If your pet is overweight, it may shorten your pet’s lifespan. Luckily excess weight is a condition that can be reversed. Dogs and cats used to live outside and would either hunt for their food or were working animals. Today most cats are indoors all the time and dogs are at home for most of the day while their owners are at work.
Logically, this means that fewer calories are being burnt, so we should be feeding our pets less food to make up the difference. Practically, when that cute little face looks up at you, it is hard not to give in and feed them a bit of extra food here and there. What is the harm, right? Think about this – giving your dog a 1oz piece of cheddar cheese is the equivalent of you eating 1 ½ hamburger. Giving small table scraps may seem like it is not a big deal. When in fact, it is a big deal, and it’s making a bigger and bigger deal of your pet.
I am guilty of giving my dogs table scraps, so now they beg because they know they will probably get something. It is something I need to rectify, I can put my dog on the best weight loss diet out there, but it won’t work if I am continuing to give in and feed them extra over the day. Any extra food they get over the day needs to be accounted for in the weight loss plan. If you do this, it will quickly become apparent how many extra calories are in the small amount of food we give from the table. It will be hard, and they will be persistent in begging, but I know that in time, they will get the message if I stay strong and stop giving them table scraps.
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Written by: Heather
