It's a good idea to highlight this and the article gives some helpful tips. Yes it's a sad fact that pet obesity is on the rise, just parallel to human obesity in the Western World.
Many cats in the US are kept totally indoors, and in a small apartment they often don't get enough opportunity to exercise properly. And these cats may be fed much more than they actually need, to balance their lack of exercise.
Dogs can easily fall into the 'couch potato' trap, if that's what their humans are! And I think a lot of it has to do with humans working all hours of the day, coming home exhausted, and sometimes a quick 'potty trip' twice a day is all the dog gets in the way of exercise. Sometimes they are walked only until they do their business, and then brought back!
And even though our dogs have become 'pets' they still have their wild heritage in their genetic make up. Some breeds (especially toy breeds)don't need as much exercise as others, for sure. But somewhere in every dog is the genetic Wolf heritage. A rule of thumb guideline is the more 'original' or 'wolf-like' its features and characteristics are -the closer those wolf genes.
Wolves' daily mileage can cover 25 miles minimum. Usually more.
If someone has a dog they know can walk all day, yet it is confined to two short 'potty breaks'....then there is something going wrong.
And dogs are geared to eat like predators, not grazers.
In the wild a dog or wolf would be inclined to eat once a day -if it was lucky. Sometimes a day or two would go past without food, and when food was found, they would eat as much as they could hold.
But we have bent that a bit. (Dogs are so glad about that! LOL)
So two meals a day is usually enough for a dog. Breakfast and dinner.
Some dog foods are terrible nutritionally, as well. Lots of carbs, corn, fillers, etc high on the ingredients list.
Many cats in the US are kept totally indoors, and in a small apartment they often don't get enough opportunity to exercise properly. And these cats may be fed much more than they actually need, to balance their lack of exercise.
Dogs can easily fall into the 'couch potato' trap, if that's what their humans are! And I think a lot of it has to do with humans working all hours of the day, coming home exhausted, and sometimes a quick 'potty trip' twice a day is all the dog gets in the way of exercise. Sometimes they are walked only until they do their business, and then brought back!
And even though our dogs have become 'pets' they still have their wild heritage in their genetic make up. Some breeds (especially toy breeds)don't need as much exercise as others, for sure. But somewhere in every dog is the genetic Wolf heritage. A rule of thumb guideline is the more 'original' or 'wolf-like' its features and characteristics are -the closer those wolf genes.
Wolves' daily mileage can cover 25 miles minimum. Usually more.
If someone has a dog they know can walk all day, yet it is confined to two short 'potty breaks'....then there is something going wrong.
And dogs are geared to eat like predators, not grazers.
In the wild a dog or wolf would be inclined to eat once a day -if it was lucky. Sometimes a day or two would go past without food, and when food was found, they would eat as much as they could hold.
But we have bent that a bit. (Dogs are so glad about that! LOL)
So two meals a day is usually enough for a dog. Breakfast and dinner.
Some dog foods are terrible nutritionally, as well. Lots of carbs, corn, fillers, etc high on the ingredients list.
