S.B. – I recently found this link and it was so, so helpful to me. There’s so much variation in dog food and this helped me zero in on where to start. Start by weighing your pup (today, right now – they grow so fast!), then find how many calories per cup the food you’re using contains. I found that on the website for our food. You can then use this formula to compute how many calories daily are needed for basic metabolic processes. For a puppy, the Ohio State vet clinic advises 2x the amount in the 4+ months to adulthood stage. I started there but found my puppy needs a bit more (they advise it can vary as much as 50%). Because she’s a large breed, we are going to watch/adjust weekly to make sure she isn’t growing too fast or too slow.
I’m not sure if this will help you, but I know how much it helped me and wanted to share. 🙂
https://vet.osu.edu/vmc/companion/our-services/nutrition-support-service/basic-calorie-calculator
