Pet Health Blog
Is your pet too fat?
Posted by: Alison Glennon
Some interesting figures came out of the Pet Food Manufacturers Association last week.
Apparently one in three British pets are overweight, yet their owners just can't see it. An alarming 8 out of 10 dog, cat and rabbit owners believed their pet is just the right weight, but when asked which picture most resembled their pet, only 33% dog owners and 23% cat owners chose a picture depicting a pet at normal weight.
Even more interesting - 9 out of 10 owners are not concerned about their pet's weight - and from the third who did think their pet was overweight, 62% of dog and 72% cat owners believed they could do nothing about it.
Out of these same owners who thought their pets were overweight, a third admitted to feeding too many treats, 11% said they fed too much at mealtimes and 36% said their pet had too little exercise. So just how did those other pets get to be too fat?
My boxer Dylan teeters between just right and a little bit plump - and I know exactly where the problem lies. His food is measured according to his weight and he gets plenty of exercise - his weight depends how diligent we have been in securing the child gate that separates the kitchen - where the cats are fed - from the dining room. Dylan is a master at pretending to be asleep in his bed while keeping one eye on the gap - and he is up and in there in no time if we leave it open for a second when we are out of the room. Now there are two cats - two bowls - twice as much forbidden pleasure!
But with PFMA giving a timely reminder on the potential problems that obesity leads to, I'm going to instill reminders about the gate to all the family and cut down Dylan's rations for a bit.
We may even use the PFMA's Size-O-Meter to make sure we're back on track!
(Check out http://www.pfma.org.uk for more information)
Apparently one in three British pets are overweight, yet their owners just can't see it. An alarming 8 out of 10 dog, cat and rabbit owners believed their pet is just the right weight, but when asked which picture most resembled their pet, only 33% dog owners and 23% cat owners chose a picture depicting a pet at normal weight.
Even more interesting - 9 out of 10 owners are not concerned about their pet's weight - and from the third who did think their pet was overweight, 62% of dog and 72% cat owners believed they could do nothing about it.
Out of these same owners who thought their pets were overweight, a third admitted to feeding too many treats, 11% said they fed too much at mealtimes and 36% said their pet had too little exercise. So just how did those other pets get to be too fat?
My boxer Dylan teeters between just right and a little bit plump - and I know exactly where the problem lies. His food is measured according to his weight and he gets plenty of exercise - his weight depends how diligent we have been in securing the child gate that separates the kitchen - where the cats are fed - from the dining room. Dylan is a master at pretending to be asleep in his bed while keeping one eye on the gap - and he is up and in there in no time if we leave it open for a second when we are out of the room. Now there are two cats - two bowls - twice as much forbidden pleasure!
But with PFMA giving a timely reminder on the potential problems that obesity leads to, I'm going to instill reminders about the gate to all the family and cut down Dylan's rations for a bit.
We may even use the PFMA's Size-O-Meter to make sure we're back on track!
(Check out http://www.pfma.org.uk for more information)
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