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Obesity is something that should concern us all and not just for us but also for our pets. In this article by PeritoAnimal we want you to be informed about how prevent obesity in cats.
There are cats more prone to this disease depending on their breed, age, size and chronic health problems. If your cat's health concerns you, read and find out how you can prevent obesity in him and help him to be healthier and stronger against other possible diseases derived from this eating disorder.
Detecting obesity in cats
If your cat is less active than usual, you see that the size of its belly has increased, it always seems to be hungry and that's why it eats too much and, moreover, when you touch its back, you notice that it's hard to feel the ribs, is because your cat is overweight or, depending on the amount of accumulated fat, obese.
It is known that sterilization causes an increased risk of suffering from this eating disorder, but this does not mean that a sterilized animal will be obese, but that by decreasing its hormones and slowing its metabolism, the animal burns fewer calories and fats, so sterilization increases the chances, nothing more. It is still our responsibility that our pets, whether sterilized or not, are strong and healthy and that they do not 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 cats causes them a series of diseases derived from it and significantly decreases your life expectancy. It is essential that during regular visits to the specialist veterinarian, the cat is always weighed in order to monitor its weight and evolution. Not controlling a cat's weight is one of the most common mistakes made by cat owners.
Next, we'll explain how you can prevent obesity in your furry friend, avoiding anything that can lead to excess weight, thus improving your health and being able to enjoy the company that a happy and healthy feline offers. The best prevention against eating disorders is to give a good food education to our cat from a very young age. Therefore, we can prevent this eating problem with proper diet and exercise.
Prevent obesity with proper nutrition
We must always think that our cat's nutrition will always depend on the needs you have. So if we know that our partner doesn't get a lot of exercise, we should provide him with food with a moderate calorie content. On the contrary, if our cat has an important daily caloric expenditure, we should give him food high in calories, among other things.
Generally domestic cats do not leave the house and therefore their level of energy expenditure is low. So we must give them light or low calorie food in addition to dividing the ideal amount of feed by weight and age, two or three times a day instead of giving you a large amount of food, thinking that our cat will know how to divide the feed by itself. If you choose to give him a normal or high calorie ration, we should increase the exercise our cat does. It is very important to avoid that our friend eats between hours, that is, we should schedule the hours for two or three meals, every day at the same time and outside these hours, remove the food.
Changes in the amount of food or increased exercise should always be gradual to avoid possible problems and harm to our cat.
As to goodies or prizes that we can give you, we should space them out a lot in time and use them as a positive support to a desired behavior and not to show our affection, since if we do it this way we will be giving more food, as these awards contain many excess calories and fat. In case your cat is already obese, you should remove the treats completely. See our article on Diet for Obese Cats.
Preventing obesity with exercise
For any animal the exercise is key to staying healthy and avoiding many diseases.. Cats are no exception and, therefore, they must do a minimum of daily physical activity adapted to their age and physical condition. If your cat never leaves the house, it is very important that you make him run and play with you or other animals at home and with toys, and you can also create circuits and play zones for him with stimuli to reinforce the exercise.
It's easy to play with a cat, as we already know it's very easy to catch their attention with movement and lights. If our cat already suffers from obesity, he will see that if he maintains a proper diet and performs more exercise, in a few days he will see how healthy he is to lose weight.
In case you play with your feline outdoors or let it out freely, don't go out with him in the hottest hours, as it may suffer from a heat stroke among other possible problems. In addition, as mentioned before, it is very important to bear in mind that if we need to increase the amount of exercise, it should be progressive and not sudden to avoid damage to our cat. See our article on Exercise for Obese Cats.
This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.