Ready-made daily feeding chart

The 35 kg Labrador

A finished day’s food for an adult Labrador Retriever weighing 35 kg — male and female, worked out in grams, split into meals, with the treat allowance already taken out. Print it and stick it on the food bin.

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Labrador Retriever

The Labrador Retriever, explained by a vet

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Resting need

1,007 kcal

Calculated as

70 × 35^0.75

Food assumed

3,500 kcal/kg

Treat allowance

10% of total

Not veterinary
advice

This is a general educational guide, not medical advice — and it cannot examine your dog. Every figure here is a calculated starting point for a healthy Labrador. Individual dogs differ from it by up to a quarter in either direction, and by a great deal more than that if anything is medically wrong.

Talk to your own veterinary surgeon before you change your dog’s diet — and always before starting a weight-loss plan, before feeding a puppy, a pregnant or nursing bitch, or any dog with a diagnosed condition or on long-term medication.

A lot can vary. Age, breeding and body type, neuter status, thyroid function, kidney and liver health, medication, dental disease, gut disease, arthritis and pain, and plain individual metabolism all move these numbers — and several of them show up only on a physical examination or a blood test. Your vet has your dog in front of them. This page does not.

Before you use this chart

These figures are for a Labrador whose correct weight is 35 kg — not one who merely weighs 35 kg today.

Every weight-based feeding chart has the same trap in it. If your dog is overweight and you feed to today’s weight, you are being handed the calories needed to keep him exactly that heavy, permanently — and the heavier he gets, the more the chart will tell you to feed. It is a loop that runs in the wrong direction, and it looks like it is working the whole time.

Fat tissue also burns very little energy compared with muscle, so an overweight dog’s true need per kilogram is lower than a lean dog’s. Calculating on current weight overshoots twice over. Every veterinary weight-management guideline is explicit on this: work from ideal body weight, never current body weight.

Is 35 kg right for your dog?

Male, 29–36 kg is the healthy range. At 35 kg a well-built male is normal — provided you can feel his ribs easily and see a waist from above.
Female, 25–32 kg is the healthy range. A bitch at 35 kg is above breed standard. Unless she is unusually large and genuinely lean, she is most likely carrying 3–6 kg she does not need.
The test is your hands, not the scale. Ribs felt without pressing, waist visible from above, belly tucked from the side. If you have to press to find ribs, 35 kg is not this dog’s target weight.
If in doubt, use the reduction plan below rather than the maintenance card. Underfeeding slightly for a month is easily corrected. Overfeeding for a year is not.

What the wrong weight costs A Labrador at 45 kg whose healthy weight is 32 kg. Grams at 3,500 kcal/kg.
Weight used	kcal / day	Grams
Today’s 45 kg, ×1.6 holds him at 45 kg for life	1,946	556 g
Ideal 32 kg, ×1.6 maintenance once lean	1,507	431 g
Ideal 32 kg, ×1.0 the plan he needs today	942	269 g

The default day

Neutered, normal pet life

This is the row that fits the large majority of pet Labradors: neutered, walked properly but not working, living in a house. If your dog is entire, working, elderly or reducing, use the variation tables below instead.

Adult male

35 kg

Within the healthy breed range of 29–36 kg. A well-built male Labrador at 35 kg is normal.

1,612kcal per day, everything included

460grams of food if no treats

Morning

Measured dry foodweigh it, do not scoop

207 g

Daytime

Treats & training rewards161 kcal — take from this day’s tub

161 kcal

Evening

Measured dry foodabout an hour clear of hard exercise

207 g

Total

Food 414 g + treats 161 kcal

1,612 kcal

Check monthly. Ribs easily felt, waist visible from above, belly tucked from the side. If the ribs are getting hard to find, cut by 10% — roughly 41 g a day.

Adult female

35 kg

Above the healthy breed range of 25–32 kg. Read the note at the foot of this card before you use these figures.

1,612kcal per day, everything included

460grams of food if no treats

Morning

Measured dry foodweigh it, do not scoop

207 g

Daytime

Treats & training rewards161 kcal — take from this day’s tub

161 kcal

Evening

Measured dry foodabout an hour clear of hard exercise

207 g

Total

Food 414 g + treats 161 kcal

1,612 kcal

Most 35 kg females are carrying extra weight. The breed range is 25–32 kg. Unless she is an unusually large, genuinely lean bitch, check her body condition first — and if the ribs are hard to feel, use the reduction plan below rather than this card.

Why both cards show the same calories

The energy equation runs on body weight, not sex — two dogs of the same weight and the same lifestyle have the same requirement, and there is no separate male or female coefficient in any published veterinary standard. What genuinely differs is what 35 kg means for each: it is a normal weight for a male Labrador and an above-standard weight for a female. Neuter status shifts the number far more than sex does — that is the 1.6× versus 1.8× distinction in the tables below.

If your dog is not the default

The variations

Same 35 kg dog, different lives. Find the honest description and read across. Grams assume a food at 3,500 kcal/kg — check your own bag and scale if it differs.

