The incidence of overweight pets has increased by 40 per cent in the past five years to the point that now more than half of dogs and cats are overweight or obese.

Most of this happens due to lack of awareness that their pets are obese or guilt about "depriving" their pets when controlling portions or withholding treats.

Now there is a new approach to weight management thanks to the researchers at Hill's Pet Nutrition.

It starts with very accurate "morphometric measurements" of the pet to very accurately predict the ideal body composition in overweight pets.

This new system has been found to be very accurate compared to older body condition score measurements.

So now that you or your veterinarian have determined the ideal weight for your pet, how do you get there?

Hill's have developed new metabolic advanced weight solution diet for cats and dogs.

In real-world studies where owners were given this food for their pets without being told it is for weight loss, 88 per cent of them lost weight within 60 days by simply feeding the normal amount that they fed with other diets.

This diet works on a principle know as "Neutrogenomics."

It improves the metabolism for weight loss and maintenance. This new diet changes gene expression, which can reflect the changes in underlying biochemistry.

There are key metabolic genes and it was discovered that metabolic diet actually changed up to 307 genes in dogs and 1,391 genes in cats after 224 days on the diet.

Essentially pets that need to lose weight will do so effectively and pets that do not need to lose will still maintain their body weight.

This is very helpful in multi-pet households. It is useful for pets one year or older, but should not be used on puppies or kittens.

Once a pet is on the new diet it will typically lose about 0.5 to one per cent body weight per week until it reaches its ideal body weight, at which time it should stay on the same diet for life to maintain that ideal.

It is important to remember that this diet works on a totally different concept that calorie restriction and your pet will actually be quite satisfied on the diet.

If you would like more information about weight management for your dog or cat feel free to call us.

Veterinarian and owner of Alouette Animal Hospital info@alouetteanimalhospital.ca