Your Pet’s Health - Give Them the Calories They Need - and No More!
All animals, including humans, have a recommended intake of calories per day. Calories are what the body uses to have energy and they are a way of monitoring how much you take in. In all animals, there are also recommendations of how many calories that animal should get.
Unfortunately, there is no way to pinpoint this right here for you because all animals that consume calories do so based on their age, size, physical activity and their overall type. An example is that of a dog that is middle sized. He should be consuming about 700 calories per day.
Talk to your vet about how many calories your pet should be taking in each day. You will be surprised by what it should be as soon as you start looking at the packaging for their foods. Purchase pet foods that do tell you the calorie count as these are often the healthiest options for your pet.
Strive to meet your pet’s calorie intake goal. This allows your pet to get the nutrition that he or she needs but helps them to keep off excess weight as well. It is simply a matter of monitoring portion size and food type to reach their calorie goals.
It is important to realize that if a pet is overweight right now, he needs to consume less than his recommended calorie intake to lose weight.
As your body takes in too much food, food is stored as fat in the tissues of the body so that when there is not enough food, this stored fat can be used to help them to get through the rough time. Most pets will never have that situation since you are taking care of them.
To help them to lose this stored weight, then, you must reduce their calorie intake by a small amount so that their body uses stored fat instead of using the foods that they are given for energy needs.
Depending on what your pet’s calorie intake goal is, reduce this number given to them by just 5 to 10 percent. This small reduction will help them to use stored fat as energy and therefore help them to lose weight. More than this amount will cause the body to go into starvation mode which will not allow them to use stored fat. Monitor restrictive diets closely here!
Ken Wallace is an entrepreneur who specializes in helping people help others, including their pets! Visit his Pet Diet Tips website for resources on how to help your pet live a longer, healthier, more enjoyable life.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenneth_Wallace