Beagles are notorious for loving their food! This means that they are often prone to obesity and other health problems related to being overweight. Beagles need plenty of exercise and a healthy diet in order to stay fit and avoid these problems. If you are looking to help your beagle lose weight a great way to start would be to start measuring calories and increasing their daily exercise.
Why Do Beagles Become Overweight?
A beagle will gain weight and become obese due to a lack of exercise and feeding your beagle too much. A beagle must be 10 to 20 percent above a healthy body weight to be considered overweight. A healthy body weight for a beagle would be somewhere around 20 pounds, depending upon sex and genetics. A beagle will on average need one to two hours of exercise per day. Without this regular daily exercise, your beagle will start to develop health conditions and quickly gain weight.
How much should a beagle eat?
An adult beagle should be eating one cup of dry food each day, split between the morning and early evening. Beagle puppies will eat more with two cups of dry food per day. A beagle should be consuming some where between 74 and 922 calories per day, depending on size and age. And for treats it is advised that a beagle doesn’t eat more than 10% of their daily calourie intake in the form of treats.
What Are The Signs Your Beagle Is Overweight?
If you are not entirely sure if your beagle is overweight or not the best thing to do would be to seek proffesional help from a vet. But if you can not currently access a vet there are a few methods that you can carry out yourself. You should always be able to feel your dog’s ribs without a thick layer of fat being in the way. If you can not easilt feel your beagle’s ribs they are likely overweight. A beagle’s chest should also be wider than their abdomen; an overweight beagle will often have no contrast between the two.
Best ways to help a beagle lose weight
There are many effective ways of helping your beagle to lose weight. A good place to start would be to measure their calorie intake. To find out how much your beagle should be intaking you can either see your local vet or follow a rough guide of 74 to 922 calories per day. If you look on the food that you are buying for your beagle you should see a calories per bowl measurement. By following these measurements you should start to see an improvement.
Replace treats with healthier substitutes.
You will find that a lot of treats are high in fat, sugar, and salt. As with anything too much of these will have a negative effect on your beagle’s health. A good substitute for treats is protein-rich meats. Simply by just preparing some plain chicken breast or salmon, you are improving their diet. Protein-rich foods will help your dog to build muscle and keep their skin and coat healthy. Salmon has a higher level of fat content when compared to chicken, therefore it shouldn’t be used quite as much. However salmon is rich in omega-3 which is very good for their health.
Peanut butter can also be used as an alternative. Just like chicken and salmon peanut butter is rich in protein. When choosing a peanut butter for your beagle you should opt for a natural/organic option. By doing this you will be avoiding processed peanut butter that is filled with salt, sugar, and artificial sweeteners.
Pumpkin contains fibers and nutrients that are essential for a healthy dog. With a pumpkin, you will want to peel the fruit and remove any seeds or rind to start with. Now slice it into chunks and boil it in water until soft. Now you can drain the water and mash the chunks into a paste.
Apples are another good option that you will likely have at hand. Whilst being high in sugar they are also packed with fiber and nutrients that are essential. Make sure to give your beagle apple slices to avoid any choking issues and remove the seeds first. This fruit can also act as a fantastic way of improving your dog’s breath.
Regular exercise
For a beagle to stay at a healthy weight they must have regular exercise. One to two hours of exercise a day will be enough for a beagle. However if your dog has had a very low level of exercise up until now, you will want to have a gradual increase. If you suddenly submit your dog to higher levels of exercise it can cause injuries. To steadily ease them into more exercise you will want to gradually increase the time of a walk. As well as walks you will need to be playing around the house, getting them moving. Toys are a great way to help your beagle exercise from home. A kong, ball or rope will be perfect for this.
what health risks are there for an obese beagle?
Obesity can greatly reduce the life of a beagle as well as leading on to the devbelopment of desease. An overweight beagle will have more chance of developing:
- Many forms of cancer
- Diabetes mellitus
- Heart disease
- Urinary bladder stones
- Faster degeneration of bones