Cat Food Calculator
With the defaults — a 10 lb (4.54 kg) spayed or neutered adult cat — the answer is 261–305 kcal a day; half dry and half wet by calories, that is 34–40 g of dry plus 123–144 g of wet a day at the two example densities used below.
Enter your cat's details
Range 0.5–25 lb (0.23–11.34 kg).
These three factor ranges are the ones published by the reference calculator used for benchmarking; the full table with sources is in the factors section.
When a share is selected, the food is scaled to whatever calories are left, so the food plus the treats together stay at the daily target.
Dry food — from the label
The calorie content statement on the bag. Leave both dry boxes empty to exclude dry food from the plan.
Many US bags print it next to the calorie statement (“1 cup (100 g)”). This is what turns calories into grams; without it only the cup figure is shown.
Wet food — from the label
For a pouch, use the pouch numbers. Leave both wet boxes empty to exclude wet food.
The net weight printed on the can, not the 3 oz marketing size — check the small print, some cans are 2.6 oz or 5.5 oz.
The share is by calories, not by weight: half the daily calories from dry food and half from wet food. Only the foods whose labels you filled in count toward the split; if you fill in just one food, that food gets the whole target.
Everything is calculated in your browser. The numbers you type are not uploaded and not stored.
How much food today
- Weight in kilograms
- 4.54 kg
- Resting energy requirement (RER)70 × kg0.75
- 218 kcal/day
- Daily calories for this conditionRER × factor range
- 261–305 kcal/day
- Calories left for foodafter the treats share
- 261–305 kcal/day
- Dry foodgrams, cups and cans
- —
- Wet foodgrams, cans and cups
- —
- Total food per dayboth foods together
- —
- Per meal — drysplit over the meals chosen
- —
- Per meal — wetsplit over the meals chosen
- —
- Per meal — totalgrams per meal
- —
These are starting estimates for healthy adult cats at a healthy body condition, not a prescription. Individual cats can vary by as much as 50% from calculated values — adjust against body condition over weeks, not days.
Enter your cat's weight and the calorie content printed on your food, and this cat food calculator returns the daily amount in grams, cups and cans — for dry food, wet food, or any mix of the two — plus the split per meal. The resting-energy equation and the whole factor table are laid out further down, so every figure on this page can be recomputed by hand.
Constants this page uses, and where each one comes from
| Constant | What it is | Named source |
|---|---|---|
| 70 | RER scaling constant, 70 × kg0.75 | The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center — Companion Animal Nutrition Support Service, Basic Calorie Calculator for Dogs and Cats (read 2026-10-20) |
| 0.75 | exponent applied to body weight in kilograms | The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center — Companion Animal Nutrition Support Service, Basic Calorie Calculator for Dogs and Cats (read 2026-10-20) |
| 1.2 – 1.4 | factor band for spayed or neutered adult | Association for Pet Obesity Prevention — Cat Daily Feeding Calculator (read 2026-10-20) |
| 1.4 – 1.6 | factor band for intact adult | Association for Pet Obesity Prevention — Cat Daily Feeding Calculator (read 2026-10-20) |
| 1.0 | factor band for inactive | Association for Pet Obesity Prevention — Cat Daily Feeding Calculator (read 2026-10-20) |
Where to start
Start with the Cat Calorie Calculator: it needs only a weight and a condition, so it returns a daily calorie range before you have read a single food label. That range is the input every other Feline tool expects, including this page.
The equation, every symbol defined
daily calories = RER × factor
calories for food = daily calories × (1 − treats share)
grams of food = calories for that food × 100 ÷ kcal per 100 g of that food
| Symbol | What it means | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| RER | Resting energy requirement — the energy an unfed, resting cat burns keeping its body running | kcal per day |
| 70 | The scaling constant of the equation as published by both sources below | — |
| kg | Your cat's current body weight in kilograms (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg exactly) | kg |
| 0.75 | The exponent: energy needs grow more slowly than weight, so the tool is not a straight per-kilogram multiplier | — |
| factor | The activity-and-life-stage multiplier for your cat's condition (table below) | — |
| treats share | The part of the daily calories set aside for treats, taken out before the food is weighed (0, 5% or 10%) | share of daily calories |
| kcal per 100 g | The energy density of one food, derived from the label numbers you entered | kcal per 100 g |
The same equation applies to dogs and cats: one university teaching source states the resting energy requirement “can be calculated by multiplying the animal's body weight in kilograms raised to the ¾ power by 70”, and the reference calculator used for this page's benchmark prints the same line for cats. Both were read on 2026-10-20 and are listed in the sources section.
