Weight management & lifestyle feeding Flashcards
What is protein used for?
- growth
- repair
- energy
What is fat used for?
- energy
- carriers for fat soluble vitamins
- EFA
What are carbs used for?
- energy
What is water used for?
- fluid balance
- cell functions
- carries water soluble vitamins
Function of adipose tissue
- regulates inflammatory responses
- regulates energy usage and storage
- regulates hunger response
Dogs main energy source
- fat
Cats main energy source
- protein
What is maintenance?
- the amount of energy required to achieve everything required in their daily life with minimal left over
What is obesity classed as?
- an individual that exceeds it’s expected or optimal body weight by 20%
Problems associated with an unhealthy weight increase
- arthritis
- diabetes
- heart dz
- skin dz
- lower urinary tract problems
- hepatic lipidosis
- can cause problems association with tx
– intubation
– anaesthetic instability
– dosage problems
– resp distress
– slower healing and recovery times
– lowered life expectancy
Adjusting feed based on activity
For short burst of high intensity energy:
- they will need more carbs that can be quickly digested and used in cells for action
For long slow use of energy:
- fats will be better as they provide more energy per gram
What is safe weight loss?
- safe weight loss should be 1% per week in cats
- safe weight loss should be 1-2% per week in dogs
- target weight could be up to 30% but may need to be adjusted to slow down weight loss
- an initial target weight may be needed in the middle of current and final target
Use of insoluble fibre
Good in dogs as
- it bulks up the food
- aids in satiety
- slows down gut transit time
- bulks up faecal matter
Use of soluble fibre
- important food source for intestinal bacteria
- energy for intestinal cells as is broken down to essential fatty acids in the gut and used for energy by enterocytes
- grabs water within the GIT
Raw diets
- can be difficult to tailor for individual animals
- can be unbalanced in terms of all the essentials for life
- can be difficult to estimate the caloric content
Homemade diets
- can be difficult to tailor for individual animals
- supplying a complete homemade diet requires a lot of time & work
- cooking processes often adjust levels of certain vitamins and minerals
- vit C & B are water soluble and so are lost in boiling or frying
- would recommend a qualified animal nutritionist to help
Grain free diets
- dogs and cats have no dietary need for carbs, but the grain can play an important role in dusting good gut health due to high fibre levels of grain
- beware that diets that replace grain do so with other carbs like spuds which could be higher in carbs and therefore stored more readily as fat
Life stage diets & weight loss
- the use of standard diets and Lifestage diets for weight loss can be tricky
- some will have feeding scales for dogs and cats that are a higher BCS but this may still not be reduced enough to cause negative energy and weight loss
- reducing these standard diets reduces the vitamin levels
