How to Find the Kcals in a Dog's Raw Diet

Many dog food varieties available at your grocery store, according to a University of Maryland Agricultural Extension lecture called "Basic Canine Care," contain too much corn and other dubious ingredients such as "poultry by-products" (which can mean pulverized beaks and feathers). If you've chosen to feed your dog a raw diet as an alternative make sure there is enough caloric content, measured in Kcals or calories, in your pet's food to sustain your companion's biological processes and daily activities.

Things You'll Need

  • Blank weekly calendar
  • Calorie counting resource
  • Food scale
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Instructions

    • 1

      Write down a list of everything your dog eats per week on a calendar. Day to day variation is necessary for a balanced raw diet so you'll need to examine more than a single day of meals. Include exact amounts next to each food item.

    • 2

      Look up the amount of calories in each item you wrote on the calendar. A wide variety of calorie counting resources are available from your local bookstore or library, as well as for free on the internet at websites such as the USDA's nutritional database. You'll find calories listed by weight unit, such as grams or ounces.

    • 3

      Weigh each of the raw food elements in your dog's diet on a food scale and multiply them by the calorie amounts listed for that item. For example, raw chicken necks are a part of many dogs' raw diets. The average raw chicken neck weighs 35 grams and contains 79 calories, so two necks (or 70 grams) contain 158 calories.

    • 4

      Write each calorie total down on the calendar next to the food your dog consumes, and then add up the amount for each day. Add all the amounts for the week together and then divide by seven to get a rough estimate of your dog's daily caloric intake on the raw diet.

    • 5

      Adjust the diet as necessary, adding or subtracting food, to get to your dog's ideal caloric intake.