How to Help your Cat Lose Weight

Historically, before the advent of commercial pet foods, cats were sleek, agile, athletic and active felines. In contrast, most of today’s cats are disturbingly overweight, and many are dangerously obese. Risk factors include diabetes, cancer, hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver), arthritis, low energy, and rectal contamination from the inability of the cat to clean itself.

When you place your palm against your cat’s rib cage, you should be able to feel ribs readily. If you cannot feel ribs even when you rub your fingers back and forth along the rib cage, your cat is likely over the weight limit.

There could be many reasons for your cat’s weight gain, but there are also many solutions to get your feline back in shape.

The first thing that you should do before trying to get your pet to exercise is to take them to the vet. If they are overly skinny or overweight they may have health issues, ranging from a simple cold to a thyroid condition. Your vet can fully assess your cat, as well as recommend the level of exercise they need based on their current weight, age, breed and general disposition.

After your cat is assessed it’s time for the exercise to begin. A good way to get your pet actively moving is to play with them regularly. Find your cat a good toy that they enjoy, and make them chase it. You can use a simple piece of string, a small ball, or even a laser pointer. It’s fun for the whole family, and a lot of good laughs to watch your cat move like a playful kitten again! Like humans, cats require daily exercise, so a good 15-20 minute exercise routine once or twice a day should produce great results. If you don’t have the time, consider hiring a professional in-home pet sitter to provide daily exercise instead.

Cats are very similar to humans and dogs in the way that they need to get fit over time. An unhealthy cat is not immediately going to be ready to have a hard workout, but instead needs to be eased into their exercise routine. Start with a small amount of exercise, and then over time ease them into a longer, more active routine.

Another important aspect of keeping your cat’s weight down is feeding them healthy food. Many cats gain weight from being overfed, or by eating foods that are high in carbohydrates. Look for high protein foods that are low in carbohydrates and contain natural or organic ingredients. Ideal cat foods are grain-free with no fillers, with no rendered meats, no animal or plant meals, and no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

Also, be sure not to exceed the recommended daily amount of food your vet prescribes for your pet. Even those little snacks add up, so consider giving them a little love and affection instead. If your cats are normally permitted to go outdoors, you may need to keep them inside more often to reduce their time grazing at the neighbor’s or hunting for birds and rodents.

If you have more than one cat you may need to feed them separately, especially if one of your cats often tries to eat the other cat’s food. Try keeping the cats in separate feeding rooms, which should help greatly in solving your pet’s weight problem.

You may think that your kitty’s weight is not that big of a problem but, if you notice that your cat is getting a bit heavier, it is good to try and get them to lean sooner than later so that your cat can be healthy and live a long fruitful life.

The Inconvenient Truth About Pet Boarding Facilities

When we think of staying at a nice hotel, it conjures up thoughts of a luxurious room with amenities, personal services and perhaps even delicious meals. Pet hotels, boarding and even kennel facilities know this and often connote these emotions in their consumer marketing to you – and many of us play right into it.

We have come to believe that private rooms for our dogs complete with TV’s at a pet hotel, or open running spaces with pools at a boarding facility, or companionship with other dogs at a kennel will be true paradise for them – ensuring Fido will be happy and blissful while we’re away from them. However, pets have very different senses and behavior characteristics than humans, and nothing could be further from the truth when they stay at these facilities.

Dog boarding, compared to at-home pet care, can actually be quite harmful to your pet. Dog boarding takes your pet out of their natural environment and places them into an unfamiliar environment that they have little to no time to get used to before you drop them off and leave them behind.

Also, by the very fact that you feed and walk your dog, you are most likely your pet’s pack leader. When your pet is left at a boarding facility they may feel displaced, confused and lonely. Many dogs experience stress when their normal routine is changed. Now consider the added stress when you change their environment and take away their trusted pack leader (you).

In these boarding facilities, hundreds of dogs before them have marked their spots, and this makes many of the newly checked in dogs feel unwelcome and uncomfortable in this environment. It’s also a common occurrence that some dogs will take the alpha role in boarding facilities and bully or cause physical harm to other dogs to show their dominance.

When dogs feel separation anxiety from their home and owner they often bark, and when so many dogs are barking at once your pooch can get even more stressed out. This anxiety can also lead to unwarranted aggression, housetraining regression, and social hyper-arousal. In many facilities, lack of exercise, unfamiliar smells, and a general lack of human contact can lead to a damaging experience for your pet.

Not only can your dog be emotionally harmed, they can also be physically affected. With so many dogs packed into one environment, ticks, fleas, as well as airborne diseases such as kennel cough and the rare canine influenza strain can afflict your canine companion.

With so many problems stemming from boarding your dog, an already expensive experience can lead to even more costly bills from your vet in treating your dog for physical afflictions sustained, stress related illnesses, as well as additional training to address any positive behaviors that may have been forgotten in their stressful boarding experience.

We started Fetch! Pet Care because we believe that pets should be able to maintain their normal routine in the safety and comfort of their own home environment through at-home dog walks and pet-sitting while their owners are away. We believe that dogs should receive two or three walks a day while their owners are away to keep them healthy, burn off excess energy, maintain socialization with other dogs and their surrounding environment, and to get one-on-one focused attention and loving care from a professional care giver. At home care promotes healthy, happy, and balanced pets. It also enables owners to know that their dogs will feel safe and comfortable while staying in their own home and maintaining their own routine. So, the next time you see some great marketing for a local boarding facility, think twice before jumping quickly to believe your pet will have the same great experience as you. Ask yourself what your pet would really like, not what you want, and you will likely make a pet care decision that will lead to greater happiness and well-being for them and true peace of mind for you.