How much to feed a Border Collie: feeding chart by weight and age

An average adult Border Collie of around 16kg, getting about an hour of exercise a day, will usually need somewhere between 215g and 250g of dry food a day. If you feed wet food only, that's roughly 635g to 735g. Three things move that number: your dog's ideal weight, how hard they work, and their stage of life.

So treat the chart below as a starting point rather than a prescription. A collie herding sheep all day and a collie who naps through most of the afternoon can weigh the same and need very different amounts. We'll show you how to adjust for both, and how to check you've got it right using your hands and eyes.

If you're still choosing a food, our dry dog food recipes each have a feeding calculator built in.

How much food does a Border Collie need?

For a typical adult pet collie on low to moderate exercise, a daily amount of 215g to 250g of dry food is a sensible place to begin. Our own help centre puts the average adult Border Collie at 16kg, with most falling between 14kg and 20kg.

That figure assumes around an hour of activity a day. A dog doing much more, or much less, will need a different amount, which we cover further down.

The exact grams also depend on the food in the bowl. Recipes differ in energy density, which simply means how many calories are packed into each gram. A more energy-dense food needs a smaller portion to do the same job. That's why the feeding guide on your own bag should always sit alongside any general chart, including ours.

Border Collie feeding chart by weight

The chart below gives daily amounts based on your dog's ideal adult weight. If your collie is carrying a little extra, feed for the weight they should be rather than the weight they are now.

These are daily totals, so split them across however many meals your dog has. Here's how we worked them out, so you can see where the numbers come from:

• Daily energy: we used the energy guidelines from FEDIAF, the European pet food industry body that sets nutrition standards, for a dog getting up to about three hours of gentle activity a day (UK Pet Food, 2015).

• Dry food: we based the grams on a dry recipe with around 354 kcal per 100g, which is the energy content of our Superfoods Chicken & Vegetables recipe.

• Wet food: we based the grams on a wet recipe with around 120 kcal per 100g, the energy content of our Chicken with Potato & Vegetables trays.

If you mix wet and dry, half a 400g tray (200g) replaces roughly 70g of dry food in our recipes. Cut the dry portion back to match, or you'll be feeding two dinners. Mixed feeding is common, and some dogs enjoy the change in texture.

Why there's no official Border Collie weight

You'll find plenty of Border Collie weight charts online, so it can come as a surprise that the breed standard doesn't include one. The Royal Kennel Club standard gives an ideal height of 53cm for dogs, with bitches "slightly less", and says nothing about weight at all (The Royal Kennel Club).

That makes sense for a breed developed for work rather than looks. Collies vary a fair bit in build, and a fine-boned bitch and a broad-chested dog can both be the right shape for their frame.

Which is why we've built the chart around your dog's own ideal weight rather than a breed average. If you're not sure what that is, your vet can help you work it out from your dog's frame and body condition. Once you know it, keep that number in mind and feed to it.

Working collie or family collie? Why the same dog needs different amounts

The biggest single thing that changes how much a Border Collie needs is workload. FEDIAF's guidelines list daily energy needs by activity level, and "working dogs, eg. sheep dogs" have their own row (UK Pet Food, 2015).

Here's what those figures look like for the same 16kg collie, fed a dry recipe of around 354 kcal per 100g:

So a collie working sheep for most of the day may need over half as much food again as the same dog on a family schedule. That's a big gap, and it's why a single breed number can leave working dogs underfed, and pet dogs overfed.

Our own help-centre guidance assumes about an hour of exercise a day, which puts it at the lower end of this table. To adjust from there:

• Moving up: if your collie has started working, competing, or doing long days on the hill, increase gradually and check their body condition every week or two until you've found the new level.

• Moving down: a neutered pet collie having a quiet winter, or a working dog who has retired, may need towards the lower end of the chart, or a little below it. Let their body condition guide you, rather than cutting by a set amount.

• Seasonal swings: lambing season, summer agility, and long dark evenings all change how much your dog moves. Your collie's needs may shift through the year as a result.

If you're unsure, a quick chat with your vet can help put your mind at ease.

Border Collie puppy feeding chart by age

Puppies are fed on the weight you expect them to reach as adults, not the weight they are today. Your eight-week-old will be eating a surprising amount for something so small, because they're building bone, muscle, and organs at a pace they'll never match again.

The chart below is from the feeding guide for our Dry Puppy Food Rich in Chicken & Rice, which has around 382 kcal per 100g.

If you don't know what your puppy will weigh as an adult, ask your breeder about the parents. Feeding for expected adult weight keeps growth steady, while feeding for today's weight would leave a growing puppy short.

Puppy recipes are more nutrient-dense than adult ones, so these figures only apply to puppy food. For a puppy under eight weeks, have a word with your breeder or get in touch with our team. There's more on the early months in our guide to how much to feed a puppy, and our puppy food includes carefully made hypoallergenic recipes.

Why bigger collies don't need proportionally more food

You might expect a 20kg collie to need a quarter more food than a 16kg one, since they weigh a quarter more. In fact, they need about 18% more.

That's because energy needs to follow a dog's metabolic bodyweight rather than their actual weight. Metabolic bodyweight is a calculation (weight to the power of 0.75) that reflects how bigger bodies use energy a little more efficiently per kilo. It's the basis of the FEDIAF 2025 energy guidelines.

You don't need to do the maths yourself, as our chart already takes it into account. The practical point is that simply scaling a portion up or down in line with weight tends to overfeed bigger dogs and underfeed smaller ones. If your dog's weight changes, look up the new weight rather than adjusting by the same percentage.

How often should you feed a Border Collie?

How often depends mostly on age:

• Two to six months: four small meals, spaced evenly through the day.

