of a dog’s daily calories, with the other 90% coming from complete, balanced dog food. Enter your dog’s details to see that 10% in real portions.
Your dog’s daily treat budget
to kcal
Out of roughly to kcal in total per day. The remaining to kcal should come from complete, balanced dog food.
Only foods that are generally safe for dogs are listed. To check something else first, use the Can my dog eat this? food checker.
This is a calorie ceiling, not a serving size. Fruit and vegetables are bulky and high in fiber, so most dogs do better on much less. Start with a few pieces and see how their stomach handles it.
That figure assumes this is the only treat of the day. If you give more than one thing, split the allowance between them.
Where the 10 percent figure comes from
Veterinary nutrition guidance generally puts complete, balanced dog food at about 90 percent of what a dog eats, with treats, chews, training rewards and table scraps sharing the other 10 percent.
The reason is not that treats are dangerous. It is that treats are almost never nutritionally complete. Go past that 10 percent and you start thinning out the part of the diet that was actually formulated for calcium, protein, fat and everything else, so the food can no longer do the job it was designed for.
Treat it as a working guideline rather than a law. Plenty of dogs do fine at 12 percent, and a dog on a weight plan might need to be nearer 5. But 10 is a sensible default and it is what this tool uses.
How the numbers are worked out
There are two steps.
First comes resting energy, which is what a dog burns doing nothing at all: lying on the sofa, digesting, staying warm. The standard formula is 70 multiplied by body weight in kilograms raised to the power of 0.75.
That exponent is the interesting part. Calorie need does not climb in a straight line with weight, which is why a 40 kg dog does not eat four times what a 10 kg dog eats. It needs closer to 2.8 times as much.
Then a multiplier is applied for the life the dog actually leads. A neutered adult lands around 1.6 times resting energy and an intact adult nearer 1.8. A growing puppy can be anywhere from 2 to 3. Older dogs usually sit lower, and activity level moves the number again.
The result comes out as a range rather than one figure, because a range is what the maths honestly supports. Two dogs of the same weight and routine can differ by a fifth or more for reasons you cannot see from the outside.
Why weight matters more than breed
People usually arrive looking for breed advice: how much should a German Shepherd eat, how much for a Labrador.
The answer depends almost entirely on what that particular dog weighs, and healthy adult German Shepherds range from roughly 22 to 40 kg. Two dogs at opposite ends of that spread have very different needs, and a breed chart cannot tell them apart.
Breed is still worth knowing. It tells you roughly what size a dog should end up, and some breeds, Labradors and Beagles among them, put on weight more easily than others. In large and giant breeds it also affects how long growth carries on, which can be well past the first birthday. For the dog in front of you today, though, the number on the scale tells you more than the breed name does.
If you do not know your dog's weight, many vet clinics will let you use the waiting room scales without an appointment.
Puppies, adults and older dogs
Puppies are where the 10 percent rule needs the most discipline. They are building bone and muscle on a tight schedule, and a complete puppy food has to be doing that work. In large breed puppies the calcium balance matters enough that it is better left to a properly formulated food than improvised around with extras.
Adults are mostly the easy case. The thing that catches owners out is neutering, which lowers energy needs. Nobody changes the size of the bowl, and the extra weight builds up so slowly over the following year that it is hard to say when it started.
Older dogs vary more than any other group. Some slow down and need noticeably less. Others develop conditions where diet becomes part of the treatment, and at that point treat budgets are a conversation for your vet rather than a calculator on a website.
What actually counts as a treat
Anything that is not their regular measured food. That includes dental chews, training rewards, the corner of your toast and the spoon of yogurt at the bottom of the pot. It also includes the handful of kibble someone handed out as a reward, even though it came from the dog's own bag.
Training days are where this quietly falls apart. Fifty small rewards in one session sounds like nothing until you weigh them. If you train a lot, use the dog's own kibble as rewards and take it out of their meals instead of adding it on top.
Foods covered by this calculator
Every food in the calculator has its own guide on this site covering how to prepare it and when to skip it.
Fruit: blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi, papaya, dragon fruit, mandarin oranges and unsweetened applesauce.
Vegetables: zucchini, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, okra, lettuce and cabbage.
Protein: plain scrambled eggs, turkey, lean ground beef and sardines.
Rice and dairy: white rice, brown rice, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese.
Why some foods are not on the list
A portion calculator only makes sense for foods that have a safe portion, and some do not. Raisins can cause kidney failure in dogs and there is no known safe amount. Pecans and white chocolate are best kept away from dogs entirely. They were left out on purpose, so the calculator never offers a "safe amount" of something that does not have one.
What this calculator cannot tell you
It cannot tell you whether a food is safe for your dog in particular. The portions are for foods that are generally fine for healthy dogs, and that is not the same as fine for every dog. For anything you are unsure about, start with the food safety checker.
It cannot account for allergies, pancreatitis, kidney disease, diabetes, pregnancy or nursing. Any of those can change the picture completely.
It also cannot replace looking at your dog, and body condition is a better guide than any formula. You should be able to feel the ribs under a thin layer of fat without pressing hard, and see a waist when you look down from above. If the numbers say one thing and your hands say another, go with your hands and book a check-up.
Questions people ask
Why are the numbers for fruit so high?
Because the calculator works on calories, and fruit and vegetables have very few of them. A medium dog's treat budget might technically cover a hundred blueberries. That figure is a ceiling, not a serving size. Produce is bulky and high in fiber, and most dogs do better with a few pieces than with the full amount.
Can I split the allowance between several foods?
Yes, and most people should. The figures assume one food is taking the whole budget. If you want to give blueberries and a dental chew, divide it between them.
Does this work for cats?
No. Cats use different formulas and have different nutritional needs, and the portions here would be far too large for a cat.
My dog is overweight. Can I use this?
Use it as an upper limit rather than a target, and speak to your vet before starting any weight plan. Weight loss in dogs needs to be slow and monitored, because cutting calories sharply causes its own problems.
Is anything I type here saved?
No. The whole thing runs in your browser, and nothing is sent to a server or stored.
Why is the answer a range instead of one number?
Individual dogs vary, and a single number would look more precise than it really is. Start near the middle of the range, then adjust based on your dog's weight over the following month.