How do I control the body weight of my pet?
Controlling your pet’s weight is essential for two reasons. Firstly, being overweight or underweight affects their enjoyment of day to day life. Secondly, though, it also has a huge impact on their health… leading back to their quality of life too. Pets are more commonly overweight than underweight so in this blog, we will focus on weight management to encourage weight loss.
In order to lose weight, your pet must burn more calories than they consume which means creating a calorie deficit, or a negative energy balance. Pets can burn calories by breathing, regulating core temperature and most importantly moving. The calories a pet consumes includes those calories that they eat in their food but also all the little treats we give them. If you need your pet to lose weight, decreasing food intake is most important, but increasing the amount of movement your pet does is also useful.
Increased activity will require your pet to put on more muscle, burning more calories just by the change in the “metabolic load” of maintaining their new more muscular body. The highest calorie output, though, will of course occur due to the increased number of muscular contractions and increased force of muscle contraction during the exercise.
Why is being overweight a problem for my pet?
Being overweight causes many issues. Your pet’s musculoskeletal system will have to work much harder when moving around. Whilst your pet is overweight, the amount of pressure being applied through each joint with every step is higher and could potentially be painful. This makes overweight pets less likely to want to get up and go for walks. They more commonly develop arthritis as they age and become immobile much more rapidly than pets who have maintained an appropriate body weight throughout their life. Often when pets lose weight, you will notice a significant difference in the amount of energy they have.
Overweight cats are much more likely to suffer from endocrine diseases such as diabetes mellitus. Weight loss forms part of the treatment plan for diabetes, exemplifying how vital maintaining a good body condition score is. In dogs, the link is not so strong, but in higher risk breeds, keeping a lower bodyweight does seem to have some protective effects.
Physical Exercise
Increasing the amount of activity and physical exercise your pet does is the easiest way to increase the amount of calories burnt during the day. Physical activity will also encourage muscular growth and endurance.
Walking your pet more often is a great way of increasing the amount of calories burnt. You can walk both your dog and cat on a harness. If your pet is overweight, short but frequent exercise is important. The exercise should be low impact and low intensity which means avoiding exercises which encourage sudden stops and starts, rapid acceleration, jumping or leaping.
Swimming is a non-weight bearing exercise which is great for developing cardiovascular fitness. This could be swimming in a pool, lake or the sea. Be sure to supervise your pet at all times whilst they are swimming and ensure there is an easy escape route from the water should your pet decide they want to move back onto the land.
Increasing the amount of calories burnt whilst at home
Whilst exercise is brilliant, we can’t exercise all day long. We can, however, increase the amount of calories that we help them to burn throughout the day.
Stairs are a great tool to use to increase your pet’s heart rate whilst in the house. You must be careful if encouraging your pet to move up and down the stairs, as this is intense work and therefore this is better suited to fitter, healthier pets rather than overweight animals. You should make sure your pet is warmed up so their muscles and soft tissue are prepared for the strain.
Encouraging your pet to spend less time in their bed/crate will stimulate them to move around the house more. This means your pet will be burning more calories just pottering around without doing much extra exercise.
Increasing the amount of play
Toys are a great way to encourage exercise and movement. Pets being alert and inquisitive will mean they burn a lot more calories compared to laying around snoozing. For cats, you can encourage climbing by putting hideouts high up in your home. Buying scratching posts and actively playing with them will increase calorie expenditure whilst also helping to build a stronger bond between your pet and yourself.
Encouraging your pets to play with other people’s pets is a brilliant way of exercising your pet without having to do much exercise yourself! Provide your pets with a safe environment for them to play and supervise them. Try to find a location with little to no hazards on the ground to avoid injury.
Diet
Diet plays the biggest role in decreasing the amount of calories that enter the body. Dieting will help to increase the rate at which a negative energy balance is created. Light diets have now been produced by many food manufacturers which contain all the micronutrients that our pets need with fewer calories. This means your pets can eat tasty, wholesome foods for less kcals. Diet alongside exercise is the best way to target weight loss!
Eating a smaller volume of high calorie food will also reduce the amount of calories consumed. This again will benefit your pet’s weight loss target.
Treats are a common reason for diet failure. Substituting your dog’s common treats for things like bones that they can gnaw on making their bones last longer. Boiled or raw pet-safe vegetables make great treats and can also benefit your pet’s teeth too!
Be careful when changing your pet’s diet. This should be done very gradually by mixing the new food with their old food, steadily increasing the ratio of new food in the mix for around 10 days. This gradual transition will reduce the risk of stomach inflammation and adverse reactions.
Overall, managing weight can be made very fun and inclusive for all people in your pet’s life. A multi-modal approach will be most successful to create a large negative energy balance.
