How raw feeding portions are worked out

Raw feeding is usually portioned as a percentage of body weight, not by calories. The common starting points are two to three percent of body weight per day for adult dogs and cats, five to ten percent for puppies and kittens, and about two percent for seniors and less active pets. This calculator uses 2.5 percent for adults, 8 percent for puppies and kittens, and 2 percent for seniors — the middle of each range — and converts it to grams per day. A twenty-kilogram adult dog at 2.5 percent needs 500 grams of raw food a day; a four-kilogram adult cat needs 100 grams. The calculator also shows a typical split of that daily amount into muscle meat, raw meaty bones, organs and vegetables, based on the BARF (biologically appropriate raw food) model: roughly seventy percent muscle meat, ten percent raw meaty bones, ten percent organs (half of it liver) and ten percent vegetables and extras.

Those percentages are starting points, not a recipe. A raw diet is not just meat: it must supply calcium and phosphorus in the right ratio (from bones or a supplement), essential fatty acids, iodine, zinc, vitamin E and vitamin D, among others. Getting any of those wrong for weeks or months causes real harm — calcium deficiency causes fractures in puppies, and vitamin D deficiency causes bone disease. That is why this calculator gives a portion size only, and why the guide on this page keeps repeating the same message: get the diet formulated by your vet or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist before you start, and have it checked again as your pet grows or ages.

The risks, stated plainly

Raw meat carries bacteria — Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and Listeria are all common in raw pet food, and they affect people as well as pets. Studies have repeatedly found that dogs fed raw diets shed Salmonella in their faeces, which puts children, elderly people and anyone with a weakened immune system at risk. Bones are the other risk: cooked bones splinter and must never be fed, and even raw bones can break teeth, cause choking or block the gut. Whole bones should be sized to the dog — large enough that the dog cannot swallow them whole — and should always be fed under supervision. Cats are at lower risk from bones, because they eat smaller pieces, but they are at higher risk from an unbalanced diet, because they need taurine and arachidonic acid that are easy to miss in a home-made raw mix.

What affects the portion

Age is the biggest factor: puppies and kittens need a much higher percentage of body weight because they are growing fast. Activity matters too — a working dog may need three percent or more, while a couch dog may need two. Weight matters, but use the target weight if your pet is overweight, not the current weight. The type of raw food matters as well: a mix with a lot of bone is lower in calories per gram than a mix of pure muscle meat, and a mix with a lot of fat is higher. That is why the calculator's portion is a starting point to be adjusted by watching body condition over two to four weeks, exactly as with any other diet. If your pet is gaining weight, cut by ten percent; if losing, add ten percent — and weigh the food, because eyeballing raw portions is even less accurate than eyeballing kibble.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is feeding meat alone — usually chicken or beef mince — and calling it a raw diet. Meat alone is deficient in calcium, iodine, zinc and several vitamins, and a puppy fed that way can develop fractures within weeks. The second is feeding cooked bones, which splinter. The third is ignoring hygiene: raw meat should be handled like raw meat for people — separate chopping boards, hand washing, disinfecting bowls, and storing it frozen and defrosting it in the fridge. The fourth is assuming raw food is automatically healthier: there is no good evidence that raw diets are healthier than a complete commercial diet, and there is good evidence that they are riskier, both for the pet and for the household. The fifth is feeding raw food to a pet that is ill, very young, very old or immunocompromised, or in a household with a vulnerable person — in those cases, most vets advise against raw feeding entirely.

When to see a vet

Talk to your vet before starting a raw diet, and have the recipe formulated by a veterinary nutritionist. See a vet promptly if your pet vomits, has diarrhoea, strains to pass faeces, drools, paws at its mouth, or seems in pain after eating bones — any of those can mean a blockage or a perforation, which is an emergency. If your pet is on a raw diet and loses weight, has a dull coat, or seems lethargic, the diet may be deficient and needs to be reviewed. For the calorie-based alternative, use the dog food calculator or the cat food calculator; for home-cooked portions, the homemade diet portion calculator.