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Are you not sure if your pet is overweight? Have you had trouble getting your pet to lose weight, or do those last few pounds refuse to come off? If you have any of these problems, today’s article is for you. Dr. John Lupo from the Malibu Vet Clinic posted some advice about maintaining a healthy weight for your pets on his local patch.com, and we’re going to examine it today.
The first thing is to determine whether or not your pet is overweight. Obviously a veterinarian can do this, but why wait to see the vet? There are ways you can tell at home. Rub your hands over your pet’s sides. You should be able to feel the ribs well, but the skin should also move easily back and forth over the ribs (if it doesn’t but the ribs stick out then your pet is underweight). If your pet looks pregnant, it’s overweight. You should also be able to see a “waist” line below the rib cage.
Sometimes it’s a bit trickier to tell with cats; cats carry more weight in their stomach than dogs do. Neutered male cats especially have what I like to call a little paunch at the bottom end of the stomach. That’s natural for neutered cats, so just discount the paunch when doing your calculations.
If you’ve determined your pet is overweight, the next step is to put it on a diet and make sure it gets some exercise. Look at the serving suggestions on your pet’s bag of food; most bags offer a normal serving suggestion, and then one for weight loss. Follow the weight loss one.
When doing this for cats you need to take care. If the diet means drastically reducing your cat’s food intake overnight, don’t do that. Gradually reduce the amount of food that they’re getting. This is the best option when putting a dog on a diet as well; a sudden drastic decrease in food intake is unhealthy for any pet but especially cats. If your pet is only going to be getting a bit less food than it usually does, however, then you don’t have to worry.
Most of the rest of the steps are going to sound familiar, as I’ve suggested them before. Make sure you exercise your pets more. It’s easy for dogs: go out on walks, play Frisbee at the park, run in circles around your yard. This has the added benefit of being healthy for you as well, and reducing any behavior problems that your pet might have, as they are often caused by boredom.
Cats are trickier. Try to set aside 20-30 minutes in your day to play with your cat. I know how frustrating this can be; sometimes I feel like I’m sitting there dangling a toy on a string for my cat for ages, and all he does is sit around a corner and watch it. If your cat is really overweight and the exercise is necessary, however, just try to be patient.
Also try variety: dangle string toys, grab a laser pointer, buy one of those balls in a tubular circle that your cat can smack. Only put out one toy for a few weeks, then switch it up with another. The change will help keep your cat interested.
Patience is the key with helping your pet lose weight, especially when it comes down to those last couple of pounds.
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*(This image by jimwhimpey is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
