Is your dog or cat overweight?

It seems as people get larger, so do their pets. And it's no wonder when you look at what is in the processed foods we eat, and that includes the pet food most people feed to their cats and dogs. Most commercial pet food and treats are full of grains, sugar and cheap fillers that cause weight gain in our pets, not to mention the chemicals and preservatives that eventually cause all kinds of health problems.

Whether you have a cat or a dog, the first ingredient in your pet's food should be meat, not a grain, as they need a high protein diet to remain healthy and maintain an appropriate weight. Before I pinned down the source of my dog Abby's skin allergies as coming from her food, I used to feed her Eukanuba dog food, thinking I was giving her the best food available. Little did I know that the food she ate every day was causing her extreme itching, ear infections, and partially responsible for her steady weight gain up to 33 pounds. The steroids in her allergy pills (Prednisone) were also responsible for her weight gain. No amount of measuring her food or cutting back on treats did any good. But once I changed her diet to a grain-free natural kibble for one meal and a raw food mix for her other meal, and stopped giving her the Prednisone, her itching disappeared, her ears improved, and over the next few months her weight steadily dropped back to a normal range of 25 pounds.

The reason she improved so dramatically was mostly because I removed grains, byproducts, chemicals and preservatives from her diet. I can't stress enough the importance of ingredients in your pet's food. Educate yourself by reading the labels and investigating what each ingredient is. Making your pet's food is probably the best option to be sure what is and is not going into their bodies. And it actually costs less for me to buy ground meat, bones and organ meat and mix in my own vegetables and eggs than to buy commercially made pet food. For convenience, I buy the meat/bone/organ mix from Hare Today Gone Tomorrow online in a 30 pound size (costs about $53), and divide and freeze the meat into 1 pound portions. To make a batch of food, I use a pound of meat, 3 eggs, and vegetables and fruit (The Honest Kitchen sells a dehydrated vegetable/fruit mix that provides a complete and balanced diet when meat is added), then freeze it in small containers so that I can thaw out enough for 3 or 4 days at a time. If you decide to switch your dog or cat to a raw diet, do it gradually. You may wish to read my post on the subject HERE.

So if you have an overweight pet, check your pet food bag ingredients - chances are you'll see corn or some grain as the first ingredient or very near the top, and the meat source isn't specified or it says for example "chicken byproduct" or "chicken byproduct meal". Byproducts can contain the feet and beaks and anything that was on the animal at the time it went to the rendering plant, like flea collars and tags just to name a few things. You want food that says a form of real meat like "chicken" or "beef" or "lamb" as the first ingredient. Also make sure the fat source is specified. If it says "animal fat" it's an unknown animal that it came from and probably won't give your pet the necessary fat content he or she needs in their diet.