Obesity is something that should concern us all and not only for ourselves but also in the case of our pets. In this article on our site we want to focus on informing you of how to prevent obesity in cats.
There are felines more prone to this disease depending on their breed, age, size and chronic he alth problems. If you are concerned about your cat's he alth, read and find out how to prevent obesity in it and help it to be he althier and stronger in the face of other possible diseases derived from this eating disorder.
Detect obesity in cats
If your cat is less active than usual, you notice that his tummy has increased, he always seems to be hungry because of what he eats too much and you also touch his back and notice thatdifficult to feel the ribs , your cat is overweight or, depending on the amount of accumulated fat, obese.
It is known that sterilization increases the risk of suffering from this eating disorder, but this does not mean that a sterilized animal will be obese, but rather that by decreasing its hormone production and slowing down its metabolism, the animal burns less calories and fat, so neutering increases the probability, but nothing more. It remains our responsibility that our pets, whether spayed or not, are strong and he althy or slowly become obese. We also know that, in the case of cats, there is a greater predisposition to accumulate fat in females.
The excess of unnecessary and accumulated fat in our pets produces a series of diseases derived from it and significantly shortens their lives It is It is vital that during regular visits to the specialist veterinarian, the cat is weighed on the scale each time so that its weight and evolution can be tracked.
Next, we are going to discuss how to prevent obesity in our furry cats, avoiding everything that comes with being overweight and thus improving their he alth and being able to enjoy the company that a feline offers happy and he althy. The best prevention against eating disorders is to give a good food education to our furry friend from a very young age. Therefore, we can prevent this eating problem with proper diet and exercise.
Prevent obesity with a proper diet
We must always think that our pet's nutrition will depend on its needs Therefore, if we know that our companion does not does a lot of work, we will need to provide food that is moderate in calories. On the other hand, if our pet does have a significant daily caloric expenditure, we should give it high-calorie food, among other things.
Generally, domestic cats do not go outside and therefore their level of energy expenditure is low. So we must give them I think light or low in calories in addition to rationing the amount that corresponds to them by weight and age, two or three times a day instead of letting them a large amount of feed trusting us that, as it is a cat, it will know how to dose the rations on its own. If we choose to give them a feed with a normal or high caloric content, we must increase the exercise that our cat does. It is very important to prevent our friend from eating between meals, that is, we must mark the times of the two or three meals, every day at the same time and outside of those hours remove the food.
Changes in the amount of food or increased exercise should always be gradual to avoid possible problems and damage to our pet.
As for the treats or prizes that we can give them, we must space them out over time and use them as positive support for a desired behavior and not as a sign of our affection, since if we do the latter we will be giving them very often and they contain many calories and excess fat. In case our cat is already obese, we will have to completely eliminate treats.
Prevent obesity with exercise
For any animal exercise is vital to stay he althy and avoid many diseases Felines are no less and therefore they should do a minimum of daily physical activity adapted to their age and physical condition. It is very important that if our animal never leaves the house, it be made to run around and play with us or other pets in the house and with toys, we can also create circuits and play areas with stimuli to reinforce the exercise.
It is easy to play with a cat, as we already know it is very easy to draw their attention with movement and lights. If our cat is already obese, we will see that after a few days of maintaining a proper diet and exercising more he will begin to lose weight in a he althy way.
In case we play with our feline outside or let him go out freely, we must be very aware of not letting him go out in very hot hours, since we may find that you suffer from heat stroke among other possible problems. In addition, as we have mentioned before, it is very important to keep in mind that if we have to increase exercise, it should be progressive and not sudden in order to avoid damage to our cat.
