Pet Food Shopping List & Meal Prep Calculator
Turn your pet's daily recipe into an exact shopping list for any number of days — raw purchase weights, batch-cook plan, freezer schedule and cost. Paste a recipe from the vet-made Homemade Food Calculator or enter any food you like, for as many pets as you like.
Which pets are you shopping for?
Add one plan per pet, then paste a recipe or add foods by hand.
Add a plan per pet. Fastest way: balance a recipe in the Homemade Food Calculator, hit Copy recipe, and paste it straight in below — every ingredient loads automatically. Or add foods by hand: home-cooked ingredients, kibble, cans, pouches, anything.
At least one food is needed before the shopping list can be built.
How long are you prepping for?
Pick your shopping window. We add a small buffer for trim waste, spills and the odd extra spoonful — running out on day 12 of 14 helps no one.
Covers trimming, gristle, weighing slop and appetite days. Leftover fresh food freezes anyway.
How should we work out the amounts?
Two switches change what the list shows. Both are optional.
Your shopping list and prep plan
The shopping list, the batch-cook plan and what to check before you cook.
Your shopping list
Supplement supplies check
Supplements are dosed per day, not bought by the kilo — but running out mid-batch unbalances the diet. Here's what your prep window uses, so you can check the tubs before you cook.
Your meal prep plan
Talk. Track. Trust. Ask A Vet.
Prepping their meals? Track what goes in the bowl.
This calculator gets the shopping right. ASK A VET™ keeps the feeding right — store your pet's recipe, log weight and body condition, set feeding and supplement reminders, and message a certified vet if appetite or stools change.
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Important: This tool plans quantities, storage and cost. It does not formulate or balance a diet — build the recipe itself with the ASK A VET™ Homemade Food Calculator or a veterinary nutritionist, and keep the supplement stack going every day of the prep window. Purchase-weight conversions use typical cooking yields; real cuts vary a little, which is what the buffer is for.
Buying & batch-cooking pet food — common questions
Straight answers from a practising emergency vet.
How much raw meat do I buy for a cooked recipe?
Buy roughly 35–40% more raw weight than the cooked grams in the recipe — meat loses about a quarter of its weight as water during cooking. If the recipe says 200 g cooked chicken a day, that's about 275 g raw chicken a day at the butcher. This calculator does the conversion automatically for every meat, fish, organ, grain and veg.
How long does homemade pet food last in the fridge and freezer?
Cooked homemade food: about 3 days in the fridge, up to 2 months in the freezer in airtight daily portions. Prepared raw food: about 2 days in the fridge. Thaw frozen portions in the fridge overnight — never on the bench.
How do I meal prep for my dog or cat?
Cook the whole batch plain, cool, mix, and portion into one container per day or per meal. Refrigerate up to 3 days' worth and freeze the rest. Calcium can be mixed through the cooled batch; oils, probiotics and vitamins go in fresh at serving.
How much food should I buy for a month?
Multiply the daily amount by 30 and add about 10% as a buffer. A dog eating 400 g of fresh food a day needs about 13 kg of prepared food a month, which is roughly 16–17 kg of raw ingredients for a cooked recipe once cooking losses are counted.
Is it cheaper to cook for my dog than buy commercial food?
It depends on the protein and local prices. Chicken, eggs and rice-based recipes can undercut premium fresh-food brands; venison or salmon-heavy recipes often do not. Turn on the cost estimator and enter your local prices for a real comparison.
Ask A Vet also makes a GPS Tracker for dogs and cats. See the GPS Tracker