The factor ranges, and what they are not
The equation gives resting calories. Daily needs are the resting figure times a factor. The three factor ranges below are the ones published by the reference calculator this page was benchmarked against, read on 2026-10-20:
| Condition | Factor | What it covers, as published |
|---|---|---|
| Spayed or neutered adult | 1.2 – 1.4 | Desexed adult cats kept indoors |
| Intact adult | 1.4 – 1.6 | Adult cats that are not desexed |
| Inactive | 1.0 | Indoor, low-activity cats; the weight-loss reference end of the scale |
Honest limits of this table. These ranges come from a single published source — the reference calculator's own factor settings — and are shown as ranges, not points, because that is how they are published. No second independent source for the exact numeric values was obtained for this page. What the ranges deliberately exclude: growing kittens, pregnant or nursing queens, and cats with medical conditions. Other cat calculators publish kitten and pregnancy multipliers, but none of the pages read for this benchmark shows where those numbers come from, so none is used here — this tool does not estimate them.
Reading the label: three ways to state a food's calories
Labels do not agree on units. A bag may print kcal per cup, kcal per kilogram, or kcal per 100 g; a can may print kcal per can or kcal per kilogram. Every one of them collapses to the same figure the tool uses — kcal per 100 g — and the two boxes per food do that conversion for you:
kcal per 100 g = kcal per can ÷ grams per can × 100 (wet, or per pouch)
kcal per 100 g = kcal per kilogram ÷ 10 (either format)
- Why two boxes per food. Calories alone cannot give grams: 380 kcal is 100 g of one dry food and about 90 g of another. The cup weight (or can weight) is what pins calories to grams, and it is the number owners skip — which is why so many portion answers online are given only in cups or cans. This tool reports grams, cups and cans whenever the label numbers allow it.
- If the label only prints kcal per kilogram, divide by 10 and enter it as the calories-per-box figure only after converting: 3,800 kcal/kg is 380 kcal per 100 g, which at a 100 g cup is 380 kcal per cup and 100 g per cup. The tool has no place to hide a default: no generic density table is pre-filled, because inventing average food calories would put a number between you and your label that no source can back.
- One food is enough. Fill in only the dry pair or only the wet pair and the whole daily target goes to that food; the mix buttons still work, they just have nothing to split toward.
Mixing wet and dry: the split most calculators skip
Many cats are fed both formats. The arithmetic is per-calorie, because that is what the daily target is measured in:
wet calories = calories for food × (1 − dry share)
grams = those calories × 100 ÷ kcal per 100 g of that food
Halves by calories are not halves by weight. Dry food carries far more energy per gram than wet food — most of a can's weight is water — so a 50/50 calorie split puts roughly a quarter-cup of kibble next to a whole can. The example numbers on this page show that difference concretely: at a 50/50 split the 10 lb cat eats 34–40 g of dry but 123–144 g of wet per day.
| Step | What the tool does with it |
|---|---|
| Daily target | RER × factor range, in kcal — the same figure a calorie-only calculator would stop at. |
| Treats share | Taken out first, so treats do not quietly add to the day's total on top of a full food portion. |
| Dry share | Splits the remaining calories between the two foods you filled in. |
| Label densities | Turn each food's calorie share into grams, then into cups and cans using the same label's weight figures. |
| Meals | Splits each food's daily grams across the meals you chose, per food — not just a single total. |
Weight chart — grams per day at two example densities
Every row is 70 × (lb × 0.45359237)0.75 × factor for the
spayed/neutered range 1.2–1.4. The gram columns use the two example label densities from the worked
example below — dry at 380 kcal per 100 g, wet at 105.9 kcal per 100 g — so the shape of the
answer (wet weighs about three and a half times more than dry for the same calories) holds for any real
pair of labels, while the exact gram figures move with your own numbers.
