hi thanks for signing up to my newsletter and joining the our pets
health community I started this site to improve the health and happiness of the
global dog and cat population but I can only do this by having people you
engaged and getting involved so thank you for doing just that
now if you haven't signed up to my newsletter yet and you're watching this
then head over to www.ourpetshealth.com/newsletter and sign up now to get
your free copy of my weight and diet calculator
okay so let's jump into this calculator now it's designed as a tool to give you
some idea as to what your pets ideal weight should be and how much you should
be feeding them based on their weight and body condition score is the weight
given or amount to be fed absolute well of course not because it relies on two
things being accurate which may not be the case now the first is the assumption
that your pet has an average metabolism an average exercise level and the second
is that their body condition score is accurate with this body condition scores
vary for a pet when scored by different individuals so it may be that
the score you give your pet is a little off I've said it before and I'll say it
again that your vet is the best place to get weight loss and dietary advice
specific to your pet ok to start with let's look at what your pets ideal
weight is so for this we need two things we need their body weight and we need
their body condition score now the calculator is designed to work in
kilograms but if you only know your pets weight in pounds then simply put it in
the yellow weight in pounds box here so say for example your pet was 44 pounds so 44
enter and that lets us know that the weight in kilograms is 20
so we can then transfer that weight into their current weight box so if you know
your pet is 20 kilos we go to the current weight click on that 20
kilograms next we need their current body condition score out of 9 now if you
don't already know this or know how to work it out then have a look at my body
condition score video linked here and in the description below as a reminder a
score of 4 or 5 is healthy and is a healthy condition score a score of 6 to
7 is overweight and a score of 8 or more is obese
a score of under 4 is underweight in this example we'll say our dog has a
condition score of 7 so click on the body condition score the yellow box
there and 7 fantastic so once you put your pets body condition score into the
yellow box that ideal weight in kilograms will be displayed so in this
case in the green box we can see that our 20 kilogram pet with a body
condition score of 7 should actually be 16 kilograms now to convert this into
pounds simply put the ideal weight so 16 into the weight in kilograms box over on
the right so 16 kilograms and that lets us know that our pets ideal weight is 35
point 2 2 pounds now one word about this ideal weight it's calculated here to
assume that the ideal weight is that the body conditions for a 5 so this means
that the weight given is actually at the very top end of at a healthy weight
bracket and being a little bit below this is absolutely fine if your pet is a
condition score of 4 brilliant just ignore the fact that the ideal weight
says that your pet should be a little heavier and the reason for that is that
the ideal weight is within a range so a range of 4 to 5 on the body condition
score so in this example our pet should actually be 16 kilograms to be a healthy
weight okay so hopefully that will make sense and you're happy finding out your
pets ideal weight for those of you with obese pets now you might be surprised
at how much weight they need to lose don't worry though it's not impossible
and it's definitely worth the effort even if they never quite make it down to
their ideal weight any weight loss will be a benefit give it to go and commit to
changes today now for those of you with overweight pets let's move on to find
out how much you should be feeding your pet
get them to lose weight now to work this out we need a couple of pieces of
information how many calories are in your pets food and how many calories are
in their treats now if you're feeding a commercial food and treats then the
calories should be written on the packet they might be written as kcal or as
calories with a capital C in some cases they will be the number of calories per
hundred grams in other cases it will be per kilogram in which case you'll need to
divide this by 10 if it gives a figure in some other measurements such as per
cup then you'll need to find out how much a cup weighs and do some maths to
work out the calorie content per hundred grams now if you can't find this
information on the packet then a quick quick search on Google should allow you
to find it on the manufacturers website alternatively it should give you a
contact number for more information and you can just give them a call and ask
them how energy dense the number of calories per 100 gram is in the food that
you're feeding they should be more than happy to help and they should have that
number at their fingertips it's really basic information that they will need to
know to to formulate the feeding recommendations that they give if you're
giving other things as treats with there being some great low fat treat foods
that can be used as treats then the calorie content of a lot of foods can be
found on calorieking.com so in this example I want to give my pet
some sausage so in the food search just sausage if I go to pork sausage fresh
cooked that's what I would give and then serving size so 100 turn that tick Ram's
and in this instance I can see that my pork sausage is 339 calories per hundred
grams ok so I can put that in this yellow box here 339 and I know from
their food packet let's say that their diet has 300 calories per hundred grams
