Dry dog food cup weight: grams per cup
How this table was checked: every kcal/kg and kcal/cup figure is transcribed from the manufacturer's own product page, linked in the last column of each row. The cup weight in grams is either printed on the label or derived from the two published figures using the formula shown below. Each row states which one it is. Our review method
An 8 fl oz cup is a volume measure, so what it holds in grams varies by food: across the seven dry dog foods below, one cup weighs 79.4 g (Hill's Science Diet Adult Oral Care Chicken, Brown Rice & Barley) and another weighs 106.5 g (Purina Pro Plan Puppy Large Breed Chicken & Rice). That is 34% more food by weight, and 54% more calories, for the same word on the bag.
The seven foods
| Brand | Product | kcal/kg | kcal/cup | g per cup | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hill's | Science Diet Adult Chicken & Barley Recipe | 3675 | 365 | 99.2 | label |
| Hill's | Science Diet Adult Perfect Digestion Chicken & Barley | 3607 | 368 | 102.1 | label |
| Hill's | Science Diet Adult Oral Care Chicken, Brown Rice & Barley | 3426 | 272 | 79.4 | label |
| Royal Canin | Professional Medium Adult | 3616 | 340 | 94.0 | derived |
| Royal Canin | Chihuahua Adult | 3758 | 323 | 85.9 | derived |
| Royal Canin | Boxer Adult | 3891 | 335 | 86.1 | derived |
| Purina | Pro Plan Puppy Large Breed Chicken & Rice | 3934 | 419 | 106.5 | derived |
label means the manufacturer prints the cup weight on the label. derived means the cup weight was calculated from the two published figures, using the formula below.
Checking your own scoop against the two ends of this table: the Hill's Science Diet Adult Oral Care holds the lightest cup in the dataset, and the Purina Pro Plan Puppy Large Breed the heaviest — the 34% spread in grams per cup sits between these two bags.
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How the cup weight is worked out
The two energy figures on a label are not independent. They are linked by the weight of the food in the cup:
| Direction | Formula | Example |
|---|---|---|
| kcal/cup from the other two | kcal/cup = kcal/kg × g per cup ÷ 1000 | 3675 × 99.2 ÷ 1000 = 364.6 ≈ 365 |
| g per cup from the other two | g per cup = kcal/cup ÷ (kcal/kg ÷ 1000) | 340 ÷ 3.616 = 94.0 |
| oz by weight to grams | g = oz × 28.3495 | 3.5 × 28.3495 = 99.2 |
Running the arithmetic in both directions on the same rows returns the published figures to within 0.12% on all seven, which is how we know the transcriptions are correct rather than merely plausible.
Why the cup weight matters more than the calories
A dog that needs 400 kcal a day eats 1.47 cups of the 272 kcal/cup food and 0.95 cups of the 419 kcal/cup food. That is 1.54× as much food in the bowl, for the same energy target.
Now the harder part: two of the three brands in this table publish kcal/kg and kcal/cup but not the cup weight. For those foods, an owner cannot work out how many grams their own cup holds from the packaging at all — the label gives energy per cup, but not the weight that would let them check their scoop against a kitchen scale.
If you are converting between cups and grams on our other pages, the default of 110 g per cup is an assumption, not a measurement. It sits above every food in this table. The full set of assumptions is published here.
Download and licence
The table is available as kcal-per-cup.csv.
Published under CC BY 4.0. You may reuse, republish and adapt it, including commercially, with a credit to PetPortionCalc.com — Dry Dog Food Cup Weight Dataset and a link to this page. The individual figures remain the manufacturers' published values; please check current packaging before relying on them.