Calculating Animal Caloric Requirements

World Builders™
World Builders™

Biomes -- Energy Flow
Biomes -- Energy Flow

Make Your Animal Calorie Chart
Make Your Animal Calorie Chart

Figure out how many KiloCalories (food Calories) your animals need each day.

Begin by making a table like the one below.

Type in the names of your animals, whether they are warm or cold blooded, and their weights. like this.

Caloric Needs of Animals on Planet Batanna
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6	Column 7
Animal	Warm or Cold blooded	Weight	Multiply weight by 0.45 to get Kilograms Answer in this column	Write down K^0.75 for your type of animal	Calories needed per Day Multiply Column 4 by Column 5	KCal value of your animal's body if it is eaten
Grayface	cold	12 ounces
Hopper	warm	6 pounds
Owlface (a bird)	warm	9 pounds

Type the names of your animals. whether they are warm or cold blooded, and their weights.

Your table should look like the table above.

Now multiply the number in Column 3 by 0.45

Put the answer in Column 3.

Go to the Caloric Requirements for Animals Page

Write down the information about how to calculate the number of calories that your animal will need each day. You will need to do a little math here, but it is only multiplication!

You need to find a numbet near the bottom of the page. in a green box.
Think carefully to select the best number.

In this part you will figure out how many calories each animal needs per day to live.

Notice that cold blooded ectotherms do not need to eat as much as warm blooded endotherms because heating the body uses up a lot of the food energy that animals gather.

Type your step by step thinking in your table like this.

Caloric Needs of Animals on Planet Batanna
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6	Column 7
Animal	Warm or Cold blooded	Weight	Multiply weight by 0.45 to get Kilograms Answer in this column	Write down K^0.75 for your type of animal	Calories needed per Day Multiply Column 4 by Column 5	KCal value of your animal's body if it is eaten
Grayface	cold	12 ounces	0.75* 0.45 = 0.337	5.6	1.9
Hopper	warm	6 pounds	6 * 0.45 = 2.7	24.7	66.7
Owlface (a bird)	warm	9 pounds	9 * .45 = 4.05	26.2	108.9

In the last part we figure out how many calories another animal would get if it ate one of your animals.

Go to the Caloric Contents of Foods page.

You will figure out how many calories each animal needs per day to live.

This page gives the KCal values for different foods, and some general information about how to multiply out your animal's weight with the probable food value of each ounce. Assume that the predator is going to eat the whole animal, bones and all!

Caloric Needs of Animals on Planet Batanna
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6	Column 7
Animal	Warm or Cold blooded	Weight	Multiply weight by 0.45 to get Kilograms Put answer in this column	Write down K^0.75 for your type of animal	Calories needed per Day Multiply Column 4 by Column 5	KCal value of animal's body if it is eaten multiply by 50 KCal per ounce
Grayface	cold	12 ounces	0.337	5.6	1.9	600
Hopper	warm	6 pounds	2.7	24.7	66.7	4800
Owlface (a bird)	warm	9 pounds	4.05	26.2	108.9	7,200

When you have filled in all the cells in your table you will be finished!

Good for you!!!

It is important to remember that we are working with a process here. Very active animals will probably need more calories. No one knows if there are animals on other planets, or what their needs would be. The numbers are just rough estimates, but the process is all right.

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© 1998, 2003, 2004. Elizabeth Anne Viau and her licensors. All rights reserved. This material may be used by individuals for instructional purposes but not sold. Please inform the author if you use it at eviau@earthlink.net