To successfully diet your dog it is important to accurately measure meal portions and treat allowances. With a little practice you will find this quickly becomes habit.

How to use the WAGSTA Wellness Food Portioning Tool:

1. Go to the WAGSTA Wellness food portion calculator in your membership area.

2. Input the calorie content of your dog’s food. Calorie content is listed on dog food packaging as ME or Metabolizable Energy. 

This figure is expressed as Kcal/kg, Kcal/100 g or Kcal /lb and is usually found in small print in the nutritional information panel on the back or sides of packaging. (For more info on locating this information please view dog food label video below.)

3. If feeding a combination of foods e.g. wet and dry food, enter the respective calorie contents into both the FOOD A and FOOD B fields.

4. Select the proportion of each food you plan to feed i.e the relative daily caloric contribution from both foods. If feeding one food type enter 100% as the proportion.

5. Select the number of meals you will feed each day. (It is best to feed 2 or more meals a day when dieting your dog).

6. Select whether to include a 10% calorie allowance for treats. Will you be feeding treats?

7. The correct weight of food to feed your dog will be automatically generated according to your dog’s daily calorie allowance.

8. Your dog’s daily food portion is provided as a weight and is portioned according to the number of meals you feed your dog per day.

 How to Accurately Measure Portions:

1. Get a set of digital kitchen scales and your dog’s food bowl ready. (For large dogs a standard measuring cup with multiple gradations is also useful.)

2. Place the bowl on the scales and tare the weight. (Reset the scales so they read zero when your bowl is sitting on them).

3. Pour or scoop your dog’s food into the bowl until you reach the correct weight (provided by the portion calculator). This is your dog’s meal portion.

4. Optional (for dogs weighing over 10 kg / 22 lb.);  Pour the portion into a measuring cup. Write down and mark off the level the food reaches. Your dog’s meal can now be regularly portioned using this measuring cup.

If using a measuring cup to portion food, take care to accurately fill to the defined portion level. Approximation often leads to overfeeding. A few extra biscuits and kibbles on a regular basis will stall dog weight loss- especially for small dogs.

For dogs weighing less than 10 kg /22 lbs, it is advisable to weigh meal portions on a daily basis.