There be dragons in House of the Dragon, and while we'll see them gobble down the occasional sheep or person in the Game of Thrones spinoff, the show doesn't get too heavy into their eating habits. While that could still happen as Season 3 continues its run through the 2026 TV schedule, we have someone who did the math and thinks they have a solid idea of how much the gargantuan beasts eat.
As we wait for the next episode to arrive on HBO (or streaming via HBO Max subscription), Reddit is on the case and figuring out how much a dragon in this universe would need to survive. The numbers, as one might expect, are staggering and have me questioning if the Game of Thrones universe will have to address this at some point.
The Dragons May Consume Tens Of Millions Of Calories A Day
Credit to /u/SupSeal for doing the math, who estimated that a dragon in House of the Dragon would need about 23,333,333 calories daily to survive. They arrived at that number using the caloric intakes of blue whales, the largest creatures on Earth, as a reference, and then divided that number by the low end of five, to account for dragons being reptiles and needing fewer calories than mammals. Read about it more below:
Ill give this a shot. Blue whales are the largest creature on the earth, i have to use this as a baseline as nothing comes close enough. They require between 20-50 million calories a day. They are between 24 and 30m long. Giving averages of a whale being 27m and consuming 35 million, it become proportional as I have no weight to assess. 27m/90m=35million/ 90*35,000,000/27=116,666,667 calories/day. But, as she is also a reptile, assuming same body composition, will consume 5 to 10 times less calories than a mammal. Taking the lower end, 5, we get the total. 116,666,667 / 5 = 23,333,333 calories/day.
The numbers vary depending on who you ask, but the dragons would require a few hundred sheep a day on average to survive. They could also supplement with a few humans, as we know dragons eat them too. It's no wonder Sheepstealer got that name if he was picking off that many people's livestock on the daily!
Why House Of The Dragon Likely Focuses Less On Dragon Eating Habits
I wouldn't imagine that House of the Dragon Season 3 is going to focus on the eating habits of its dragons, as the crown is already short enough on funds as it is. With the Greens burning through the royal funds, Rhaenyra inherited a throne that is not only incredibly chaotic, but heavily in debt.
It's left the kingdom unable to pay its soldiers, and in a vulnerable position as Lord Ormund Hightower continues to gain ground with his forces. Obviously, Rhaenyra still has a healthy amount of dragons and plot armor that prevents them from needing to feast most of the time they're on camera. Who knows, maybe the dragons of this universe have incredibly slow metabolisms, and can thrive off only eating just a few sheep a day?
Now that people are making theories, I would love to hear George R.R. Martin's take on the matter. For someone so critical of the size of dragon wings, and how they're portrayed in the spinoff, you'd think he'd have a lot to say about this as well.
House Of The Dragon continues on HBO on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET. This season is getting so tense with a stomach-churning ending to the latest episode, I can't wait to see where it all ends up!
