The price on the bag is not what a pet food costs you. What matters is how much it costs to cover your pet’s daily energy needs, and that depends on how many calories are in each pound, cup or can. The cleanest way to compare any dog or cat food is cost per 1,000 kilocalories (kcal). This guide shows the method step by step, with a worked example you can check by hand.
If you would rather skip the math, our free pet food cost calculator does every step below for up to six foods at once.
Why price per pound is misleading
A pound of canned food is mostly water, so it holds far fewer calories than a pound of kibble. Two dry foods can also differ a lot in calories per cup. Comparing sticker price or price per pound ignores that, so a cheap-looking food can cost more to feed every day. Veterinary nutrition groups, including the Tufts Cummings School’s pet nutrition team, make the same point and recommend comparing cost per calorie.
The 4-step method
- Find the calories on the label. Look for “Calorie Content” or “Metabolizable Energy” near the guaranteed analysis. It is usually shown as kcal per kg, kcal per cup or kcal per can.
- Work out calories in the whole package. For a bag, multiply the weight in kilograms by kcal per kg. One pound is 0.4536 kg. For cans, multiply kcal per can by the number of cans.
- Divide price by package calories, then multiply by 1,000. That is your cost per 1,000 kcal.
- Scale to your pet. Multiply the cost per kcal by your pet’s daily calorie need to get the cost per day, then multiply by about 30 for a month.
Worked example: a 40 lb neutered adult dog
A common estimate for a neutered adult dog is 70 x (weight in kg) to the power of 0.75, multiplied by 1.6. At 40 lb (18.1 kg) that is about 985 kcal per day. Your own dog may need more or less, so treat it as a starting point and ask your vet.
We will compare three example foods. Prices and calorie counts are illustrative, not real products.
| Example food | Price and size | Calories | Cost per 1,000 kcal | Cost per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kibble A | $46.99, 35 lb bag | 3,650 kcal/kg | $0.81 | $0.80 |
| Kibble B | $64.99, 26 lb bag | 4,100 kcal/kg | $1.34 | $1.32 |
| Canned C | $2.19, 13 oz can | 420 kcal/can | $5.21 | $5.13 |
For Kibble A, a 35 lb bag is 15.9 kg, and 15.9 x 3,650 is about 57,950 kcal. Divide $46.99 by 57,950 and multiply by 1,000 to get roughly $0.81 per 1,000 kcal. At 985 kcal per day, the bag lasts about 59 days and costs about $0.80 per day.
Notice how the bags differ. Kibble B is smaller and costs more per calorie, so it works out to about $16 more per month than Kibble A for this dog. The canned food is more than six times the cost of Kibble A per calorie, even though one can looks inexpensive on the shelf.
Unit conversions you will need
- 1 lb = 0.4536 kg and 1 kg = 2.2046 lb
- 1 oz = 28.35 g
- kcal per kg divided by 1,000 gives kcal per gram
- Keep units matching: weight with kcal per kg or per lb, cups with kcal per cup, cans with kcal per can
What cost per calorie does not tell you
This method measures price only. It says nothing about ingredient quality, digestibility, whether the food is complete and balanced for your pet’s life stage, or whether your pet tolerates it. Look for a nutritional adequacy statement on the label, and talk with your veterinarian before changing foods, especially for puppies, kittens, seniors and pets with health conditions. Treats and toppers add calories too, so keep treats to roughly 10 percent of daily calories.
Try it with your own foods
Enter your pet’s weight and the price, size and calories for each food into the pet food cost calculator. It sorts the results from lowest to highest cost per 1,000 kcal and shows daily, monthly and yearly cost. You can also save the comparison as a PDF.