• Six to 12 months: three meals, moving to two as your puppy approaches their first birthday.

• Adults: one or two meals a day. We'd suggest two for most collies.

Splitting the day's food matters most for puppies. Their stomachs are small, and their energy needs are high, so little and often keeps them going without overloading them.

Adults are more flexible. Two meals simply shorten the gap between them, which can help a busy, food-motivated collie feel more settled. For a working dog, give them time to settle after hard work before a big meal. Our guide on how much to feed your dog and when goes into timing around exercise. Whatever the schedule, keep fresh water available at all times.

Weigh it, don't scoop it

Even the best chart only works if the amount in the bowl matches it, and that's harder than it sounds.

In one study, dog owners measured dry food with three different measuring devices. Their portions ranged from 48% under to 152% over the intended amount, depending on the device and the volume (Coe et al., 2019). An earlier set of 12 studies using measuring cups found portions anywhere from 18% under to 80% over (German et al., 2011).

There's another reason scoops drift. The bulk density of kibble, meaning how much a given volume weighs, can differ from batch to batch. So the same scoop can hold noticeably different weights from one bag to the next, even if you fill it the same way every time.

Kitchen scales fix all of this. Weigh the daily amount in the morning, keep it in a pot, and take each meal and any training rewards from there. It takes seconds, and for a dog you'll be feeding for well over a decade, it's one of the simplest habits you can build.

How to tell if you're feeding the right amount

The chart gets you started. Your dog tells you whether it's right.

The best tool here is body condition score, a hands-on way vets assess whether a dog is carrying the right amount of fat for their frame. You can do a version of it at home in a minute (PDSA):

• Ribs: run your hands along your dog's sides. You should be able to feel the ribs easily under a light covering, without pressing hard.

• Waist from above: look down at your dog. There should be a visible narrowing behind the ribs.

• Tuck from the side: the tummy should slope upwards from the ribcage towards the back legs, rather than hanging level or bulging.

Border Collie coats can hide a lot, so trust your hands over your eyes, especially with a rough-coated dog.

Many of us find this harder to judge than we'd expect. In the PDSA's 2023 report, vets estimated that 46% of dogs are overweight or obese, while 81% of owners believed their dog was a healthy weight. Eighty per cent of owners didn't know their dog's body condition score, and only 19% decided how much to feed based on their dog's weight or body shape (PDSA, 2023).

A simple monthly check puts you well ahead. Do the three checks, note the result, and weigh your dog every month or two. Most vet practices are happy for you to pop in and use their scales.

Keeping a Border Collie at a healthy weight

Border Collies are one of the longer-lived breeds. A UK study of more than 584,000 dogs found a median lifespan of 13.1 years for the breed, compared with 12.5 years across all dogs (McMillan et al., 2024). That's a long time to keep their weight on track, so small habits really add up:

• Count the treats: treats should make up no more than 10% of your dog's daily calories, and they should come out of the daily amount rather than on top of it (PDSA, 2023). Using a handful of their own kibble for training helps.

• Adjust with the seasons: if your dog's routine changes for a few weeks, adjust their food to match and recheck their body condition.

• Feed the brain too: collies are bred to think as much as run. Scatter feeding, puzzle feeders, and snuffle mats turn a meal into a job, which can help a busy dog feel satisfied without extra food.

• Watch after neutering: in a large UK study, neutered dogs were more likely to be overweight, with neutered males at the highest risk (Pegram et al., 2021). Keep a closer eye on body condition in the months afterwards.

If your dog needs to lose weight, that's a job for your vet rather than for portion cutting alone. They'll rule out anything medical and set a safe pace, and a dog carrying a lot of extra weight usually does best with ongoing veterinary support.

Which Harringtons recipes suit a Border Collie

There's nothing about a Border Collie that calls for a special breed of food. What matters most is a complete recipe that suits your dog's needs, fed at a weighed amount. A Border Collie sits between our small breed and large breed recipes, so choosing by your dog's needs makes more sense than choosing by size.

All of our recipes are developed with veterinary input. Here's how each one fits:

• For everyday feeding: our core dry dog food recipes, such as Rich in Lamb & Rice, are made with freshly prepared meat and fish ingredients and no artificial colours or flavours. They come in 15kg bags, which suits a dog eating this much.

• For an active collie: our Superfoods recipes add ingredients that work a little harder, such as sweet potato, spinach, blueberries, and seaweed. They sit within our wider range of grain-free recipes, which use carbohydrate sources like potato and sweet potato instead of grains.

• For a collie with sensitivities: our Just 6 recipes keep things simple, with only six key ingredients. Some dogs find this gentler on the tummy, and a short ingredient list can make it easier to spot what suits your dog.

• For an older collie: our Senior Rich in Chicken & Rice recipe is made for dogs in their later years. Many collies slow down as they age and may need a little less food, so keep checking their body condition.

• For mixed feeding: our grain-free wet dog food comes in trays and can be added to dry food or served as a complete meal.

None of these is better than the others. They're built for different jobs, so pick the one that matches your dog.

Switching your Border Collie onto a new food

Take it slowly, over seven to 10 days. Mix a little of the new food in with the old, and increase the new food every couple of days until it's all you're serving. Weigh both foods during the switch so the daily total stays the same.

Slightly softer stools during the changeover are common. If your dog still has loose stools a week after the switch, or seems off colour, a quick chat with your vet can help put your mind at ease.

If you're adding wet food, move any leftovers from the tray into an airtight container and keep them in the fridge for up to two to three days. Use a clean spoon, and throw anything away that smells or looks off. Our guide on how to store wet dog food after opening has more detail.