| Weight | In kilograms | Calories per day 1.2 – 1.4 × RER | If all dry g per day | If all wet g per day | At a 50/50 mix g per day, both foods |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 lb | 1.81 | 131–153 | 35–40 | 124–145 | 79–93 |
| 6 lb | 2.72 | 178–208 | 47–55 | 168–196 | 107–125 |
| 8 lb | 3.63 | 221–258 | 58–68 | 209–243 | 133–156 |
| 10 lb | 4.54 | 261–305 | 69–80 | 247–288 | 158–184 |
| 12 lb | 5.44 | 299–349 | 79–92 | 283–330 | 181–211 |
| 15 lb | 6.80 | 354–413 | 93–109 | 334–390 | 214–249 |
| 18 lb | 8.16 | 406–473 | 107–125 | 383–447 | 245–286 |
| 20 lb | 9.07 | 439–512 | 116–135 | 415–484 | 265–309 |
All figures in kcal or grams per day, rounded to whole units. The boundaries of the table follow the supported range: 0.5 lb gives an RER of 23 kcal, and 25 lb gives an RER of 433 kcal. The tool above reproduces any row on demand.
Worked example — every step, recomputable
A 10 lb spayed adult cat, two meals, no treats, a 50/50 calorie split, a dry food labelled 380 kcal per cup at 100 g per cup, and a wet food labelled 90 kcal per can at 85 g per can. (The label numbers are examples for the arithmetic — the boxes in the tool are deliberately empty so your own labels' numbers go in.)
Step 1 — weight in kilograms
10 lb × 0.45359237 = 4.5359 kg
Step 2 — resting energy requirement
70 × 4.53590.75 = 217.6 kcal/day
Step 3 — daily calories, spayed or neutered
217.6 × 1.2 = 261.1 | 217.6 × 1.4 = 304.6 → 261–305 kcal/day
Step 4 — split the calories by food
dry: 261.1 ÷ 2 = 130.5 | 304.6 ÷ 2 = 152.3 kcal
wet: 130.5 | 152.3 kcal
Step 5 — calories to grams, per food
dry density: 380 kcal ÷ 100 g × 100 = 380 kcal per 100 g
dry grams: 130.5 × 100 ÷ 380 = 34.4 | 152.3 × 100 ÷ 380 = 40.1 → 34–40 g/day
wet density: 90 kcal ÷ 85 g × 100 = 105.9 kcal per 100 g
wet grams: 130.5 × 100 ÷ 105.9 = 123.3 | 152.3 × 100 ÷ 105.9 = 143.8 → 123–144 g/day
Step 6 — the same grams in label units
dry: 34.4 ÷ 100 g = 0.34 | 40.1 ÷ 100 g = 0.40 cups/day
wet: 123.3 ÷ 85 g = 1.45 | 143.8 ÷ 85 g = 1.69 cans/day
Step 7 — per meal, two meals
dry: 34.4 ÷ 2 = 17.2 | 40.1 ÷ 2 = 20.0 g/meal
wet: 123.3 ÷ 2 = 61.6 | 143.8 ÷ 2 = 71.9 g/meal
total: 78.8 | 92.0 g/meal (65–76 kcal/meal per food, combined 131–152 kcal/meal)
With 5% of the daily calories set aside for treats, the food figures scale down to 248–289 kcal — 33–38 g of dry and 117–137 g of wet per day at the same densities. The tool applies the same arithmetic at any input.
What this cat food calculator deliberately does not do
- Kittens, pregnant or nursing queens. No factor for growing kittens, gestation or lactation was found with a traceable source, so none is used. Other cat calculators publish multipliers for these stages; this page does not, and says so instead of borrowing a number.
- Ideal weight from body condition. The tool takes the weight you enter. It contains no body condition score chart and no ideal-weight lookup — deciding a target weight is a veterinary assessment, and feeding for a lower weight than your cat currently carries is a decision, not an arithmetic step.
