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Pet Obesity

Obesity is the most common nutritional disorder affecting dogs and cats in the United States. Obesity is linked to serious (and expensive) diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, breathing difficulty, high blood pressure, skin disease, fatty liver disease (cats), and arthritis. Preventing obesity is key to help decrease the risk of these illnesses.

Just like in humans, individual pets’ metabolism can vary and some animals need fewer calories to maintain a healthy body condition, whereas other animals will need more calories to maintain that same body condition. Because of this, with any feeding regimen, the amount of food being given will have to be adjusted to your pet’s individual needs. Additionally, on average a pet’s caloric requirements decrease by 10-15% after being neutered or spayed. Any new food should be gradually introduced.

In order to prevent obesity it is necessary to be able to determine if your pet is in an appropriate body condition (not too skinny and not too fat). An easy way to determine your pet’s body condition is to feel the ribs. If you need to press your fingers through a layer of fat in order to feel the ribs, your pet is overweight. Additionally, when looking at your dog from the side his/her abdomen should tuck up by the hips. Looking from above while your dog is standing, you should see a “waist” just in front of the hips. If there is no abdominal tuck or waist, your dog is overweight.

Simply put, in order to lose weight calorie expenditure must be greater than calorie intake. Successful weight loss programs incorporate both a decrease in calorie intake and an increase in exercise. The first thing to reduce when decreasing the amount of calorie intake is the amount of treats given. Most commercially made treats are shockingly calorie dense and they are not nutritionally complete. Decreasing the amount of nutritionally balanced food while maintaining the same amount of treats can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Healthy, low calorie treat options for dogs include baby carrots, apple slices, air-popped popcorn without salt or butter, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, or ice cubes.

The mathematical formula to determine a reduced, but safe and healthy, amount of calories to feed is:

                                Calories per day= 70 x (goal body weight in kilograms) ^0.75

It is important to make a series of goal body weights. For example, a 25 pound cat that should be 12 pounds might choose an initial weight loss goal of 6 pounds. Once that goal has been met, make another goal. Calorie content (number of calories per cup of food) of a particular food may be found on the label. Unfortunately the calorie content information is only legally required for foods labeled as “light”, “lite” or “low calorie” foods. As a consumer you may have to go to the brand’s website or call the company to get the calorie content information. Once you have the calorie content information you can calculate how many cups of food per day your pet should be getting (# of calories per day divided by calories per can or cup= cans or cups per day). Of course, accurate measurement of food is very important. The total amount of daily calories should be divided into two meals. If your pet seems hungry in between meals, divide the total amount of daily calories into smaller, more frequent meals.

The second part of a successful weight loss program is exercise. Leash walks and chasing a ball are fun ways to exercise your dog. Chasing a laser point or toy are good ways to exercise your cat. Another way to get your cat to exercise is to hide portions of his/her meal around the house. This forces your cat to “hunt” for his/her meal.

The final part of a successful weight loss program is monitoring progress with bi-weekly weigh-ins. Feel free to stop by Quail Pointe to use our scale. We don’t charge for this, we will mark your pets progress in his/her chart, and we’d love to see you!

Weight loss can seem daunting but it doesn’t have to be. We have a program with all the food pre-measured and pre-packaged which makes it much more convenient and easy. And of course, if you have any questions or run into a road block feel free to call us anytime!