Obesity in pets is becoming a common disorder in this day and age. Many owners are not realizing the damage we are doing to our pets by not providing them with a balanced diet or letting sedentary lifestyles consume our dog or cat.
This epidemic is important to keep under control as it can cause other health problems in our pets. Such as: heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, respiratory and renal diseases.
One of the causes of obesity in pets are poor eating habits and lack of physical activity. But how do I know if my pet is overweight, how can I help my pet not to suffer from obesity? In this post I will discuss some ways to identify if your pet is overweight and give you some recommendations that will help your pet stay healthy.
How to identify if your pet is overweight.
Obesity in pets can be identified by palpating with your hands their ribs, in case of being difficult to find it is because they have excess fat. Another sign of being overweight is not visualizing your pet’s silhouette or waistline when walking. You can also observe your pet’s abdomen in case it looks very round and bulging a sign that your pet suffers from obesity.
Recommendations to avoid obesity in pets
Our pets need to be physically active, at least 30 minutes a day. Dogs can be very good company during our exercise routine. So why not invite our pets to exercise with us? Studies from Michigan State University have proven that in the company of our dog we can achieve more than 150 minutes of exercise, that is, more minutes than the recommended weekly.
There is no excuse for your dog and cats to be physically active, there are many activities for our pets to stay active. For example, with dogs you can go out to play with frisbee, balls, take them for a walk, take them swimming, among others. On the other hand, cats are very different from dogs, it is recommended that you provide them with toys that stimulate their hunting instinct and mobility.
On the other hand, it is essential to provide our pets with a balanced diet. It is important to give them food that contains the nutritional values for our dog or cat to stay healthy.
If you have dogs, you can offer them dry food containing animal and vegetable oils, fruits, meats, low levels of salts and sugars. For cats the diet is different, their diet should be based on wet food and cat food, which should be composed of meat and proteins.
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