# How many cups?



## Masterjedi688

I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I'm trying to figure out how many cups of food are in a 5 pound bag, a 10 pound bag and a 15 pound bag of dog food. I'm not good at math and frankly I developed a headache trying to figure it out. By the way, my dog eats once a day, he's 24-25 pounds and is fed 1 cup of food a day. So I'm trying to figure out how long the food lasts from each weight of dog food. In the morning time I give him some doggie biscuits to tide him over until dinner.


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## d_ray

I think it depends on the brand because the density is different in every food. Can you weigh a cup of your food to determine how much a cup weighs?


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## Amaryllis

One cup is 8 ounces. One pound is 16 ounces. So a 5 pound bag would be 10 cups, a 10 lb bag would be 20 cups, etc. If you google "how many [ ] in [ ]", you'll find online converters that do the math for you, which is what I do because I'm not keeping track of how many tablespoons to a cup, cups to a quart and quarts to a gallon, lol.

ETA: this is all approximate. Always look at your dog's condition to see how he's doing weight-wise.


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## Masterjedi688

Amaryllis said:


> One cup is 8 ounces. One pound is 16 ounces. So a 5 pound bag would be 10 cups, a 10 lb bag would be 20 cups, etc. If you google "how many [ ] in [ ]", you'll find online converters that do the math for you, which is what I do because I'm not keeping track of how many tablespoons to a cup, cups to a quart and quarts to a gallon, lol.
> 
> ETA: this is all approximate. Always look at your dog's condition to see how he's doing weight-wise.



Thanks Amaryllis


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## d_ray

Amaryllis said:


> One cup is 8 ounces. One pound is 16 ounces. So a 5 pound bag would be 10 cups, a 10 lb bag would be 20 cups, etc. If you google "how many [ ] in [ ]", you'll find online converters that do the math for you, which is what I do because I'm not keeping track of how many tablespoons to a cup, cups to a quart and quarts to a gallon, lol.
> 
> ETA: this is all approximate. Always look at your dog's condition to see how he's doing weight-wise.


I think your conversion only applies to liquids. If I use your math than my dogs food would only last them 10 days:

26 pound bag = 52 cups

52 cups / 5 cups per day = 10.4 days.

It lasts them at least double that.


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## Masterjedi688

Found this chart online. Does this look accurate?

Weight of bag Cups per Bag
4 lb 13 cups
8 lb 26 cups
20 lb 65 cups
40 lb 130 cups
55 lb 180 cups
110 lb. 360 cups


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## dagwall

As d_ray already mentioned it is going to depend on the kibble in question. The size, shape, and density will all effect how much fits in a measuring cup and how much that cup will translate into in weight. There is no simple answer.


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## Shell

Amaryllis said:


> One cup is 8 ounces. One pound is 16 ounces. So a 5 pound bag would be 10 cups, a 10 lb bag would be 20 cups, etc. If you google "how many [ ] in [ ]", you'll find online converters that do the math for you, which is what I do because I'm not keeping track of how many tablespoons to a cup, cups to a quart and quarts to a gallon, lol.
> 
> ETA: this is all approximate. Always look at your dog's condition to see how he's doing weight-wise.


Except that the food is sold by weight and a cup scoop measures by volume. 

Here's an example of calculating cups per bag which will depend on brand and formula; some brands will list ounces or grams of food per 8 oz standard measuring cup which helps a lot. It is often around 100 grams per 8 oz cup. 

Eagle Pack Original Chicken Meal & Pork Meal Formula Dog Food: Standard measuring cup holds approximately 3.4 oz (96 g) of this formula, so 15 lbs bag would have 240 ounces which equals ~71 cups.

Diamond Naturals Beef Meal and Rice: no listed ounces per standard cup; but using calories to convert-- 3,600 kcal/kg (337 kcal/cup) = 1,636 kcals per pound divided by 337 per cup equals ~5 cups per lb so 15 lbs bag contains about 75 cups.

I feed about 5.5- 6 cups per day total and 30 lbs lasts me about 3- 4 weeks depending a bit on the brand, so these two examples would both support that --rough-- estimate from most of the adult formulas I have tried.


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## Dog Person

I have found there are approximately 4 cups of food to a lb; so roughly 5 lbs = 20 cups, 10 lbs = 40 cups, 15 lbs = 60 cups. At least that's the way it has worked out in the past.

If you have a kitchen scale around the easiest way is to weigh the food you are feeding. I should try it tonight to see how dense the food I'm feeding is.


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## Shell

Dog Person said:


> I have found there are approximately 4 cups of food to a lb; so roughly 5 lbs = 20 cups, 10 lbs = 40 cups, 15 lbs = 60 cups. At least that's the way it has worked out in the past.
> 
> If you have a kitchen scale around the easiest way is to weigh the food you are feeding. I should try it tonight to see how dense the food I'm feeding is.


It definitely varies though. The food I am feeding now (Realtree) is very dense and according to the product's website, 1 cup (250 mL, 8 oz) = approximately 160 grams, so that's about 5.6 ounces (weight) of food per standard 8 oz (volume) measuring cup or not quite 3 measured cups per lb of food. 33 lbs bag, about 95 cups. 

