Food advisor for my dog
With the PLATINUM food calculator you can easily calculate the amount of food and the food costs for your dog.
How much food does my dog need?
Daily dog food requirements vary significantly from dog to dog. A Chihuahua fed on dry food will need just 60 grams of food, while a St Bernard fed on wet food will need over 1500 grams. With our food calculator, you can calculate how much dry or wet food your dog needs in seconds. Even a combining dry and wet food can be calculated quickly and conveniently. The result refers to the high-quality dog food from PLATINUM. If you wish to calculate the amount of food for another type of dog food, you can only use the result as a rough guide. Often you will need a larger quantity of another food, as the quality is not as good as PLATINUM. Especially in the case of wet food, the quantities required may be double or triple. If you wish to calculate the costs – compared to another dog food – you should include this aspect.
How is the amount of food calculated?
The amount of food depends on many factors. The dog’s weight and feeding method play the biggest role, but age, breed, activity level, illness or neutering can also have an impact on calculating the amount of food. The result of a food calculator can therefore only provide an indication. Always judge your dog from a visual point of view as well.
- The difference between dry and wet food
There are big differences in the calculation of food quantity due to the different consistencies of dry feed and wet food. Dry food loses a large part of its moisture during production. Therefore, the same amount of dry food is much richer than wet food. Accordingly, you will need less dry food than wet food to feed a dog. Depending on the food, half the amount or even less is sufficient. This doesn’t make much difference to the dog, except that it will drink more with dry food, so the water bowl should always be well-filled. - The age of the dog
Puppies have a high energy requirement. However, due to their size, the amount of food is still less than that of an adult dog. It increases continuously, which is why a food calculator cannot provide an exact result for each puppy down to the gram. It is important, especially with large dogs breeds, that they are not given too much food during puppyhood, as this could lead to accelerated growth. This can lead to problems in their movement as an adult dog and reduce life expectancy. However, due to good care, our dogs are generally seen to be getting older. As long as they remain active, their feeding needs change relatively little. However, it may decrease somewhat over time. - Activity level of the dog
We see it in top athletes: they have a significant increase in energy consumption when practicing their sport. This can be applied to dogs as well. Active dogs need more energy and therefore more food than ‘couch potatoes’. The difference can easily be 10 to 20 percent or more. - Special life situations
Very individual situations can also play a role in the calculation of food. For example, it is relatively common for a female dog’s energy needs to decrease after being neutered. Accordingly, if the amount of food remained the same, she would suffer from obesity over time. To counteract this, the amount should be reduced by about 10 percent and the dog should be weighed regularly over the next few months.
The opposite consequences of neutering occur during pregnancy and the rearing of puppies. In these cases, the energy requirement increases, which is why you should increase the amount of food. Similarly, if one dog is outdoors a lot – and needs energy to maintain its body temperature – while another spends most of its time in a warm living room. Ultimately, an objective assessment of the dog is always important, which should be supplemented by occasional weighing. If the weight is correct, the food quantity is also correct.