Is your Pet Overweight? Here's Some Tips to Improve Their Health

Just like us humans, our pets can get some excess of weight. The main cause is the excess of food ingestion associated with the lack of exercise. Obesity can cause several diseases to your pet. Therefore, it's important you start taking immediate action to help your pet lose weight and consequently live in a healthy way.

Usually the signs that show your pet suffers from overweight are rather obvious but we don't bother pay attention to it. Most animals gain weight in a gradual way which for its owner may not be noticed on the daily basics. A friend or a family member that do not see them every day may detect a change of weight easier. However, If you've noticed that your pet has been lethargic or sleeping a lot, it could be due to the overweight.

An easy way to find out is to feel your pets ribs. If you can't feel them easily than your pet does suffer from overweight. If you can't even feel them at all than he probably suffers from obesity.

You can try to answer the following questions:

• Can the ribs be felt with gentle palpation of the sides?

• Is there a "waist" - an indentation in the area between where the ribs end and the hips begin?
• Can the hip bones be palpated with gentle pressure?
• Does your pet have trouble or is your pet slow to rise or move about?
• Is your pet reluctant to exercise?
• Does your pet seem to tire easily with activity?

If your answer is yes to all of these question then your pet suffers from overweight. In this case, it's better if you consult a vet to a better diagnosis. It is also important a regular supervision to your vet to make sure heavy changes do not occur before some truly serious happens.

Considered as family members, pets follow the eating behavior of its owner. The treats (candy, scarps left) given to the pets as little presents contribute for their weight gain. So, as humans, pets obesity are the result between eating and energy lost. Which means, the calorie ingestion is larger than its lost. The animal that does not have a lot of space to play or doesn't take a walk frequently is more likely to suffer from obesity since he doesn't practice any exercise.

If you're pet is recovering from an operation or any disease, he must have a sedentary lifestyle even if only for a while which then again risks its weight gain. It is also important to know that their weight gain can truly be an hormonal disturb symptom, like hypothyroidism or the Cushing syndrome.

Finally, the genetic predisposition is another important factor. Some dog breads are simply more likely to suffer from obesity than others.

Obesity is extremely dangerous for our pets, obviously because it can lead to another health problems. it can also damage any health problem already existing. The most common health problems are:

• Cardiovascular issues
• Infertility
• Hypertension
• Orthopedic injuries
• Diabetics
• Difficulty in moving or breathing
• Several cancer possibilities

All of these problems are related to obesity. If obesity is not treated, as time goes on, the pet is going to get even fatter and the lack of exercise keeps him even fatter and this all becomes a vicious circle with no solution on the way.

If your pet needs to lose weight or keep its actual weight, the right thing to do is to talk with your vet to establish a weight management program. This program must be mainly based on a healthy diet and on a physical exercise plan.

Don't wait. You must talk to your vet immediately because the weight gained in 2 months can take much longer to be lost. The genetically predisposed breads to obesity can start getting overweight as soon as 6 months old. If that occurs, interrupt the junior supply, you may be feeding him with and input him with an adult supply, under vet orientation.

Do not put your pet under a rigorous diet. Just as crash diets are not healthy weight loss plans for humans, they aren't healthy for overweight pets as well. A crash diet will rob the dog or cat of vital nutrients and could be potentially fatal for cats by causing liver damage. Start the pet's diet by reducing the amount of daily food by one-fourth and swap fattening treats for healthy treats, like baby carrots or apple slices.

Overweight pets can be (and should be) placed on a diet to help them shed the excess weight for their health's sake, but the pet diet plan must be a sensible, long-term healthy eating plan that will allow them to gradually lose weight while getting proper nutrition.

So what food is best? Before looking at the food itself, one should assess how it is fed - how often and how much. In some cases, the pet is simply being overfed or eating too many snack foods. Many pet snack foods, like human snack foods, are loaded with fat, sugar, food dyes, and other unhealthy ingredients.

A good tip that I usually do with my pets, is to let him choose the amount of food he prefers. It may seem like a contradiction indeed, but it works. Anytime your pet needs to eat, he will eat at its free will. An important point out is that you must begin doing this since your pet is a baby. If you do this, then your pet will learn he must only eat whenever he is hungry. As he possesses the food always around him, he's never particularly anxious for the next meal and learns to eat only when he actually needs to. This method is not always possible if you own more than a pet. It's worth the try tough.

Another tip is to feed your pet with small portions and very regularly, leaving it in unexpected places. This way, your pet will have to search for food and therefore practice some exercise and obeys his natural hunting instinct. For instance, if you place the food on a superior or inferior section of a staircase is going to help your pet to practice exercise and maybe lose a bit of weight.

Obviously, your pet will have to practice a lot more exercise to lose weight. If you own a dog and you don't take a walk with him every day for a certain period of time then you must start now. This is also going to be healthy for you and your dog will love it. Every pet loves more attention from its owner. He will even anxiously wait for that moment.

However if your pet is truly obese and has never practiced exercise than you may want to start slowly. Extremely long walks would be too much for who's starting. The ideal would be not to risk much and begin taking walks near home and keep a slow rhythm with small walks. As times goes on, and the pet starts getting shape you can create more difficulties.

If you own a cat, you can play with him, making him move. You can play along with a ball or a yarn, a little something that may charm him into movements. It is also important to keep in mind, that cats prefer frequent periods of intense activity rather than longer exercise sessions.

Association for Pet Obesity Prevention - Check out this Association with plenty of tips to help you decrease your pets weight.

Humane Society - It's very important to follow this organization in defense of the animals rights. If you're aware of any animal abuse don't hesitate in calling them.  We should all take action to banish animal cruelty!