Calorie content

kcal/kg on 1,839 labels (78.1%) · kcal/cup on only 934 (39.7%)

A pet eats calories, not pounds, so calorie density is the hinge between what a bag costs and what feeding it costs. AAFCO has required a calorie statement on pet food labels since the late 2010s, and 1,839 of our 2,354 verified labels (78.1%) carry kcal/kg. Far fewer — 934, or 39.7% — also state kcal per cup, which is the figure you need to turn a feeding guide into an actual scoop.

Why cost per 1,000 kcal is the only honest price

Price per pound compares a food that is three-quarters water against one that is almost none. Price per 1,000 kcal compares what the animal actually consumes, and it routinely reverses the ranking: the cheap-looking bag can be the expensive food once you feed it.

It is also the only way to compare across forms at all. A fresh food and a kibble have no meaningful per-pound comparison; per calorie, they do.

kcal/kg, kcal/cup and kcal/can

kcal/kg is the density of the food itself and is what the calorie statement must give. kcal/cup and kcal/can are serving conversions, and they depend on how the food is shaped and how densely it packs — which is why two kibbles with identical kcal/kg can differ per cup.

Where a label gives kcal/kg but not per cup, a feeding calculation has to go through weight. That is more accurate anyway: a measuring cup is a volume, and volume is a poor proxy for mass with a food that varies in kibble size.

The gap this leaves

On 515 labels we could not verify a calorie statement at all, and on those we do not compute a cost per 1,000 kcal or a serving size. We show the gap rather than filling it with a typical value, because a wrong calorie figure produces a wrong portion, and a wrong portion is how pets end up overweight.

Frequently asked

Why is cost per 1,000 kcal better than price per pound?

Because pets eat calories. Price per pound makes a wet food look expensive and a dense kibble look cheap regardless of how much of each you actually have to feed.

Why do some labels give kcal/cup and others do not?

The calorie statement must give kcal/kg; the per-cup conversion is optional. Only 934 of the 2,354 labels we have verified include it.

Should I feed by cup or by weight?

By weight where you can. A cup is a volume, and kibble density varies enough between foods that the same scoop can be a materially different number of calories.

Related

See it applied

Every figure discussed here is computed on each product page from that food’s own verified label, with gaps marked rather than filled. Start with every priced dog food ranked by cost per 1,000 kcal, browse every verified cat food, or read what is actually in pet food — ingredient prevalence counted across all 2,354 labels. The full extraction method is in the methodology.