so 300 calories per hundred grams in the diet energy content hit enter so once
you put these in these two values in so the treat of choice energy density and
the diet energy content into the yellow boxes then the magic should happen in
the boxes below so moving down in the red here
we have the amounts that we need to feed a dog that needs to lose weight now the
first figure is the average starting amount to feed
so that's 134 grams and that's the amount to feed on one day so you could
split that over several feeds ideally if your pet does not lose weight in the
first few weeks and the next figure is the amount that the food should be
dropped to so in this case 121 grams if though at any stage your dog loses more
than 2% of their body weight per week or your cat loses more than 1% body weight
in a week then their food amount should be increased to the third amount so
that's 148 grams so all of these values are starting figures and obviously
they're based on your pet's metabolic rate their activity levels and as such
and that's why there's not just one answer for each individual pet so if
you've seen my previous articles or videos then you'll know that losing
weight faster than this amount so 2% in dogs from 1% per week in cats can be
really very dangerous and even fatal especially in obese cats so it's really
important to pay close attention to this if you're feeding this amount though the
chances of any problems are absolutely tiny so don't worry too much it's just
something to be really aware of if your pet and especially if your cat refuses
to eat ok so the next column is in pink give you an idea of how much you can
give your pet as a treat each day and this is based on the fact that 10% of an
individual's calorie intake can be made up of treats so you'll see that there
are several ready-made options for you to give I'm using low calorie ideas so
we've got raw carrots green beans air popcorn plain rice crackers but if you
don't want to give any treats then we've also got their regular diet and this can
just be added into their intake at mealtime so in this case if we didn't
want to give any treats we would just add 15 grams to the amount that we were
feeding each day so that would bring us up to 149 grams that we were feeding
each day so again for our overweight pets in this example we should start off
by feeding 134 grams of their diet as well as 13 grams of sausage as their
treat every day if after a couple of weeks they've not lost any weight
then I'd reduce the amount that I'm feeding them at meal times to 121 grams
if they're losing weight too quickly at any point then I'll increase it up to
148 grams per day it's very unlikely that you'll get to that stage but it's
something to bear in mind okay so let's assume that our pet was in
fact a healthy weight in the first instance just stick to what you're
feeding them this obviously working so just keep at it
you're clearly giving them the right amount for their needs if though for
whatever reason you plan on changing their diet if we scroll down the values
in green will give you something to get started with now you'll see there are
two columns and this is because entire animals need to eat more than neutered
animals follow the columns across just as before and adjust accordingly
depending on if your pet gains or loses weight so in this case in the top line
if our pet's a healthy weight in this neutered we would start off by feeding 278
grams of this food along with 27 grams of our sausage or of course we could
give 24 grams of popcorn 23 grams of rice crackers or if we didn't want to
give them any treats just add 31 grams of their regular diet okay so moving on
to the orange sections if your pet is underweight and healthy increase their
intake by 25 to 50 percent and reweigh in one week if there's no weight gain or
alternatively if your pet is unwell for any other reason they might be drinking
more they might be just really not eating very much they might have
diarrhea if they're unwell for any other reason then you must take them to see
your vet now this calculator is not for use in underweight pets next up is a
fact that I've already mentioned if your pet is obese with a body condition score
of 8 or 9 then it is strongly advise that your pet undertake a weight loss program
only under the direction and close supervision of your veterinary team or
your veterinarian the extra support and monitoring will help to increase the
chance of success and this can't be overstated it's a long haul process just
getting that extra help that motivation is really important it just maximize our
chance of succeeding also the individual advice and the close monitoring by your
vet clinic will reduce any risk of too rapid a weight loss from taking place ok
and finally the tools provided for educational
and interest purposes it's a guideline it doesn't necessarily represent the
amount needed to be fed to specific individuals for the reasons we've
already stated amounts may need to be adjusted up or down depending on an
individual cat or dog circumstances lifestyle and their concurrent
conditions so especially if they're old and there's something else going on
there are other things that we might like to consider this calculator should
really only be considered for use after viewing our pets health obesity series
and body condition scoring videos so you understand exactly what we are dealing
with I want to support you in helping your pet to achieve and maintain their
healthy weight we just want to do it and as healthy and safe and manner as
possible please let me know if you're having any difficulties or if anything
I've described as still unclear and I'll do my very best to clarify things for
you so until next time i'm Dr. Alex from Our Pets Health because they're family
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