PetGrit

Homemade Dog & Cat Food Calculator

Cooking for your pet? Build your recipe ingredient by ingredient and we'll show the calories, the protein/fat/carb split, how many days it feeds, and — most importantly — an honest balance score that flags the gaps most homemade diets miss, like calcium and a complete vitamin-mineral supplement.

Pet

Daily energy target: — kcal/day

Or load a starter:
How to prepare it safely
  1. Cook all meat, organ, and eggs thoroughly — no raw unless you've read the risks and chosen a complete commercial raw product.
  2. Never add onion, garlic, chives, leeks, grapes/raisins, or xylitol — they're toxic. Skip added salt and seasoning.
  3. Cook grains and starchy veg fully so they're digestible; steam or lightly cook vegetables.
  4. Mix the vet-formulated supplement and any oils in after cooking and cooling, so heat doesn't degrade them.
  5. Portion to the daily calorie target above, split across meals. Refrigerate up to 3–4 days or freeze.
  6. Transition over 7–10 days, and recheck the recipe with your vet if your pet's weight or stool changes.

How to use it

  1. 1 Enter your pet's weight and life stage to set a daily calorie target.
  2. 2 Add ingredients with their cooked weight in grams — or load a starter recipe.
  3. 3 Read the calories, macros, and balance score, and fix anything flagged red.
  4. 4 Add a vet-formulated supplement and confirm the recipe with your vet before feeding it daily.

Why this matters

Most homemade pet diets from books and blogs are nutritionally incomplete — the best-documented gap is calcium, because muscle meat is high in phosphorus and very low in calcium. A meal can look healthy and still be missing calcium, zinc, vitamin E, iodine, and (for cats) taurine. This tool estimates the calories and big-picture balance and is deliberately built to never call a freelanced recipe 'complete': without a vet-formulated supplement it stays flagged as incomplete, because that's the truth.

Frequently asked questions

Can I make balanced homemade dog or cat food?

Yes, but it takes a recipe formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist or a vet-designed supplement. Plain meat, rice, and veg — even in good proportions — are missing calcium and several micronutrients. This calculator estimates calories and balance and shows you those gaps.

What's the most common thing missing from homemade pet food?

Calcium. Meat is high in phosphorus and low in calcium, so a meat-and-rice diet is badly out of balance unless a calcium source (and ideally a complete supplement) is added. For cats, taurine is the other critical addition.

How many calories should a homemade meal have?

Match your pet's daily calorie target, which this tool calculates from weight and life stage using the vet RER/MER formula. The tool also shows how many days your batch will feed them.

Is this a complete diet plan?

No. It's an educational estimate of calories and balance, not a formulated diet. Always confirm a daily homemade recipe with your veterinarian or a veterinary nutritionist.

Keep going

Dog & Cat Feeding Calculator Daily calories and cups, from the vet-standard RER/MER formula. Can My Dog or Cat Eat This? Food Safety Checker Search any food for a safe / caution / toxic rating, for dogs and cats. Dog & Cat Ideal Weight Checker Estimate ideal weight from the vet’s 9-point body condition score.