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Can Smart Technology Help With Cat Weight Loss?
Why Are Smart Cat Gadgets Worth It? As a veterinarian, I see overweight cats develop diabetes mellitus because their body mass has simply outstripped their endogenous supply of insulin. The cost of a typical diabetic workup (very common in overweight cats) would be easily more than the cost of a few smart technology cat gadgets. More importantly, many of the incalculable costs of osteoarthritis, inflammatory diseases related to obesity and general loss of vitality could be saved or prevented. We have had many clients try these devices in our Pets Reducing for Rescues (PRFR) annual cat and dog weight loss contest and in our year-round overweight cat fostering program. Over the past 10 years, PRFR has gotten hundreds of pets to their ideal weight. We also recently completed a pilot study in conjunction with Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) in Guelph, California, to determine if a smart pet home technology ecosystem (PHTE) could improve outcomes while respecting the human-animal bond. If you have an overweight pet, Bug Ventures will work with your veterinarian to help, and rescues will win too! Please visit the Pets Reducing for Rescues Facebook page for more details. We are a veterinary-led group that will work directly with your veterinarian and their team. Image via iStock.com/sae1010,WRITTEN BYKen Lambrecht, DVM Veterinarian,Smart technology for cat weight loss? You must think I am kidding, right? This (not so) futuristic solution is actually not as far-fetched as you think. It’s a modern approach to one of the toughest challenges in pet health to date—getting and keeping cats at their healthy weight. These devices have been tested and shown to be effective, and they are getting more affordable. For the record, I’m not against simply using puzzle feeders, cat toys and hand-feeding—they work for some households perfectly well! I am addressing those households with 2 or more cats where at least one is overweight. How Cat Obesity Became Such a Prominent Issue In short, we have failed over 60 percent of our feline companions! According to the 2017 Pet Obesity Survey Results conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), 60 percent of cats in the US are overweight or obese, and that number has been increasing every year since 2005. The Global Pet Obesity Initiative Statement now defines pet obesity as a disease. We have brought these wonderfully athletic, inquisitive and incredible hunters indoors without much hunting (if any) to do. On top of that, we have completely changed the way they consume food. Factor into that the limited amount of time most of us have to actively engage in exercise and play with our feline family members, and we have a perfect storm leading to overweight cats! We now feed them cat food that is, in general, much more calorically dense and palatable than their natural diet. Most of us don’t feed the six to eight meals that their feline ancestors or feral counterparts have naturally been accustomed to. For example, a cat whose ideal weight should be 10 pounds and who should eat 180 calories per day would ideally be fed six times a day and 30 calories each time (the average mouse is 30 calories!). The American Feline Practitioners Association published a consensus statement called “Feline Feeding Programs: Addressing behavioral needs to improve feline health and well-being.” This is a wonderful leap forward in addressing not just what to feed, but how to feed cats properly using “strategies to allow these normal feline feeding behaviors, such as hunting and foraging, and eating frequent small meals in a solitary fashion, to occur in the home environment—even in a multi-pet home.”
