How Much Dry Food Should I Feed My Dog?
Your dog’s nutritional needs change as they grow, so asking, “How much dry food should I feed my dog?” is important regardless of their age.
Determining how much food to feed your dog every day can go a long way toward keeping them happy, healthy, and active for as long as possible.
Thankfully, supporting a well-balanced diet isn’t difficult — all you need is a bit of basic knowledge about your dog’s ideal diet and a few simple facts that you likely already know. Yes, it’s just that easy!
In this article, we discuss what you need to know to provide balanced nutrition for your pup and tips for feeding your dog right.
Balanced Nutrition for a Healthy Dog
Before we talk about how much food to feed your dog, it’s important to understand what your dog needs every day to stay the active pup you love. Your dog’s diet(open in new tab) should include the right amount of three essential macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
Here’s a brief discussion of those three components.
Protein
Every day, your dog needs at least one gram(open in new tab) of protein(open in new tab) per pound of their ideal body weight. For example, if you have a specific adult breed whose ideal body weight is 40 pounds and your dog weighs 48 pounds, they’ll need 40 grams of protein every day.
Good sources of protein include:
Chicken
Beef
Eggs
Lamb
Cooked fish (remove bones)
Turkey
Duck
Peanut butter (unsalted)
If your dog is a puppy or a senior, their diet may differ slightly in regard to protein. For example, puppies typically need more than one gram of protein per pound of body weight in order to support their rapid growth and development.
Consult a veterinarian to find out the ideal weight of your dog and the total amount of protein they need.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates(open in new tab) encompass a broad range of foods including:
Rice
Oats
Barley
Apples
Blueberries
Cranberries
Sweet potato
Carrots
Green beans
This is by no means an exhaustive list of foods you can feed your dog, but keep in mind that there are a number of foods you should not feed your dog, including grapes, raisins, onions, garlic, chocolate, cinnamon, avocado, xylitol (an artificial sweetener), and alcohol.
Talk to your vet for more details about the best carbohydrate sources to feed your pup.
Fats
While a great source for plant-sourced fatty acids may also be beneficial and include:
Olive oil
Sunflower oil
Flaxseed oil
Coconut oil
It’s important to understand that your dog doesn’t need a lot of fat in their diet(open in new tab). Too much fat can lead to canine obesity and other health issues.
Talk to your dog’s vet for more information and look for a dry dog food brand that offers complete nutrition, like IAMS™ Proactive Health(open in new tab).
Characteristics That Affect Your Dog’s Diet
The following characteristics affect your dog’s diet in one way or another, but it’s best to consult a veterinarian to determine how they all fit together.
For example, you may have a large-breed dog (that typically needs more food), but their health and activity level may mean that you should feed them less than another dog of the same breed.
Breed
A big part of the answer to the question, “How much dry food should I feed my dog?” has to do with their breed.
Breed(open in new tab) — i.e., genetics — dictates whether they’ll be a small, medium, or large dog. Breed also determines energy level and metabolism, which can impact the number of calories they need to maintain normal body function.
For example, a large, high-energy Sheep Dog that’s outside working every day will need quite a bit more food than a Chihuahua who stays in the house.
Age
Your dog’s life is divided into three basic stages:
Puppy
Adult
Puppies typically need more food than adults and seniors because their bodies need more calories to support their constant growth and development.
Once they reach the adult stage, they need less food because they aren’t growing as rapidly as they were in the puppy stage.
On the other end of the spectrum, senior dogs typically need less food than adults because they aren’t growing anymore and are usually less active than they were as adults.
Weight
For each breed, the three different stages of life usually have a corresponding ideal weight range that determines whether they are considered underweight, overweight(open in new tab), or just right.
While the other characteristics on this list do come into play, unless otherwise instructed by your vet, you should feed your dog based on maintaining that ideal weight range.
But how can you accurately (and easily) determine how much your dog weighs?
Try this:
Weigh yourself
Pick up your dog and stand on the scale together
Subtract your weight from the bigger number (that will be your dog’s weight)
So, for example, if you weigh 150 pounds and you and your dog together weigh 160 pounds, your dog weighs 10 pounds. With that number in mind, you can use the feeding guidelines on your dog’s food packaging to figure out how much to feed them and help maintain their ideal weight.
Activity Level
As a general rule, active dogs need more calories than sedentary dogs. This is true regardless of the other characteristics on this list.
For example, you may have a brother and sister pair of Golden Retrievers. The male likes to curl up on the couch, while the female likes to go outside and run around(open in new tab).
Depending on their weight, you’ll likely increase the female’s food intake slightly to support her more active lifestyle and decrease the male’s food intake to prevent him from putting on too many pounds.
Again, it’s important to talk to your vet and ask them how much to feed your dog specifically. They’ll be able to combine all the characteristics mentioned here to arrive at a healthy, balanced diet for your dog.
Health
At any age, your dog may develop health conditions that make adjusting their diet necessary.
For example, senior dogs often suffer from joint issues(open in new tab). With specifically formulated diets, however, these diets can help to support their skeletal and joint health by helping to maintain cartilage, which is important to joint health and mobility.
Premium dry dog food, like IAMS™ Advanced Health™ Mobility Support(open in new tab), which contains the omega-3 fatty acid EPA and natural sources of glucosamine and chondroitin to support whole-body health and mobility, may be a good choice to provide such nutrition.
So, sometimes, asking the question, “What’s in my dog’s dry food?” is just as crucial as asking, “How much dry food should I feed my dog?”.
How Much Dry Food Should I Feed My Dog?
The best way to know how much dry food to feed your dog is to start with your dog’s size (small, medium, or large), their age (puppy, adult, senior), and their current weight.
The age of your dog will, of course, determine if you need puppy food, adult food, or senior food. Then, the size of your dog will help determine which type of dry dog food to buy.
For example, IAMS™ Proactive Health(open in new tab)™(open in new tab) is available in small breed, medium breed, and large breed varieties (each with their own delicious flavors!).
Once you’ve got that settled, match your dog’s weight to the feeding guidelines on the back of the package you purchased. That will give you the baseline recommendation for how much dry food you should feed your dog every day.
For example, if you’re feeding your dog IAMS™(open in new tab) Proactive Health™ Healthy Weight(open in new tab) formula for adult dogs and they weigh 30 pounds, according to the recommended daily allowances, you would give them two cups of food per day.
For best results, divide those recommended two cups into two or three servings (meals) spaced equally throughout the day.
Nourish Your Dog to Help Keep Them Healthy for Life
So, the answer to the question, “How much dry food should I feed my dog?” is: It depends! Remember, you’ll want to take into account their age, weight, activity level, and where they spend most of their time.
With those simple facts in mind, start with the feeding guidelines on your dog food package, consult your pup’s vet for more details, and consider giving them IAMS™ Proactive Health(open in new tab)™(open in new tab) or IAMS™ Advanced Health™(open in new tab). After all, providing quality nutrition is one of the best ways to help keep your dog healthy for life!
If they have specific health concerns, IAMS™ offers dry dog food with those needs in mind, too, including:
For puppies, adults, and seniors; for small breeds and large, IAMS™ dry dog food is formulated with high-quality protein, vitamins, and minerals for whole-body health and 100% complete and balanced nutrition.
When you feed your dog IAMS™, you can feel good knowing they’re getting the most out of every meal!