Pet Care Information Obesity in the family pet <BACK>

Obesity in Australian animals is increasing. It has been reported between 25 and 40% of Australian pets are overweight. This is alarming and has far reaching health issues. Obesity related health issues include but are not limited to the following Arthritis Cardiac Disease Respiratory Disease Diabetes Endocrine diseases Decrease life expectancy Mammary Tumors Dystocia Intolerance to exercise Malassezia dermatitis. The first thing we need to find out is if our dog or cat is over weight - There is no simple answer as there are many different body shapes and weight ranges for different breeds.  Each pet needs to be done on an individual basis. a good place to start with pure breed is the standards for the particular breed. This will give you a range that is acceptable for the breed taking in to account the upper and lower hight limits of that breed.  There are charts available to assess the body score of your pet. <CHART> Once it has been established that the pet is over weight, it is important to put in to place a plan to reduce the weight to a healthy range. There are a few things to under stand about weight gain or loss, Energy in - this is the total amount of energy going in to the dog. It will include any food given to the dog, including treats, dropped food, meals, the neighbours tit bits, left overs and of course any thing that the dog eats (dead lizards old burried bones etc).  Energy out - the energy expended during the day or night. It will include energy used in the day to day maintaince of a dog. Walking to the food bowl, digestion, tissue repair,chasing butterflies and growing hair nails bones etc.  Any energy in that is not used as energy out is then stored as body fat.  (excess body fat is BAD)  Every food is different in energy concentration, there is energy in meat, carbohydrates, fat and prepared dog foods. When starting on a weight loss program it is essential to feed a high quality dog food as it will be balanced in regard to energy,nutrients vitamins and minerals, this becomes very important when feeding a smaller volume of food. How much food to feed?  If the food you are feeding has a feeding guide on the packaging then start at the lower range for your pets weight. If you are feeding a variety of food  to your pet you will need to work out what it is that you are feeding e.g.(2 smackos, 100gm of  dog roll, 300 grams of dry food etc.) Once you have a daily menu, stick to it. Write this daily menu on the fridge so that anyone can feed the dog the correct amount of food. You will need to weigh your dog every 4 weeks. This will enable you to asses how the weight loss is going. If your dog has lost weight at the 4 week weigh-in then continue with the daily menu and reweigh in 4 weeks. If  your dog has not lost weight then reduce the food intake by 10% and reweigh in 4 weeks. Some other feeding ideas which may be useful when feeding any dog. Try carrots sticks or fresh green beans as treats (remember that they need to be part of  the daily menu.) If the dog begs for food during the day, measure out the food at the beginning of the day and feed small amount when the dog begs. Have a special measuring container for the dog food. Weigh the amount of the food required and place in the container. Then chop it off at the correct hight.  If  further reduction in food is required then reweigh the food and chop it off lower.  Feeding time is a high light of the day for your pet. (usually this is about 5 minutes) Which is not a great amount of time in 24 hours.  Extend this by taking the dry food and throwing it in to the back yard a few pieces at a time. letting the dog find all the pieces and then return for the next few pieces to be thrown out. The dog spends more energy looking for food and the length of time is increased. If you do not have the time to do the above. Just throw the lot in to the back yard at once and walk away. The dog will look for all the bits, and then go back again to check if any was missed. Alternatively for inside dogs or cats. Place a few pieces of dry food in 10 - 15 spots around the house and let the dog find them. Change the places daily to increase the hunt instinct. If the dog is hungry during the day he will look in all the places and will use up additional energy searching.  Any increase in exercise is a bonus.