Overweight pets can easily become couch potatoes and find it hard to leave the house to exercise. It is important to meet our dog’s exercise and stimulation needs as well as feeding them a balanced diet, correct for their life-stage, to keep them fit & healthy. If your dog starts to receive too many calories alongside too little exercise, the weight can slowly creep up!
Feeding your dog a complete diet, which is correct for its life-stage is important to ensure the correct nutritional balance for its age. If your dog is overweight, it is better to change to a ‘lite’ diet. These diets have reduced calorie and fat content to help with weight loss.
Weight gain can be avoided by carefully weighing out your dog’s meal every day. Gradually increase regular exercise. If your dog has any health concerns, speak to your vet before making any changes. Divide food over 3-4 meals this will keep the dog feeling fuller longer.
Make Mealtimes Fun For Your Dogs
Keeping your dog active in the house will help to keep the weight loss on track. Dogs are scavengers by nature, and they like to seek, hunt, and investigate.
Making food activity games for your dog will help to encourage this natural behaviour and increase the daily stimulation to help keep your pet more active. Interactive feeders and buster cubes are fantastic, after placing some of your dogs food in the cube let them chase it around until they get the food out. Hide food in the room or garden and make them hunt it out. This increases your dogs exercise and mental stimulation.
Author: STUART EDGAR
OSCAR Pet Foods Carlisle offer a wide range of foods for dogs, cats in order to cater for your pet's needs throughout their lives. Diets include grain free, gluten free, weight control and joint care support. Contact Stuart Edgar on 01228 658143 or Mobile: 07486 457 237, or visit www.oscar.co.uk for more information.
