How much should I feed this animal?

Start from resting energy: 70 times body weight in kilograms to the power 0.75. Multiply by 1.6 for a neutered adult, 1.8 for an intact one, 1.4 for a senior and 2.0 to 3.0 for a growing puppy. Divide the result by the calorie density printed on your bag, usually around 3,500 kcal per kilogram, to get grams. Then adjust by body condition after a fortnight — the formula gives a starting point, the ribs give the answer.

Feeding guides on bags cover wide weight bands and assume an average, moderately active, intact animal, so they routinely overshoot for a neutered indoor pet. They also describe the food in cups, which vary by 20–30% depending on kibble shape and scooping. Use the kcal/kg figure on the same bag with your own pet's numbers and weigh the portion.

Ideal weight, always. Feeding an overweight animal at its current weight maintains the excess indefinitely. For a genuine weight-loss plan a veterinarian will usually set the calculation at ideal weight with a reduction factor and monitor monthly — and for cats that supervision matters, because rapid weight loss can trigger hepatic lipidosis.

Typical dry dog kibble runs around 3.5 to 4 ounces per standard 8-ounce measuring cup, though it varies widely with kibble size and shape — dense small kibble can be half again as heavy as large airy pieces. That variability is exactly why weighing beats scooping. If you must use a cup, weigh one cupful of your specific food once and use that number.

Unlimited, and it should be about 80% of the total diet. The practical minimum is roughly half an ounce per pound of body weight per day, but a rabbit with a good hay supply will usually eat a volume about the size of its own body daily. Grass hays — timothy, orchard, brome — are for adults; alfalfa is for growing, pregnant and nursing rabbits only.

Only as a stopgap, and only a high-quality kitten food. Ferrets need 32–38% animal protein and 15–20% fat with essentially no usable carbohydrate, which most adult cat foods do not deliver. Dog food is genuinely unsuitable. In an emergency a premium kitten food will do for a few days while you get proper ferret food.

Guinea pigs, like humans and unlike dogs, cats and rabbits, lack the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase and cannot synthesise ascorbic acid. Without a daily dietary source they develop scurvy within weeks: reluctance to move, a rough coat, swollen painful joints and poor wound healing. About 15 mg per kilogram per day covers a healthy adult.

It is the least reliable route. Ascorbic acid oxidises within hours in light and warmth, so a bottle dosed in the morning has lost much of its content by evening, and the altered taste makes some guinea pigs drink less water — a worse problem than the one you were solving. Fresh bell pepper, parsley, or a direct oral dose is far more dependable.

Daily for a hatchling at about 3% of body weight, four times a week for a juvenile at 2%, and three times a week for an adult at 1%. The share of vegetation should rise from roughly 40% of the diet in a hatchling to 80% in an adult. Turtles beg constantly regardless of hunger, so keep to the schedule.

Multiply the animal's weight in kilograms by the prescribed milligrams per kilogram to get total milligrams, then divide by the bottle concentration in mg/mL. A 22 lb dog is 10 kg; at 5 mg/kg that is 50 mg, and from a 50 mg/mL bottle that is 1 mL. Check the concentration on the actual bottle every time — the same drug is sold at several strengths.

No, not without explicit veterinary instruction. Acetaminophen/paracetamol is lethal to cats at ordinary human doses because they cannot conjugate it, and it damages the liver in dogs. Ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin cause gastric ulceration and kidney injury in both species at doses that seem small. If a pet is in pain, that is a call to the practice, not to the medicine cabinet.

That is the formula doing its job and telling you where your pet sits relative to average. Metabolic rate varies by roughly 20% between individuals of the same weight and stage. Reduce the ration by about 10%, hold it for a month, weigh again, and repeat. Persistent weight gain despite a genuine reduction warrants a thyroid check.