Overweight pets
The human population of the USA has seen a drastic increase in obesity in humans. Is the pet population far behind on that trend? Strangely enough most pet owners that have overweight pets are not overweight themselves. Also almost every case that I have seen on TV lately about starving animals included several obese owners. So our own eating trends seem to have nothing to do with how much we feed our pets. It is possible that animal abusers that are obese are also selfish when it comes to their own needs. They have pets not to enjoy them but to indulge in their own fantasies of having and controlling another life form. I will not use the word "pet" with an animal abuser simply because the word "pet" has an emotional and caring origin to the word. An animal abuser is defiantly not a caring pet owner.
Getting back to overweight pets, I have a strong suspicion that much of the chubbiness in pets has to do with the pet food. Over the past 20 years we have seen the formulas of dry dog and cat food change from mostly a meat by product formula to a grain formula. Grains are known to pack on the pounds and are harder for meat eating animals to digest. Meat based formulas on the other hand are easy to digest and also keep the animal leaner. The food nourishes the muscle and bones better. Grain based foods have much too high an energy food level. Those foods are good for high energy dogs that are fat burners while herding cattle, pulling a sled or field hunting. Your everyday pet dog will not need that type of food. If you have a cat that is indoors most or all of the time you will need to keep a close eye on what they eat. Most cats are good at self regulating their food intake but some are not.
Keep in mind that your cat and dog are carnivores and need an entirely meat based diet. To try and turn your pet into a mostly grain diet will harm them by packing on the pounds or weakening their bones and muscles.
