How much should I feed my dog?

Most of us probably read the back of the food package on how much to feed our dog when we first brought home our furry friend. However, as we all know, one size does not fit all, and different dogs have different caloric needs depending on their age, size, breed, activity level, health status, eating habits, and environmental factors. You know your dog the best. If they have a visible waist, appears happy and energetic, and you can feel their ribs, then you’re probably on the right track. Once we put our pups on our homemade meals, the guessing game was over. We no longer had to debate whether we were overfeeding or underfeeding our dogs. The following chart is from the Animal Diet Formulator that breaks down daily kcals by weight on fresh food. As a reference, both of our adult active dogs 40-45# get 3 cups of food a day. On training days when they get a lot of treats, we scale it back to 2.5 cups a day.