As the proud owner of an active giant breed dog, I’ve faced a unique challenge: how to meet my dog’s substantial calorie needs while feeding a commercial wet diet.
A Bit of Background
For the first two and a half years of his life, our Rhodesian Ridgeback Boone thrived on a raw food diet (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, B.A.R.F. for short). However, after a diagnosis of helicobacter pylori, we transitioned first to home-cooked meals and eventually to a commercial wet food diet. And for now, it’s working very well for Boone.
The Big Dog, Wet Food Challenge
If you’re a fellow large or giant breed dog parent, especially one feeding wet food, I see you and your struggles! One of the biggest hurdles we face is meeting our dog’s substantial caloric requirements without having to feed mountains of food.
Here’s why: Dry kibble typically contains only about 10% moisture, which concentrates calories into a compact form. Wet food, on the other hand, contains roughly 70% moisture, resulting in significantly lower energy density.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Let me put this into perspective. Boone, our intact male Ridgeback who weighs 46kg (101.4lbs), requires approximately 2,226 calories daily to satisfy his energy needs. When feeding him wet food containing 120 kilocalories per 100g, he needs a whopping 1,885g of food per day. That’s nearly 2 kilograms!
Compare this to an energy dense dry food like Orijen Six Fish (480 kcals per cup): he would need only 556 grams to meet the same caloric needs. The difference is striking!
Finding the Sweet Spot
While we’re committed to Boone’s wet food diet for now, I’ve had to become vigilant about balancing volume and nutrition. Feeding too much at once can overwhelm a dog’s digestive system, shortening food transit time and resulting in diarrhea — definitely not what any dog parent wants!
For large and giant breed dogs, especially deep-chested breeds like our Ridgeback, there’s another serious concern: bloat, or Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (GDV). Risk of this potentially life-threatening condition can be mitigated by avoiding large food volumes at a single feeding, especially prior to activity. (I’ll share more detailed information about minimizing bloat risk in a future blog post.)
To maintain this delicate balance, calculating both Boone’s caloric needs and the appropriate food volume has become an essential part of my feeding routine.
The Rotation Challenge
I typically rotate between three different wet foods from trusted brands that Boone enjoys eating and tolerates well. This variety is great for Boone, but it means that I constantly need to recalculate serving sizes based on each food’s unique calorie content. The process isn’t complicated: look up the calorie content on the label, then divide Boone’s daily caloric requirement by the kcals per gram, but doing these calculations repeatedly for different foods gets tedious.
Technology to the Rescue!
Fortunately, my tech-savvy husband (one of his many wonderful qualities) came to the rescue after one of our caffeine-fueled brainstorming sessions. He built a custom calorie calculation app that handles all the math for me.
Introducing the Sundog Dog Food Calorie Calculator
I’m excited to share Sundog's Dog Food Calorie Calculator with you! This user-friendly tool estimates your dog’s daily calorie needs based on their age, reproductive status and activity level. It has completely eliminated the guesswork from our feeding routine and helps ensure that Boone gets what he needs to meet his energy needs.
Want to try it yourself? Simply enter your dog’s details into the calculator to receive an estimated caloric recommendation. The calculator seamlessly works with both metric and imperial measurements, so you can input your dog’s weight in pounds or kilograms. Plus, it provides feeding recommendations in cups, ounces, grams and kilograms, making it easy to measure your dog’s food whether you’re using imperial or metric units.
Remember that these recommendations are approximations to use as a starting point. As every dog is unique, you may need to make adjustments based on your dog’s individual response. Ultimately, this calculator offers a helpful baseline estimation that you can fine-tune to support your dog’s individual energy requirements. Your dog’s nutrition – simplified!
In the spirit of making information and resources readily available, this free widget is set up so that it can be embedded into your website, if that’s helpful for you.
The More You Know
As these feeding examples show, canine nutrition can be tricky. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about finding the right food for your dog, or want help figuring out how much to feed them, I’m here for you. Reach out today for a free 15-minute call to see if my personalized nutrition consulting services might be helpful for you and your dog. Together, we can create a feeding plan that fits your dog’s needs, lifestyle, as well as your budgetary considerations.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for educational purposes. The Sundog Calorie Calculator provides general feeding guidelines based on nutritional science, but should not replace veterinary advice. Results are approximations that may not account for your dog’s specific health conditions or unique needs.