About Vivlo
What is Vivlo?
Vivlo is the app that grows up with your puppy. It tracks their growth, works out how much to feed as they change, helps you keep on top of the everyday routines (sleep, walks, toilet trips), saves the moments you'll want to remember, and gives you somewhere to ask those "is this normal?" questions every puppy owner has.
Why does Vivlo exist?
Because we're dog people first and developers second. Vivlo is built by a small team who own and love dogs, and the mission is simple: help puppies thrive by making sure their owners have good answers at the moments they need them. How much to feed. Whether that weight is normal. Whether tonight's worry can wait until morning.
That's also why we're unusually honest about what Vivlo can and can't do. The last thing we would ever want is for an app to put a puppy at risk. So Vivlo doesn't diagnose, doesn't pretend certainty it doesn't have, and will always point you to your vet when it matters.
We'd rather lose you to a vet visit than keep you guessing in the app.
Why not just Google it?
Because Google doesn't know your puppy. Vivlo does. It knows their age, their breed, their weight, their feeding history, their growth trend, their routine. So instead of wading through generic advice written for every dog on the internet, you get answers that fit the puppy in front of you. And unlike a search result, Vivlo keeps learning your puppy as they grow.
Is Vivlo free?
Vivlo is free to download and use, with an optional Premium subscription that unlocks the more advanced features. The core of the app stays free.
When can I get it? Is it on iPhone and Android?
Vivlo is coming soon to the App Store and Google Play. Leave your email and we'll let you know the moment it's live.
The food calculator
How does Vivlo work out how much to feed my puppy?
Every puppy grows differently, so Vivlo doesn't hand you a one-size chart. It uses the same veterinary nutrition principles that pet food companies and veterinary nutritionists work from, and considers your puppy's age, breed, current weight, body condition and the calorie content of their food to calculate a personalised daily amount. Unlike the feeding guide printed on a food bag, Vivlo updates as your puppy grows: the answer at 10 weeks isn't the answer at 20.
Want to know exactly how we calculate it?
Vivlo follows the published standards of veterinary nutrition, above all the National Research Council's Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats (2006), the reference work the pet food industry is built on. Here's the whole method, nothing hidden.
Step 1: Resting Energy Requirement
Every dog burns a baseline number of calories just existing, and it follows a standard formula: RER = 70 × (weight in kg)0.75. That 0.75 exponent isn't arbitrary. Energy needs don't scale in a straight line with body weight, a relationship biologists have measured across species for nearly a century. A 2 kg puppy burns about 118 kcal a day at rest.
Step 2: the growth multiplier
A puppy isn't just living, it's building an adult dog, so their needs run at a multiple of that baseline: around 3× just after weaning, declining steadily as they approach adult size. Veterinary texts model that decline as a smooth curve tied to how much of their adult weight a puppy has reached, and that's the shape Vivlo follows. The multiplier tapers gradually and is pinned to your breed's maturity timeline, because a toy breed is nearly grown at 8 months while a giant breed is still growing well past 18.
Step 3: feed the dog they should be
If a puppy is carrying extra weight, calculating purely from the scale reading feeds the problem. Vivlo folds in body condition and gently steers portions toward your puppy's healthy weight. And gently is the operative word: a growing puppy should never be put on a crash diet, because they need energy and nutrients to build bones and organs, not just to maintain. Vivlo's adjustments are deliberately conservative, and if your puppy is noticeably over or under weight, that plan should be made with your vet.
Step 4: calories to grams
Finally we convert the daily calories into grams of your actual food using its calorie density, so the answer is a scoop you can measure, not an abstract number.
You can check our working: for an 8-week, 2 kg puppy this comes out at 353 kcal a day. Put the same puppy through any published veterinary feeding chart and you'll land within a calorie of the same answer. Sources are on our references page.
Why is Vivlo's amount different from what the food bag says?