Adult male Labrador, 35 kg “With treats” is the food ration after the 10% treat allowance has been taken out. Use one column or the other, never both.
Status	Factor	kcal / day	Grams no treats	Grams with treats	Meals	Grams per meal
Reducing to 32 kg calculated on target weight, vet-supervised	1.0×	942	269 g	242 g	2	121 g
Senior 8y+, arthritic mostly resting	1.2×	1,209	345 g	311 g	2	156 g
Senior 8y+, slowing down	1.3×	1,309	374 g	337 g	2	168 g
Gains weight easily neutered, low activity, food-obsessed	1.4×	1,410	403 g	363 g	2	181 g
Neutered, normal pet life the default — the card above	1.6×	1,612	460 g	414 g	2	207 g
Entire, normal pet life not neutered	1.8×	1,813	518 g	466 g	2	233 g
Very active 2h+ hard exercise, daily swimming	2.0×	2,015	576 g	518 g	2	259 g
Working gundog in season, full shooting days	3.0×	3,022	863 g	777 g	3	259 g

Adult female Labrador, 35 kg Calories are identical to the male table at the same weight and lifestyle — only the reduction target differs, because the healthy female range is 25–32 kg.
Status	Factor	kcal / day	Grams no treats	Grams with treats	Meals	Grams per meal
Reducing to 29 kg the likely correct row — vet-supervised	1.0×	875	250 g	225 g	2	113 g
Senior 8y+, arthritic mostly resting	1.2×	1,209	345 g	311 g	2	156 g
Senior 8y+, slowing down	1.3×	1,309	374 g	337 g	2	168 g
Gains weight easily spayed, low activity, food-obsessed	1.4×	1,410	403 g	363 g	2	181 g
Spayed, normal pet life the default — the card above	1.6×	1,612	460 g	414 g	2	207 g
Entire, normal pet life not spayed	1.8×	1,813	518 g	466 g	2	233 g
Very active 2h+ hard exercise, daily swimming	2.0×	2,015	576 g	518 g	2	259 g
Working gundog in season, full shooting days	3.0×	3,022	863 g	777 g	3	259 g

If your food is not 3,500 kcal/kg

Ignore the gram columns and do one line of arithmetic instead: grams = daily kcal ÷ your bag’s kcal/kg × 1000. A food at 3,300 kcal/kg gives 488 g for the same 1,612 kcal; one at 3,800 gives 424 g. That is a difference of a full 64 g a day between two bags that look identical on the shelf.

If the ribs are hard to feel

The reduction plan

Feed the resting requirement of the weight you are aiming for, not the weight on the scale today. This is the one row on the whole chart that should be run past your vet before you start.

Female, 35 kg → 29 kg

Feed 875 kcal a day — 250 g at 3,500 kcal/kg, or 302 g of a light formula at 2,900.
Split into two meals of about 125 g. Use a slow feeder.
Treats come out of that, not on top. Carrot and green beans are close to free.
Target 0.35–0.70 kg a week — 1–2% of body weight. Faster costs muscle.
Expect roughly 12 weeks to reach target at a steady half-kilo a week.
Weigh monthly at the vet. No movement in a month means drop another 10%.

Male, 35 kg → 32 kg

Only if the ribs are hard to feel. 35 kg is a normal male weight — do not reduce a lean dog to hit a number.
Feed 942 kcal a day — 269 g at 3,500 kcal/kg.
Split into two meals of about 135 g.
Target 0.35–0.70 kg a week; about 6 weeks to shift 3 kg.
Use a proper reducing diet rather than less of the normal food — high protein and fibre protect muscle and keep the dog full.

What this is actually worth

Forty-eight Labradors were followed for their whole lives; half were fed 25% less than their littermates. The leaner dogs lived a median of 13.0 years against 11.2, and needed treatment for arthritis years later. Nearly two extra years — from portion size alone.¹

Three rules that matter more than the numbers

Weigh the food. A scoop is a volume, and kibble settles. A kitchen scale removes an error that can run to tens of percent.
One tub, one day. Weigh the whole day’s ration out each morning. Anything anyone in the house gives comes out of the tub. This solves the biggest cause of accidental overfeeding in multi-person households.
Trust your hands, not the chart. Individual dogs vary from the calculated figure by up to a quarter. Ribs easily felt, waist visible from above, belly tucked from the side — that is the real target. Adjust by 10% at a time and give it a month.

Where these numbers come from

The resting equation (70 × BW^0.75) is from the National Research Council’s Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, 2006. The life-stage multipliers are the WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee’s published factors. FEDIAF’s 2024 European guidelines give an independent figure of 1,583 kcal for a typical 35 kg pet dog — within 2% of the 1,612 above, which is a good sign that the number is sound.

Breed weight ranges are the Kennel Club and AKC standards for the Labrador Retriever.

¹ Kealy RD, Lawler DF, Ballam JM, et al. “Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs.” JAVMA, 2002.

Different weight, or a puppy?

The full Labrador feeding chart →

Every age from eight weeks to old age, a calculator for any body weight, pregnancy and nursing, the treat budget, and why this breed in particular struggles with food.

These figures assume a healthy dog

Kidney disease, liver disease, pancreatitis, diabetes, heart failure, hypothyroidism, cancer and recovery from surgery all change both the calorie target and the nutrients required. If your Labrador has a diagnosed condition, is on long-term medication, or has lost or gained weight without you changing anything, the diet is a clinical decision — take this chart to your vet as a starting point rather than using it on its own.