- Therapeutic and prescription diets. Food for a cat with kidney disease, diabetes, crystals or another condition is set by the veterinary team treating it.
- Nutrient adequacy. Whether a food has enough protein, taurine or fatty acids for a particular cat is outside what an energy estimate can answer.
- Water intake. Switching between wet and dry changes how much water comes from the food bowl, and this page does not estimate drinking water.
- Averaged food calories. No generic density table is pre-filled. Every gram figure comes from the label numbers you type.
Questions people ask this calculator
How much food should I feed my cat per day?
In calories the answer comes from weight and condition: a 10 lb spayed adult needs 261–305 kcal a day by the equation above. In food, the answer is whichever grams, cups or cans supply that energy — which depends entirely on the food in your cupboard. Fill in one label pair and the tool converts; fill in both and it splits the target between dry and wet however you choose.
Is this the same thing as a cat diet calculator?
Yes. “Cat diet calculator” and “cat food calculator” are the same search intent — what to feed and how much of it — so both names land on this page. What is being estimated is energy first, then the food amount that carries it.
Should I feed wet food, dry food, or a mix?
This page does not rank food formats; it converts whichever you use. The mix buttons split the daily calories by share, so a 50/50 split means half the calories from each format, not half the grams — wet food carries far less energy per gram because most of its weight is water.
How do treats fit in?
Treats are calories like any other. The treats selector sets aside 5% or 10% of the daily total — shares one reference calculator notes for cats — and scales the food to what is left, so the treats do not land on top of a full portion.
Why does the tool ask for grams per cup, not just calories?
Because calories alone cannot be weighed. Two dry foods can print the same kcal per cup with very different cup weights; the grams-per-cup figure is what pins the calorie number to an amount you can put on a scale.
My cat is overweight. What changes?
Two things. First, feed toward the weight your veterinary team wants, not today's weight — the equation uses whatever weight you enter, so entering the target weight produces the target portion. Second, go slowly: one reference gives 0.5–1% of body weight per week as a healthy rate for cats, and weight loss in cats should be overseen by a veterinary team.
Where do the factor numbers come from?
The three factor ranges are the published settings of one reference calculator, read on 2026-10-20 and listed below, and they are labelled as single-source on this page. The equation comes from two sources. Nothing else on the page is a coefficient: every gram figure is arithmetic on your own inputs.
Sources for every number on this page
- The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center — Companion Animal Nutrition Support
Service, Basic Calorie Calculator for Dogs and Cats
(
vmc.vet.osu.edu/services/companion-animal-nutrition-support-service, read 2026-10-20): the resting energy requirement “calculated by multiplying the animal's body weight in kilograms raised to the ¾ power by 70”, and the warning that individual pets' needs can vary by as much as 50% from calculated values. - Association for Pet Obesity Prevention — Cat Daily Feeding Calculator
(
petobesityprevention.org/cat-daily-feeding-calculator, read 2026-10-20): the three factor ranges used in the tool (spayed/neutered 1.2–1.4, intact 1.4–1.6, inactive 1.0), the supported 0.5–25 lb weight range, and the note that treats can make up 5% or 10% of the daily calorie total. - Pet Nutrition Alliance — Calorie Calculator (cats)
(
petnutritionalliance.org/resources/calorie-calculator?type=cats, read 2026-10-20): the healthy weight-loss rate for cats of 0.5–1% of body weight per week quoted in the weight-loss answer. - Unit definition: 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg exactly (international pound), used for every pound-to-kilogram conversion on the page.
Benchmark note, for transparency: the six pages that outranked this one for “cat food calculator” at the time of writing were each read on 2026-10-20. One prints the equation and converts calories into cups, grams and cans of both food formats, but with its own hard-coded food densities rather than the numbers on your labels, and it does not split a mixed feeding; the others ask for one food's calorie content at a time, skip the weight-to-grams conversion, or publish no equation at all. None of the five takes the calorie content printed on two labels and solves the split between them, which is what the tool on this page does.