Feeding guides on food bags are written for a broad weight bracket, not your puppy. They can't know your puppy's age, breed, or body condition, so they give a safe, generic range. Vivlo calculates for your individual puppy, and updates as they grow. If the two disagree wildly, that's worth a conversation with your vet. Either way, treat any feeding guide as a starting point and watch your puppy's condition, not just the bowl.
Where do the calories in my food come from?
From your food's packaging, ideally. Every food has a calorie density (kilocalories per 100 g), and that number is the bridge between "how much energy your puppy needs" and "how many grams go in the bowl." You can pick your food from Vivlo's list of common UK puppy foods, or enter the figure from the pack. In the UK it isn't compulsory to print calories on packaging, so if yours doesn't show it, check the manufacturer's website (most list it).
And if you can't find it at all, Vivlo estimates a typical calorie density for your food type, and tells you plainly in the app that an estimate is being used. The more accurate the figure, the more accurate your scoop, so it's worth the two minutes. This matters most for wet and raw food, which carry far more water and far fewer calories per gram than kibble.
The growth tracker
How does the growth chart work?
Puppies grow in a predictable S-shape: fast at first, then levelling off as they reach adult size. That pattern is well described in veterinary growth research, and Vivlo uses it to draw the expected range for your breed. Your puppy's own weigh-ins are then plotted against it. The point isn't a single "correct" line, it's seeing your puppy's own trend take shape.
Can Vivlo predict my puppy's adult weight?
We'll show you a likely range, never a single magic number, because no honest tool can give you one. What makes Vivlo different is Growth Confidence: every weigh-in you log sharpens the forecast, and the range tightens as your puppy's own pattern emerges. The confidence is earned from your data, not conjured by an algorithm. And if your puppy's weigh-ins are erratic, we'll honestly show lower confidence and a wider range rather than pretend to know.
My puppy is outside the expected range. Should I worry?
Not by itself. The range is a guide drawn from breed averages, and plenty of perfectly healthy puppies run above or below it, especially crossbreeds or pups at the large or small end of their breed. What matters more is the trend: a puppy tracking steadily along their own curve is usually doing fine. If your puppy suddenly changes direction, stops gaining, or you're worried for any reason, that's a question for your vet, not an app.
Trust, safety & your data
Why should I trust Vivlo?
Because we show our working. Vivlo's calculations are built on published veterinary research and recognised reference texts, not internet opinions, and our references page tells you exactly which ones. Where the evidence doesn't support certainty, we say so: that's why our growth forecast is a range with a confidence level, not a bold guess. And where something needs a vet, we tell you that too, every time, even though it would be easier to pretend the app has the answer.
Is Vivlo veterinary advice?
No, and we're deliberately clear about that. Vivlo is a tracking and information tool. It will never diagnose your puppy; in the UK, only a registered vet can do that. If Vivlo's numbers ever make you uneasy, or your puppy seems unwell, your vet is always the right call, and nothing in the app should ever delay that.
What is Ask Vivlo?
Ask Vivlo is your place for everyday puppy questions, the "is this normal?" moments at 9pm. It knows your puppy's age, breed and history, so answers fit your puppy rather than every dog on the internet. And it knows its limits: for anything that could be urgent, it will tell you to contact your vet rather than attempt an answer.
What happens to my puppy's data and photos?
Your puppy's photos and records live on your phone. Vivlo doesn't upload your scrapbook or your logs to the cloud. Three things can leave the device, and we're specific about them because that's the deal we think you deserve:
- Ask Vivlo questions. When you ask something, your question (with basic context like your puppy's age and breed, so the answer is actually useful) is sent securely to our service to generate a reply. That's what makes the feature work.
- Family sharing, only if you turn it on. If you invite family to follow your puppy, the records they need (profile, weigh-ins, feeding info) are sent to our sync service so their devices can show them. Photos are never included, and nothing is shared until you create an invite.
- Anonymous usage statistics. We collect a strictly limited set of anonymous signals (which features get used, whether the app crashed) so we know what to fix and build. Nothing that identifies you or your puppy, and you can switch it off entirely in Profile, under Usage & diagnostics.
The full detail lives in our privacy policy, written in the same plain English.