Is Your Pet Putting On The Pounds? New National Survey Launched To Counter Pet Obesity

Pet health professionals have identified pet obesity as one of the top three welfare concerns, putting many pets’ lives at risk.

Pet food manufacturer, Burgess Pet Care, has teamed up with the largest supplier of vet scales in the UK, Marsden, to conduct a nationwide survey to help identify pet owners’ attitudes towards helping their pets maintain a healthy weight.

Pet obesity is a high concern of pet care professions and many pet owners are unaware that their pet is overweight, putting their health at severe risk. The nationwide survey will help to examine pet owners’ patterns towards their pets’ diets, picking out the fat cats from the gym bunnies.

Research from the PDSA’s Animal Wellbeing (PAW) 2018 Report found:

• 40% of dog owners don’t know their pet’s current weight and/or body condition score
• 53% of cat owners matched images of Body Condition Score 4 (overweight) or 5 (obese) to their cat’s current body shape.
• 60% of cat owners don’t know their pet’s current weight and/or body condition score
• 77% of rabbit owners don’t know their pet’s current weight and/or body condition score

“People don’t always recognise that their pet is overweight”

Burgess in-house vet Dr Suzanne Moyes says:

“Pet obesity is a weighty issue. Being overweight can lead to all manner of health and wellbeing issues – including osteoarthritis, diabetes, cardiac disease and the inability to exhibit natural behaviours. We’re really interested in finding out what people know about managing their pets’ weight. The information we uncover will help pet health professionals provide better weight-management support to the UK’s pets and their owners.”

David Smith of Marsden adds:

“Accurate and regular weighing of both pets and their food is essential to maintain a healthy weight. We also know from working with vets and animal charities, such as Battersea, that people don’t always recognise that their pet is overweight. We’re keen to get people’s opinions on the subject and also to raise awareness of just how important maintaining a healthy weight is for all our pets.”

Whether you have a cat, dog, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, chinchillas, hamsters, gerbils, degus, rats or mice, Burgess Pet Care and Marsden are requesting pet owners to spare just five minutes to take part in the survey. Anyone entering will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win six months’ supply of Burgess Pet Food of your choice.

You can compete the survey online here.