Dogs instinctively eat whenever food is available. While helpful in the wild, pet parents must manage their dog’s intake at home by understanding how to measure dog food portions. If you’ve been estimating portions, it’s time to revisit what a proper serving of wet food looks like for your pet.
Why Portioning Your Dog’s Wet Food Matters
From puppyhood to their senior years, dogs need the right balance of nutrients, proteins, carbs, and calories. Be mindful of their specific dietary needs based on age, activity level, environment, and size.
- Overfeeding is common, leading to overweight and obese dogs. Obesity can cause serious medical conditions and shorten lifespan unless intake is actively managed.
- Senior dogs need fewer calories and more fiber to stay satiated.
This guide will help you reset how you measure wet food portions to align with your dog’s needs and when to mix it with dry food.
How Much Dry Food Should You Feed Your Dog?
The feeding chart on the back of the kibble bag can be overwhelming. But measuring dog food portions is based on your pet’s age, size and activity level.
Tips for Measuring the Right Portion of Dry Dog Food
Avoid guessing when feeding your dog. Counting scoops or eyeballing the amount in the bowl is a recipe for overfeeding your pet — and causing unwanted weight gain. The first thing to understand is knowing the difference between a daily portion and serving size.
Alt text: Dry dog food being measured in a clear glass measuring cup.
Identify the right daily portion for your dog: Account for their age and activity level to determine your dog’s daily feeding portion based on their weight. Younger, more active dogs might need the higher end of the range, while older, more sedentary dogs might need the lower end.
Know the right serving size: The bag of kibble lists full daily portions, not single meal servings. Divide the daily portion by the number of meals you serve. Most adult dogs do well with two meals a day.
Feeding example: For an 18-pound dog, the feeding recommendation for NutriSource Chicken and Rice Formula ranges from 1 to 1-1/4 8 oz. cups of kibble. You might start with a 1/2 cup serving for each of his two daily meals, and adjust as needed.
Perfect the portions: Once you’ve found the daily allotment that’s right for your dog, you’re ready to roll.
- Use a dry measuring cup to measure out your dog’s daily portion.
- Divide the portion into their daily meals.
- Make portioning foolproof by making a custom one-serving scoop out of an empty plastic food container. Place the serving of kibble in an empty container of sour cream, cottage cheese or yogurt. Then cut it down so it’s level with the food. Now you have a custom scoop for perfect portioning with every meal.
How Much Wet Food Should I Feed My Dog?
Many pet parents mistakenly assume one can of dog food equals one serving. That may be true for some dogs, but one can might be too little or too much, depending on the size of the dog. When you’re serving canned dog food as an entrée, it’s worth taking time to learn how to measure dog food portions for wet food.
Alt text: A silver can of NutriSource wet dog food being scooped out into a gray dog bowl.
As with kibble, the right amount of wet food for your pet also depends on their age, nutrition needs and activity levels.
Finding the Right Serving Size of Canned Dog Food
The first step is knowing your dog’s healthy weight range, so you can calculate how much wet food makes a right-sized serving for your dog.
Feeding guides for canned dog food typically recommend giving one can per day for a specific amount of the dog’s body weight.
- Calculate the number of cans needed to feed your dog per day: Divide the recommended pounds per can by your dog’s total body weight.
- To calculate a single serving: Divide the daily portion in cans by the number of daily meals.
Examples of Wet Food Feeding Guidelines
To provide a real-world example, the feeding guidelines for NutriSource wet food call for 1 can per 15 lbs. of body weight per day. (Adjust to 3/4 to 1-1/4 cans as needed, depending on weight and activity levels.) Here are some examples of how much canned food you should feed your dog based on their size:
7-pound dog
- Daily portion (divide 7 by 15) = roughly 1/2 can
- Serving size* = 1/4 can
30-pound dog
- Daily portion (divide 30 by 15) = 2 cans
- Serving size (divide 2 by 2) = 1 can
60-pound dog
- Daily portion = 4 cans
- Single serving = 2 cans
90-pound dog
- daily portion = 6 cans
- single serving = 3 cans
*Assumes two daily servings
Full Circle Feeding: Achieve Variety Mixing Wet and Dry Food
Mixing some wet food into your dog’s kibble is great for your pet’s health. It can help with digestion, it makes mealtime more exciting for your pet, and most of all, your pet will get a wider variety of protein sources in their diet to provide a full spectrum of nutrients.
Because Full Circle Feeding calls for a variety of protein sources, mixing wet food with kibble is an effortless method to provide a wider variety of meats, grains and other healthy carbs every day of the week.
Alt text: A medium sized dog happily eating a bowl of mixed wet and dry NutriSource dog food.
Perfect Portions: How to Feed Your Dog a Mix of Wet and Dry Food
When mixing canned dog food with kibble, you want to avoid a calorie overload at mealtimes. The last thing you want to do is cancel the health benefits of Full Circle Feeding by making the mistake of overfeeding. So whenever you add wet food, it calls for a reduced serving size of kibble.
Remember, the moisture content is higher in wet food, so it’s not a one-for-one replacement. Luckily, all you need is a dry measuring cup to find the right balance of wet food and kibble.
Mixing NutriSource wet foods with kibble: For every half can of wet food you add to the meal, subtract 1/3 cup of kibble.
Can you serve a full can of wet food? Absolutely. Just remember to subtract the right amount of kibble, and in this case, it would be 2/3 cup.
What if you have a small dog? Convert the formula from a single portion to a daily portion, and it will be far easier to find the right ratio.
Perfect Portions, Perfect Balance, Perfect Nutrition
Because we love our dogs, we want them to live the best possible lives. When you go for balance and variety in nutrition through Full Circle Feeding with the right-sized portions for your dog’s needs, you’re setting the stage for a long and happy life.
