60% of United States Pets Are Overweight

Dr. Kristine Yee, a veterinarian in Los Angeles at the California Animal Hospital has seen an increase in overweight cats and dogs and attributes the rise to bad diets administered by the pets owners. Yee states that the weight of the pet can be completely managed by altering the pet's diet.

The problem is that many pet owners will not admit that their pets are overweight. Purina's 2005 study found that 60 percent of United States pets were overweight. However, nearly half of the owners whose pets participated in the study, stated that their pet had the "ideal" body composition.

Similar to human obesity, pet obesity is often a sensitive issue as many people view their pets as children and will take it personally when told that their pet needs to loose weight.

Problems with Pet Obesity

Apart from the physical looks of the pet, excess weight leads to a host of physical and health related problems and has been found to shorten the pet's overall life span.

Some of the problems pets experience include cardiac, respiratory, orthopedic, and metabolic dysfunction.

Root of the Problem

Many Americans equate giving their pets love by feeding them an abundance of food and snacks. People do not realize that a single dog biscuit can be in excess of 100 calories. Also, they let their cats and dogs eat the fat from dinner steaks and other scraps from the table. It must be noted, that dogs and cats do not suffer by not eating "human food", dog food is perfectly nutritious and appetizing for the dogs.

Another problem which is similar to human obesity is that pets are being served excessive portions. Many people are not utilizing the tools to measure the correct portion for their pet. Most people always overdue the portion.

Additionally, pets similar to people must be active. They must be walked or played with regularly outdoors and indoors.

How to Determine if Your Pet is Obese

In order to determine if your pet is obese, you must determine its body condition score. Several websites offer this test, however its the same test used by many vets to determine a pet's ideal weight.

Yee suggests the following two tests to help determine obesity:

• Run your hands across the chest of the dog or cat. You should always be able to feel their ribs but not see them. There should never be a layer of fat over the ribs.

• Look at the standing dog or cat from a bird's eye view. They should have what looks like a waist that tucks in right in front of the hips.

Getting Your Pet Back In Shape

Use these following tips to get your pet back in shap:

• Control portions. Look at everything you are feeding your pet -- pet food, treats and human food -- and reduce the amount. Use proper measuring tools.

• Control quality. Don't feed your pet human junk food like pizza or sweets such as baked goods, ice cream or cookies. Home-prepared meals using fresh ingredients are acceptable, Davis says. Wholesome items such as brown rice, fresh lean meats and carrots are recommended. Be sure to avoid the human foods that can be toxic to cats and dogs: grapes/raisins, mushrooms, chocolate and coffee. Tomatoes and garlic can also be toxic for cats.

• Increase exercise. Get into the habit of walking your dog every day. Getting outdoors is good for a pet's emotional health, too, giving it a chance to make social contact and find out what is going on in the neighborhood.

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