This cat calorie calculator takes your cat’s weight and life stage and tells you how many calories they need each day, then turns that into cans of wet food and cups of dry. For reference, a typical 10 lb (4.5 kg) spayed or neutered indoor cat needs about 220–260 calories a day.
How to use the cat calorie calculator
- Weigh your cat. Step on the bathroom scale holding your cat, then step on alone, and subtract. If your cat is overweight, enter the ideal weight your vet suggests and pick “Weight loss”.
- Choose the life stage. Most house cats are “Adult, spayed/neutered”. If yours is indoor-only, sleeps most of the day or puts on weight easily, go with the inactive option.
- Tell us what you feed. Pick your mix of wet and dry, then enter the calories per can and per cup from the labels. The defaults (90 kcal per 3 oz can, 400 kcal per cup) are typical values.
How many calories does a cat need? Chart
Daily calories for healthy adult cats, worked out with the veterinary RER formula. For kittens, seniors, pregnancy or your exact food, use the calculator.
| Cat’s weight | Inactive / indoor (× 1.0) | Neutered adult (× 1.2) | Intact adult (× 1.4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 lb (2.7 kg) | 148 kcal | 178 kcal | 208 kcal |
| 8 lb (3.6 kg) | 184 kcal | 221 kcal | 258 kcal |
| 10 lb (4.5 kg) | 218 kcal | 261 kcal | 305 kcal |
| 12 lb (5.4 kg) | 249 kcal | 299 kcal | 349 kcal |
| 14 lb (6.4 kg) | 280 kcal | 336 kcal | 392 kcal |
| 16 lb (7.3 kg) | 310 kcal | 371 kcal | 433 kcal |
Is your cat 14 lb or heavier? Then don’t just read across the chart. A lot of cats at that weight are carrying extra, and feeding for their current weight keeps them there. Ask your vet for an ideal weight and use the weight-loss setting instead.
How much wet food should I feed my cat?
Say you have a 10 lb neutered adult on an all-wet diet, eating 3 oz cans at about 90 kcal each. That cat needs close to three cans a day. Switch to half and half, and it’s roughly one and a half cans plus about 1/3 cup of kibble. Wet food labels are all over the place, from about 70 to over 110 kcal per 3 oz can, so check yours.
Wet food has a lot going for it. It’s about 75–80% water, which helps cats that don’t drink much. It’s also usually lower in calories per bite, so cats feel full on less. Dry food is cheaper and easier, and plenty of healthy cats do fine on it. Many owners feed a mix of the two.
How the calculator works
We use the same two-step method vets use for dogs and cats:
- First, the Resting Energy Requirement: RER = 70 × (weight in kg)0.75. That’s the energy a cat burns at rest.
- Then the daily energy need, which is RER × a life-stage factor.
| Life stage | Factor (× RER) |
|---|---|
| Adult, spayed or neutered | 1.2 |
| Adult, intact | 1.4 |
| Inactive / prone to weight gain | 1.0 |
| Weight loss (at ideal weight) | 0.8 |
| Senior, healthy weight | 1.1 (seniors vary from 1.1 to 1.6) |
| Kitten up to 12 months | 2.5 |
| Pregnant | 1.6–2.0 (we use 1.8) |
After that, we split the daily calories between wet and dry in the proportion you picked and divide by the calories per can and per cup.
Signs your cat is at a healthy weight
- You can feel the ribs with light pressure, under a thin layer of fat.
- Looking down from above, you can see a waist behind the ribs.
- The belly has only a small fat pad, not a low, swinging pouch.
Weigh your cat once a month. If their weight shifts by 5% or more and you didn’t plan it, book a vet visit. That goes double for older cats, since weight loss can be an early sign of kidney disease, thyroid problems or diabetes.
Feeding tips for cats
- Never put a cat on a crash diet. A cat that eats too little for even a few days can develop hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver), which is serious. Aim for slow loss of 0.5–2% of body weight per week.
- Measure food with a kitchen scale or a real measuring cup, not by eyeballing the bowl. It’s easy to overpour.
- Cats do better on several small meals than one big one. A puzzle feeder slows down fast eaters and gets them moving.
- Keep treats under 10% of daily calories.
- Kittens can eat freely until about 4–6 months. After that, switch to measured meals so they don’t overshoot their adult weight after spaying or neutering.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories should an indoor cat eat a day?
About 180–300 kcal for most indoor, neutered cats of 8–12 lb. Where yours lands depends on size and activity. A typical 10 lb indoor cat needs around 220–260 kcal.
How many cans of wet food per day for a cat?
About 2.5–3 small (3 oz) cans for a 10 lb adult on wet food only. That’s about 1.5 large (5.5 oz) cans, depending on the calories in each can. Plug your can’s kcal value into the calculator to be sure.
How much dry food should I feed my cat a day?
About 2/3 cup for a 10 lb neutered cat, if the kibble is 400 kcal per cup. That’s less than most people expect. It’s also why free-feeding dry food so often leads to weight gain.
How many calories should a cat eat to lose weight?
Start at about 0.8 × RER at the cat’s ideal weight. If the ideal weight is 10 lb, that works out to about 175 kcal a day. Keep the weight loss slow, and have your vet supervise it.
How much should I feed a kitten?
About 2.5 times their resting energy, until they’re around a year old. Recalculate every few weeks as your kitten grows, and split the food into 3–4 meals a day.