Obesity in dogs is at an all time high. This is very bad for your dog’s health. Just as with people, obesity leads to a myriad of health conditions, not least of all heart problems.
Certainly some breeds are more prone to obesity than others, but it is still possible to slim them down in a healthy way.
Why Does Obesity In Dogs Occur?
There are three basic reasons. It isn’t just a simple fact of giving your dog too much food. It’s more complicated than that.
First
You have to understand who dogs are. Although they are not true carnivores, as they can exist on a plant based diet, they are at the carnivore end of the scale. We can see that from their teeth – these are virtually identical to a true carnivores teeth in the cat.
The prey of carnivores tend to wax and wane. Some years, or seasons, there is plenty. Others, there is a scarcity.
So carnivores tend to gorge themselves when there is plenty of food because they don’t know if a scarcity of prey is just around the corner. They try to have plenty of reserve weight in place, just in case.
In our world of a plentiful supply of food, that is never an issue. So if the food is left out (a really bad habit), a dog will overeat. It’s in their nature.
Second
Although there is a plentiful supply of food for obese dogs, ie a bountiful quantity, the quality of commercial dog food is dubious at best and downright unhealthy at worst.
Commercial pet food manufacturers care far more about their bottom line, their profit, than they do about the health of your dog. In today’s world, money is king.
This means, all the good meat goes to the profitable human food market and the pet food industry gets all the dregs – diseased, dead and dying farm animals, road kill, laboratory animals, euthanised pets from vet clinics, those parts rejected at the slaughter house that end up at the highly unhygienic rendering plants.
This is bulked out with any cheap plant based food they can find.
Knowing that there is a serious nutritional shortfall, synthetic ‘nutrients’ are added. Synthetic anything can’t be utilised by anyone’s digestive tract. If you are lucky, it passes straight through. If you are unlucky, it hangs around in parts of the body, causing mischief.
While dogs can manage rotting meat very well, without coming to any harm, they can’t manage the badly out of balance and synthetic additions so common in commercial pet food today.
Third
Toxins abound in the environment today. There seems to be a continuous flow of them. New ones come on the market each year at an alarming rate.
Although it valiantly tries so hard, the body just can’t keep up naturally with de-toxing at the rate it is being absorbed. When this happens, the toxins are stored, relatively safely, in fat cells.
So fat cells have a beneficial role to play, but the better option is to eliminate, or at least reduce the toxins.
Where Are All The Toxins?
Anything synthetic is not natural so the body doesn’t know what to do with it. This includes all the synthetic additives already mentioned, in the food. It also includes the preservatives, which may not be listed in the ingredients. Most of these preservatives have serious health issues and are not allowed in human food.
Toxins are also present in agriculture, with highly toxic weed killers and insecticides. These remain in the plants and animals after harvest or slaughter.
It’s a double wammy.
Toxins are also injected and administered into your dog in the guise of medicine. Practically all veterinary medicines are synthetic.
Once you appreciate who your dog is and, what the problems they face are as well as where they are found, you are in a position to take proactive measures.
How To Have A Fit And Healthy Slim Dog
When you feed your dog a healthy, balanced diet, one that mimics the one they evolved on, and you feed it in accordance to their body’s needs, not only will you have a slim dog, you’ll also have a much healthier dog.
It’s obvious really – ingest the wrong food and you just can’t be healthy. Not in the long term. It might keep you alive. But not healthy.
In addition to a healthy, balanced diet for your dog, using an holistic medicine such as homeopathy for all their health concerns, means you are strengthening their immune system exponentially. Food bills, as well as veterinary bills, drastically reduce. Your dog regains their youthful enthusiasm for life.
No longer a couch potato, you’ll need to get out with them, so they get the exercise they need.
Once you know the reasons behind obesity in dogs, it’s easy to prevent it or to remedy it. They live longer, happier, healthier lives.
