Pet weight loss…really?
My new roommates are animal lovers. In general, these are big-hearted people. After all, they are taking care of me while I go through my surprisingly-not-messy-but-still-stressful divorce.
Right after I moved in, they decided to add a rabbit to their collection of pets. I tagged along for the bunnies first visit to the vet. The visit was… interesting.
As I looked around the office, I noticed that every poster and product displayed was giving the hard sell about how our pets are all getting fat and they urgently need to lose weight.
I’m aware that a lot of obesity research uses animals as their test subjects. So, it’s not the parallels between animal health and human health that made me ponder the display. I was more noticing how pervasive an idea can become. The idea that thin equals health is so ingrained in our social consciousness that it’s been extended to our pets.
Much like humans, I think pets are in need of nutrition suited to their physiology and a decent amount of exercise. And I understand the deep connection some people have with their pets because I’m a pet owner myself.
I’m not going to tell someone how they should care for their animal because I’m not a vet. This is not one of those posts where I’m going to rail off statistics and facts to prove my point.
The whole thing just struck me as odd. And, honestly, comical. The snarky part of me is thinking, “Mommy’s going on a diet and puppy’s next!”
Whenever we get pets, I make sure to fatten them up, but that’s just so we can eat them later.
Peace,
Shannon
Almond Kitty anyone?
My mother in law is a vet assistant and she’s seen first hand what a lot of extra weight on a cat or dog can do to them. Their lives are shorter than ours so every extra pound potentially adds up a lot faster than it does potentially on us. I say potentially because we know you can be fat and healthy, whether you’re a dog or a human, but when it comes to animals, yeah, the extra weight can be very bad very quickly. Then again, the extra special diet foods for animals ARE a lot more expensive, so I know that’s a part of the push as well.
p.s Apparently I can comment as long as I’m logged in on wordpress. Odd.
*g* I’d tell the vet to study my mom’s best friend’s cat. 18 years old and looking like a good-sized carpet, this cat recently had to get a doggy-door installed since she couldn’t get through her cat-flap anymore (oh, the indignant looks she gave us when we freed her from being stuck). She has perfected the “feed me I’m dying” routine to the point where newcomers to the house REALLY think the cat is dying of hunger.
She’s still going strong and showing almost no signs of aging.
I’m inclined to believe that “healthy” is still a term relative to the individual even when talking about our animal friends.
I saw shmako’s advertised the other night - 96% fat free! Made me very very sad! Seriously, Dog’s NEED fat in their diets. Are we really going to be buying dog snacks based on it’s fat content?
My corgi is big ball of chunk, but I’m lucky enough to have a vet that doesn’t bother with it as long as everything else is looking good and I’m making sure he’s active.
I think it’s like anything else. Good nutrition and a good amount of activity is good for you. It doesn’t necessarily give you or your pet a certain type of body.
All of my cats eat the same food and as far as I can tell, the same amount. I have one that’s relatively thin, one that’s medium sized, two that are chunky, and one that’s downright fat. My big fat kitty has no problems getting around and she’s healthy overall. She’s happy. I can’t police them whenever they eat and I’m not sure how I’d know when each one had gotten a certain amount, with five of them feeding all at once. Don’t even tell me to get five separate bowls. When they start to eat, they all want to dive in at once!
We have two cats and they eat out of the same dish. Our vet suggested feeding them in separate rooms with the doors shut, only letting them eat twice a day, and feeding each cat the specified amount for hir age/weight. Yeah, right. For one thing, I’m not feeding one cat in the bathroom and the other cat in the basement (the only two places in our house with doors), and has the vet ever tried to change the habits of a 4 year old cat? I hate to tell him, but Marty could teach a mule tricks on stubborn, and don’t even get me started with the kitten (she’s worse than Marty when it comes to stubborn). And when the food dish is empty and Marty is hungry, he will sit by me and meow, and meow, and meow, until I go put some food in it (the kitten will just keep walking across my desk or across my lap when I’m sitting in my recliner until I put food in the dish). So yeah, limiting how much our cats eat to make them lose weight is not an option if I want to have any kind of peace in my life. As long as they’re both active and healthy, I’m not going to worry about them being a little bit fat.