Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2453132 Preventive Veterinary Medicine 2010 10 Pages PDF
Abstract

Our main objective was to obtain baseline data on daily metabolisable energy (ME) intake, activity, and risk factors for obesity in a population of 460 privately owned Swedish dogs in 1999. A previously validated mail-and-telephone questionnaire was used (Sallander et al., 2001a). The dogs were of 124 breeds, 1–3 years old, and had body weights (BW) between 1 and 75 kg. The ME intakes of this population could be described with the equation MEintake (kilojoules, kJ/d) = 554BW0.66 (rsp = 0.73, P = 0.0001). The energy intake originating from commercial foods was 79% (median, range 45–97). Table foods generally had a higher fat content (median 13 g/megajoule, MJ, range 1–122) than commercial foods (median 8 g/MJ, range 2–18; P = 0.0001). The median energy density was 1603 kJ/100 g (median; range 1106–2105).Almost all (97%) dogs were taken for walks, and there was a significant difference between the duration of the walks during weekdays and weekends (medians 60 and 90 min/d, respectively, P = 0.006). Sixty percent of all dogs were trained in activities such as obedience (31%), hunting (27%) or tracking (18%) for a median of 35 min/d (range 1–146).The final regression model for obesity included the factors sex, appetite and feeding a home-made diet/table foods. Dogs that were perceived to have good or very good appetite had 3.42-fold greater odds for obesity than individuals with bad or very bad appetite (95% CI 1.19–9.80; P = 0.022). Females had 2.17-fold greater odds of being obese than males did (95% CI 1.30–3.70; P = 0.003). Also, dogs fed table foods or home-made diets had 2.06-fold greater odds of obesity than those that were not given these food items (95% CI 0.97–4.35; P = 0.050).

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