Although, at 4190 kcal/kg, it makes sense that it would be noticeably heavier.


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## Masterjedi688

Ok, I contacted the company and they told me that a 5 pound bag has roughly 22-23 cups inside and a 15 pound bag has roughly 70-71 cups of food. They said, you have to into consideration the product settling so a 5 pound bag may say 5 pounds on it but it can weigh a little more or a little less depending on how much setteling has occurred. A 15 pound bag after setteling can weigh 14-16 pounds again depending on how much the product has settled. Do you guys agree with the setteling of the product part?


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## Masterjedi688

By the way, I feed Natural Balance, so the kibble is about the size of a dime.


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## Shell

Masterjedi688 said:


> Ok, I contacted the company and they told me that a 5 pound bag has roughly 22-23 cups inside and a 15 pound bag has roughly 70-71 cups of food. They said, you have to into consideration the product settling so a 5 pound bag may say 5 pounds on it but it can weigh a little more or a little less depending on how much setteling has occurred. A 15 pound bag after setteling can weigh 14-16 pounds again depending on how much the product has settled. Do you guys agree with the setteling of the product part?


Weight should have nothing to do with settling. That's why so many products that have air in the packet are specifically sold by weight, not volume. Like potato chips or dry cereal, you get X oz regardless of what it looks like when you open up the bag. If I pay for 15 lbs of dog food, I better be getting 15 lbs of dog food and not almost 10% less. Usually product variations on the manufacturing line would be more like an ounce or two, maybe 3-4 oz even, either way, not 16 ounces +/-.

If you put 15 lbs of food into a bag and seal it airtight, its not going to magically gain a pound of food if you shake it around (although, that would be kind of cool). So I wonder if they are indicating that the food is somehow pre-weighed in big batches and then portioned out by volume instead of weight.

Now, if the bag settles and you scoop it up, you may get a small amount more per scoop and thus less scoops per bag so its reasonable to estimate the cups per lb even if the total food in the bag weighs in exactly.

15 lbs being roughly 70-71 cups sounds about right for a non-diet/non-performance type kibble. For the NB chicken, turkey, duck formula: Metabolizable energy 3496 kcal/kg, 375 kcal/8 oz cup (calculated). So 1,589 kcal/lb divided by 375 kcals per serving cup = 4.2 standard 8 oz cups per lb of kibble (give or take) = Approx. 63 cups per 15 lbs bag using calories to estimate.


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## Masterjedi688

I know when I buy the 15 pound bag, it's almost full to the top. I have seen the bags of dog food that are airtight. They look weird. I think the brand is called Solid Gold like the tv show back in the 80's. Not sure what other brands are airtight.


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## Dog Person

I weighed the Farmina I am feeding Zoey and it is about 2 ounces for 1/2 cup. It's not the densest food out there being 3800 kcal/kg but it is30/18. I think the Annamaet extra that I was feeding her is a little denser but not a whole lot more.


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## BostonBullMama

I just know that a 25lb bag - which is what I normally get - easily lasts longer than the 10lbs of cat food I buy every 2 weeks - the cats get 1/4 cup each (4 cats = 1 cup/day) and they get it in the morning and again at night if their bowl is empty. 

Toby gets 1/2 cup twice a day = 1 cup/day and his food can last more than a month. I bought one of those 5lb bags to hold us over and so far it's lasted a week and there's still plenty left.


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## LoveBugs

I'm not sure if this is accurate (I'm going to test when I buy my next bag) but I came across this website a while ago and had it bookmarked : http://goldendoodles.com/care/food_calculator.htm


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## Shell

Masterjedi688 said:


> I know when I buy the 15 pound bag, it's almost full to the top. I have seen the bags of dog food that are airtight. They look weird. I think the brand is called Solid Gold like the tv show back in the 80's. Not sure what other brands are airtight.


I just mean that they are sealed well enough to prevent significant moisture gain or loss (which would spoil the food anyway, in addition to changing its weight) or kibble from falling out. There are some brands that are vacuum packed but any brand really should be sealed enough that once the food is in the bag, that's the weight of food in the bag.

Think of it like this-- lets say you take a kitchen scale and a paper lunch sack. Put the sack on the scale and zero it. You put 16 ounces (weight, not volume) of kibble in the sack and tape it shut. Not airtight but sealed so nothing falls out. You lay the sack on its side on the scale with the kibble "spread out" in the bag. It'll weigh 16 ounces. Then shake it so all the kibble is "settled" in the bottom of the bag. Weigh it and it'll weigh 16 ounces, with maybe a tiny variation just from the balance on the scale since kitchen scales aren't like scientific instruments or anything. But it won't have almost 10% more or less kibble weight in it just because the kibble is at the bottom of the bag. 

So if settling can mean a pound more or less in their 15 lb bag, that makes me wonder if they are packing by volume (like to a fill line for example) instead of weight.


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