These are four key points to consider before we can start to work out approximately how much raw dog food or raw cat food per day we should be feeding our pets.
• Diet - What are your pets eating currently?
• Activity levels – Are they working dogs or are they walked daily and for how long?
• Age – Generally the older the cat or dog the less calories they need to consume.
• Is pet neutered? - The loss of oestrogens and androgens (sex hormones) from neutering dogs and cats causes a decrease in metabolic rate, thus their energy needs are lower. Also the roaming behaviour and general activity levels become lower.
Weight loss needs to be a gradual process, it can be harmful to lose too much too quickly. Also if the amount of food being fed per day is suddenly cut down considerably, then the cat or dog in question doesn't have time to adjust to a smaller quantity. The outcome is your pet becomes a nuisance at meals times, bin raiding and generally trying to steal food from at every opportunity.
The best way is to slowly reduce the amount of food per day, this might be as much as 25g for a small dog every 3 or 4 days or even weekly, and for a large dog possibly about 100g per week until the optimal amount is reached.
As a rule we feed for the weight required but as mentioned above, by cutting down drastically on portions and treats is not the way.
Looking at what your pet consumes daily can often be the answer. For example, does your dog get left over toast crusts in the morning or perhaps the left over milk from cereal bowls? Does it get the scraps left over from dinner or a biscuit at coffee time?
Does your cat catch his food outside as well as what you feed them, or does he get fed at another house (as many cats cheekily do)? Also more so these days, cats tend to be indoor cats requiring fewer calories per day than the more active outdoor ones.
Puppies and dogs being trained with treats (natural dog treats of course), some are high in calories so this also needs to be considered and perhaps feed them a little less at meal times to compensate.
The older our pets get the less they need in the way of calories per day as they become less active, approx. 1% of their body weight.
The bottom line here is that all the above needs to be factored in when considering weight loss.
Just by cutting out those unnecessary extras can sometimes be the answer, or perhaps increasing activity levels where possible.
As your pet starts to lose weight they become more alert, more active, and generally more interested in life.
Feeding the right types of foods will help the weight loss process, but you should still maintain a good variety to ensure your pet is getting all the right vitamins and minerals. For example, when looking at raw dog food or raw cat food proteins, adding more white fish, tripe, beef and turkey is a good idea. Try to avoid lamb and oily fish. Also add more green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, cabbage and parsley, and cut down on the root vegetables which contain more natural sugars like carrots.
As we touched upon above, our pets are individuals so what works for one may not work for another. You’ll have to find the mix for your very individual pet.
