What's the right weight for your pet?
Just as humans put on weight as they approach middle age, so do our pets. Often, the last person to notice is the owner, because the weight build up is gradual. So here is some advice on how to check if your pet is overweight, as well as how to get it back to the right shape.
What's the right weight for your pet?
Few people would argue that you should offer your children a food reward every time they want to be near you or want to talk to you. Yet this often happens with our animal kids. Healthy parenting of pets involves sensible food choices at all times of the day.
Dogs: A dog with an ideal body weight should have an easily discernible waist when viewed form above and a tummy tuck when viewed from the sides. Also, the dog's ribs should be easy to feel.
If your dog is showing weight on any of these areas, I would emphasize that, whatever he/she might be eating at the moment, even if it seems too little for the dog, must be too much. If your dog's ideal body weight is, say, 20kg, but he's currently 30kg, then feeding him with what's suitable for an active 30kg dog will promote obesity as at least 10kg of fat is been needlessly fed. When working out an ideal food intake, you need to ask "is the dog's body condition ideal"? If so, then the food intake is ideal. If the dog is ample, then the food must be ample too, and restriction is needed.
Strategies for successful weight reduction:
Know your foods. For example, bones are a potent source of fat as marrow and fat are attached to the bone. The other serious problem with feeding bones of course, is their propensity to get stuck and damage the gastrointestinal tract.
Get one person in the family to take responsibility. I often suggest that one member of the family makes a lunchbox every day for the dog, consisting of a complete and balanced dog food formulated for weight loss management. Your dog can be given as many meals a day as he/she wants, as long as they're all out of the same lunchbox. The amount left over at the end of the day becomes your dog's diner. This means that restrictions only need to be enforced once a day by one person.
Find out where else your dog could be snacking. Concider additional food sources could include bird feeding tablets, spilled chicken seed, raided compost bins, neighbours, passing children, nearby schools (dogs love visiting at lunchtime) and food-related businesses - or even family members who disagree on how much your dog needs to eat.
Reward your dog with healthier options. When your dog comes to you in the kitchen, it's so tempting to see him wag his tail when you give him a treat. However, if you really want to make him happy, a game of fetch will be more enjoyable, better for him and gives a reward that lasts longer.
Speak to your veterinarian. Because it's difficult to assess your own cat critically, since you see him/her everyday and small weight changes can creep up on you, ask your veterinarian or an experienced veterinary nurse to run a body condition score for your cat at every bi-annual health check.
Take action. Once the decision to lose weight has been made, it's often also a good time to discuss healthy, balanced diets. PURINA ONE Healthy Weight Management is formulated for weight loss so you can restrict food intake without risking malnutrition.
Cats: A cat with an ideal body weight should be well proportioned. You should be able to observe the waist behind the ribs. The ribs should be palpable with a slight fat covering and the abdominal fat pad should be minimal.
Cats present some unusual challenges when dealing with obesity. The first is a strong belief by many people that cats self-regulate their food intake to remain at their ideal body weight.
Whilst this is true of many cats, it is distinctly untrue for many others, including two of my own cats.
A second difficulty is that many cats are wanderers, i.e. they are shared by a number of households, each of which might think they are exclusively responsible for that cat's dietary requirements.
Confining such cats is difficult and largely unrewarding. The third difficulty is that, unlike most dogs, cats will flatly refuse to eat foods that don't meet their approval.
When such cats have had a lifetime of a devoted owner scouring the delicatessen for tempting morsels of paté salmon, cheese and venison, they are unlikely to yield to fibre-enriched diet foods.
Therefore, choosing an excellent brand of weight control diet with a good aroma and taste is critical to success.
