As a pet owner, you have the responsibility to feed your pet. However, it is one of the most confusing things that you will come across as well. That’s because you should get a clear understanding on how much you should feed your pet. That’s where we thought of compiling this pet feeding guide, so that you will be able to make your life easy at the time of feeding your pet.
Why should you focus more on feeding your pet with right amounts of food?
According to a recent study conducted by Association for Pet Obesity Prevention in United States, it was identified that around 56% of pets in the country are obese or overweight. In other words, more than 50 million dogs who live in United States are too heavy. This can lead them towards a variety of health issues.
Main reason behind obesity in dogs is overfeeding. Most of the pet owners commit this mistake. To make sure that you don’t commit this mistake, you should have a solid understanding about the math behind how much you should feed your pet. Then you can provide a healthy future to your companion, without subjecting him to any frustrating health issues.
Talk to your vet
To begin with, you can talk to your vet. It is a good approach recommended for the starters as well. You can simply take your pet to the vet, get him weighed. Along with that, the vet will do a physical examination as well. Then the vet will take a look at the food you give to your dog and make sure that they are appropriate or not.
During the vet visit, you will be asked a variety of questions about the activity levels of your pet. You need to provide honest answers to all these questions. In addition to that, you should provide an honest answer to the amount of food consumed by your pet as well. For example, if you are giving treats to the pet, you must mention about them. Even if your pet is consuming table scraps, you should tell about them to the vet. They are in a position to create a major impact on the number of calories that your pet will receive at the end of the day.
When you provide all the details, you can create an accurate picture on the mind of your vet. Then you will be provided with the most appropriate feeding plan that you should follow. In addition to that, you will also be able to learn how much you need to feed your pet as well.
While keeping this in mind, you can purchase pet food when you go shopping as well. You need to match the recommended number of calories and other nutrients with what is being offered by the pet food.
Pet feeding charts
Based on information that you gather; you can develop a pet feeding chart for your loved companion. Then you will be able to follow the pet feeding chart with peace of mind and end up with amazing results at the end of the day.
Pet feeding charts are straightforward and easy to understand. However, they are not as dry and cut as you think. If you are a starter, you can take a look at the basic chart that you can find in pet food bags. For example, you will be able to see text written as ‘For dogs who weigh between 10 pounds to 30 pounds, feed ½ cup’. However, this is just a generalized statement and you cannot get a lot of information out of it.
Assume that you have a 20-pound weighing dog. Your dog is not getting any exercises and he is just laying around throughout the day. In such a situation, you should not provide him with maximum amount of food. It would definitely make him a victim of weight gain. Therefore, you need to zip the number of calories that you provide to the dog.
The pet food labels are confusing to many. Therefore, you should have a better overall understanding about it as well. To overcome confusions, you can take a look at the nutritional values and then provide food to the pet accordingly.
How to feed the right portions
You can get in touch with your vet and determine the right number of calories that you should give to the pet. Once you determine the amount, you need to come up with an appropriate feeding schedule as well.
Most of the pets can survive with just two meals a day. However, you don’t need to worry too much to increase the number of meals given to the pet. You can even feed a healthy adult dog with just one meal per day. It all depends on your convenience and schedule.
However, if you have a kitten or a puppy, you should provide three meals per day or even increase the frequency of meals provided. It all depends on the age and size and your vet can help you with that.
You can also make the food interesting for your pet. For example, you can feed the pet with dry food in morning and wet food at evening. Then you will be able to offer right number of calories to the pet and make sure that he is provided with a healthy life.
Final Words
If you don’t take a look at the number of calories and food that you give to your pet, it would trigger a variety of negative health consequences. Therefore, you must have a solid overall idea about food that you give. Then you can cater all the nutritional requirements of the pet, without subjecting to him any negative consequences such as obesity. Your pet would also fall in love with it and you will be able to provide a healthy and a longer life to it.
